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Thomas A. Blair
Rank/Branch: Lance Cpl/Marines
Unit: 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, Marine Air Control
Group-28, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point
Age: 24
Date of Birth
Home City of Record: Broken Arrow, Okla.
Date of Loss: 23 March 2003
Country of Loss: Iraq
Loss Coordinates: Combat near An Nasiriyah
Status: MIA/Iraq -- Declared dead March 28,
2003
Category:
Acft/Vehicle/Ground:
Personnel in Incident: Lance Cpl. Thomas A. Blair, Pfc. Tamario D.
Burkett, Cpl. Kemaphoom A. Chanawongse, Lance Cpl. Donald J. Cline Pvt.
Jonathan L. Gifford, Pvt. Nolen R. Hutchings, Lance Cpl. Patrick R. Nixon,
Lance Cpl. Michael J. Williams
Source: Compiled by Last Firebase
Veterans Archives Project from one or more of the following: raw data from
U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published
sources, interviews.
Date Updated: March 30, 2003
REMARKS: Lance Cpl. Thomas A. Blair, among eight Marines who disappeared
during fighting on the outskirts of An Nasiriyah, Iraq, was killed, the U.S.
Department of Defense said March 30.
His father, Al Blair, of Gravette, Ark., said Marines came to his home March 29
and told him his son was dead.
The Defense Department said Thomas Blair's unit was engaged in operations on
March 24 on the outskirts of An Nasiriyah. His remains were recovered on March
28.
The elder Blair declined to make any further comment and said his other son, a
Marine staff sergeant who has not been deployed to Iraq, is expected to address
the media Monday.
Thomas Blair was assigned to the 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, Marine
Air Control Group 28, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing in Cherry Point, N.C. He left
for the Persian Gulf on Jan. 10.
He joined the Marine Corps in 1997, the same year he graduated from high school
in Broken Arrow, a Tulsa suburb where his mother Nancy Blair lives. She could
not be reached for comment; a red, white and blue wreath hung on a gate at the
Blair home Sunday afternoon.
Teachers at Broken Arrow High School remembered him as a disciplined student
who played drums in the high school band. As a sophomore, Blair sewed a
military insignia to his band uniform, just like senior band members.
"You'd give him an inch ... and he'd just want to take it to the next
step," Darren Davis, Blair's high school band teacher, said earlier this
week.