Military Officer - February 2008 - (Page 58) “He would go to bat for us all the time,” Graham says. “I remember one night we went to the movies, and they wanted us to use the rear entrance with the steward’s mates. We refused, because they allowed the white sailors and commissioned officers to use the front entrance. The next night Captain Blackford went back with us and got it all straightened out.” Though his great-grandmother had been a respected abolitionist, Blackford told his crew up front he wasn’t there to settle any issues of race. His goal simply was to captain an efficient Navy vessel. “He told us, ‘As long as you do what your job requires you to do and you stay out of trouble, you won’t have any problems with me. But if you step out of line, I’ll come down on you according to Navy [regulations],’ ” DuFau recalls. “And he lived up to that. When he would go to the officer’s club, people would ask him, ‘How are you making out with those guys?’ He would say, ‘What do you mean, those guys? They are my crew, and they do as good a job as anyone in this group. I’ll put my crew up against any crew among you.’ ” “We had no problems, and Captain Blackford was very proud of that. If on liberty, we policed ourselves and didn’t do anything that would reflect badly on our ship or our captain. We took pride in the job we had to do.” “Captain Blackford was a good seaman. He knew how to handle a ship, and he was fair in his dealings with the men,” Garrison adds. “We respected him highly because he took us through some harrowing experiences.” Perhaps the Mason’s most hazardous mission was Convoy NY-119, These and other scenes from the 2004-released movie “Proud” were based on those related in Mary Pat Kelly’s book, Proudly We Served: The Men of the USS Mason. 58 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2008 PHOTOS/IMAGES: TKTK
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