Col. Leonard A. Blascovich

[ironputts]

June 5, 2024

Col. Leonard A. Blascovich
National Headquarters

13 January 1938 – 5 May 2024

Colonel Leonard A. Blascovich has flown west after a brief illness. Born in Brooklyn, he was the only child of Leonard Blascovich and Muriel Gruber. His father, a naturalized immigrant from the Pula/Trieste area of Italy with the name of Blasco, originally jumped ship in New York, went to Canada, then legally entered New York under the name of "Blascovich." He worked as a steward and cook aboard tugboats steaming in and around the waters around Manhattan. Tragedy struck young Len at an early age, with his mother passing from illness in January 1952. Shortly thereafter, he joined the Brooklyn Cadet Squadron II of the New York Wing as a cadet on 28 March 1952. As a cadet, he served as a cadet squadron commander, group commander, and encampment commander in New York Wing, rising to the rank of Cadet Major. A recipient of the CAP Cadet Certificate of Proficiency with three clasps in May 1956, he marched in the National Drill Competition in 1954 and participated in the 1957 International Air Cadet Exchange to Denmark. That same year he earned his CAP aeronautical rating of Observer and the following year became a senior member in October 1958.

Amidst his CAP cadet achievements, life handed Len another blow when his father drowned in March 1955 when his tugboat sank in rough waters between the 69th Street Peer in Brooklyn and St. George, Staten Island. After winning in court to prevent relatives in New Jersey from forcing him to leave New York, Len at the age of 17 found himself managing his own affairs, but with a strong family in CAP.

After graduating from New Utrecht High School, Len received a draft notice to report to Selective Service in 1961. He immediately went on a crash diet to lose weight and rather than join the US Army he entered the US Air Force on 1 February 1961. While on active duty until 29 October 1965, Len served with the 4329nd Communications Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base (AFB), California; the 1035th Field Activities Group Headquarters; and the 1155th Technical Operations Squadron at Eielson AFB, AK. His service time found him trained in electronics work, participating with aerial radiological sampling, time in South American and operations during the Bay of Pigs crisis. During his USAF service, Len received the USAF Enlisted Aircrew Badge, Missile badge, Good Conduct Medal, Air Force Presidential Unit Citation, and three Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards.

After receiving his honorable discharge from the Air Force, Len attended the University of Texas and received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. He made a career for himself as an electronics engineer and enhanced his skills with various training and education in the areas of advanced electrical, technical, and humans factors engineering, maintenance management, finance, business, business administration, and marketing from the Air Force Institute of Technology and an array of correspondence courses. With a focus on image engineering and high-definition television, Len worked with Conrac/Lear-Siegler, Science Application International, and the Pioneer Corporations, later becoming President/CEO and founder of Imagengineering, a management, marketing and media consulting firm in New York City.

CAP always remained Len's boyhood love. After transitioning to the senior member ranks, he strove to further the cadet program in the New York Wing and Northeast Region. As squadron commander of the Floyd Bennett Cadet Squadron, Brooklyn Group, he received both the Squadron Commander of Distinction Award and the New York Wing's Outstanding Squadron of the Year Award in 1969.  On his own initiative, he organized and commanded the first Northeast Region Summer Encampment and further served on numerous New York Wing Summer Encampment staffs, holding the positions of Training Officer, Commandant of Cadets and Commander.

After service at the squadron and group level, Len transitioned to Northeast Region Headquarters in April 1970, serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for Cadets, with the additional duty assignment of Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs. During this period, he served as the Vice Chairman on the National Commanders Committee on Cadet Programs from 1971 to 1973, playing an instrumental role in developing the Cadet to Senior Transition Program and reinstating the National Drill Competition as the National Cadet Competition. Throughout the 1970s into the 1980s, he directed the Northeast Region Cadet Competition for approximately thirteen years. During this time, he invested his free time helping to train the teams which went on to win the Air Force Chief of Staff Trophy seven times. From 1986 to 1987, Len also served as the Northeast Region Encampment Commander at Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts. To further the needs of the region, he later filled the roles of Director of Personnel, Historian and Chief of Staff. In recognition of his services to Northeast Region, he received the Northeast Region Staff Officer of the Year award in 1982 and the Frank G. Brewer-Civil Air Patrol Memorial Aerospace Award for the Northeast Region in 1990.

Moving on to the national level of the Civil Air Patrol, Len continued to share his expertise of the cadet program for the betterment of the corporation. He served as the director of the Cadet Blue Beret program at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, from 1987 to 1989, during which time he restricted and improved the course curriculum and negotiated for and supervised the building of the CAP training Facility at Whitman Field, Oshkosh. From 1998 to 2008, he worked as the National Director of the National Cadet Competition. To further support CAP's cadets, past and present, Len organized and developed what became the Spaatz Association with the first "Gathering of Diamonds" in 1994 and became its second honorary member.

As a Master Observer and mission coordinator, Len furthered his professional development in CAP. Recipient of Gill Robb Wilson Award number 120, he completed the Civil Defense Control Center Operations Course, Civil Defense Ground Radiological Monitoring Course, ECI-USAF Officer Candidate Course 001A, USAF-ATC Instructor School, Graduate of the Mission Observer, Class 1 School, Civil Defense Aerial Radiological Monitoring Course, ECI-USAF Squadron Officer Course 2A, attended the second CAP National Staff College, Maxwell AFB, AL in 1969, completed the ECI-USAF Air Command and Staff College 3A course, and graduated via correspondence from the Air War College in 1974.

Len's greatest legacy to Civil Air Patrol is found today in the National History Program and the Colonel Louisa S. Morse Center for Civil Air Patrol History. In 1979, Len, on his own initiative wrote a letter to National Headquarters advocating the need for a CAP historian and a national history effort. His presentation of this recommendation to the National Executive Council resulted in his ideas being approved. He became a charter member of the CAP National Historical Committee in 1981 where he helped design the CAP history program with all of its regulations and specialty track.

After serving as the committee's vice chairman until 1996, Len received promotion to full colonel and served as CAP's National Historian until August 2012. During this period, he established the position of National Curator while writing and delivering presentations on CAP history nationwide. Working with the Institute of Heraldry, he personally designed the Neil Armstrong, Mary Feik, Command Service Award, and Community Service Award ribbons. He helped design the current specialty track badges for Administration, Operations, Supply, Recruiting, Finance, Public Affairs, and Historian. His work can also be seen in the National Executive Committee badge, National Staff Badge, Air Crew Badge, and countless other insignia of the past twenty years. His efforts to locate and save irreplaceable records and artifacts of the corporation's history can be seen in the history display at National Headquarters and at Morse Center where Len has assisted in cataloging the collection.

In between his voluminous CAP service, Len continued to serve his local community. He joined the New York Guard, New York State Department of Military and Naval Affairs in May 1993 as a major, rising to the rank of colonel in the air division when he retired in January 2006. In his various positions on the Joint Staff of the Air and Army Divisions, he would receive two New York Conspicuous Service Medals, the Meritorious Service Medal, four New York Guard's Commendation Medals, and the New York Guard Achievement Medal. He also served locally as a member of the New York Selective Service Board for the Bronx directorate, as assistant manager for recruiting in the Bronx for the 2000 US Census, as a member of the New York City's Community Board, and as a board member of the 40 Plus Education Center of New York.

Outside of his constant service and volunteering, Len was without a doubt a force a character, along with his notoriously dapper handlebar moustache. He was a husband to the former Miss Carol Joyce Moreda of Brooklyn for 55 years. He owned two parrots, Sam who lived to be 25 and Agatha who was with Len for 47 years. He loved cooking and ensured he had an industrial gas range in his apartment for his culinary creations. Never thinking he would live pass the age of 55, Len traveled the world, starting with a trip to Yugoslavia with his father in the early 1950s. He adored a practical joke and regaling friends with stories. "CAP saved my life," Len would tell folks, adding that "growing old is NOT for sissies!" His love of helping people and giving back is something he will always be remembered for. Even when he picked up a prescription at the pharmacy, Len turned around and gave the pharmacist a recipe.

CAP History