Colonel Patricia S. Blassie, USAF to be guest speaker at the 2015 Freedom Ride

Biography of

Colonel Patricia S. Blassie

Col. Patricia S. Blassie is Chief, Senior Leader Management for the Directorate of Manpower, Personnel and Services, Headquarters Air Force Reserve Command, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia.  Colonel Blassie has served in various positions, to include Commander, Air Reserve Personnel Center, Buckley Air Force Base, Colo.; Executive Officer to the Chief of Air Force Reserve and Commander Air Force Reserve Command; and served twice as a Mission Support Group Commander both at the 911^th Airlift Wing, Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, Penn., and the 459^th Air Refueling Wing, Andrews AFB, Md.  After serving 11 years as an enlisted member attaining the rank of Master Sergeant, Colonel Blassie received a direct commission through the Deserving Airman’s Program in 1989.  Her collective years of service totals 37 years.

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS

Colonel Blassie was the principal advisor to her family in the identification of her brother 1st Lt. Michael J. Blassie. On Memorial Day 1984 and unbeknownst to the Blassie Family, Lieutenant Blassie was interred as the Vietnam Unknown Soldier, Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery, Va. He was disinterred from the Tomb in May 1998, identified by DNA testing and brought home to his final resting place at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis, Mo, on July 11, 1998.

EDUCATION

1984 Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communications, University of Missouri, St. Louis
1993 Squadron Officer School, by correspondence
2001 Air Command and Staff College, by correspondence
2005 Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Ala., in-residence, Maxwell AFB, Ala.
2005 Masters of Strategic Studies, Air University, Maxwell AFB, Ala.

MAJOR AWARDS AND DECORATIONS

Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters

Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters

Air Force Achievement Medal with two oak leaf clusters

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with four oak leaf clusters

Air Force Good Conduct Medal

Air Reserve Forces Meritorious Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster

National Defense Service Medal

Global War on Terrorism Service Medal

EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROMOTION

Second Lieutenant – April 1989

First Lieutenant – May 1991

Captain – August 1993

Major – August 1998

Lt Colonel – September 2002

Colonel – February 2006

 

Air Force Colonel Patricia S. Blassie will speak at the Freedom Ride on Thursday, June 18, 2015 to discuss her family’s fight to find her brother, 1st Lt. Michael J. Blassie, and bring him home, 26 years after his A-37 aircraft was shot down on May 11, 1972 in one of the most intense battles of the Vietnam War, Operation Linebacker 1.

Colonel Patricia Blassie’s interest in and devotion to the POW/MIA issue is reflected in her family’s quest to find the remains of her brother, 1st Lt. Colonel Michael J. Blassie. From the time Michael Blassie was shot down in South Vietnam in 1972 until his remains were disinterred from the Tomb of the Unknowns in 1998, the Blassie family never lost sight of their goal: find Michael Blassie and bring him home.