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Philip Guillou Blackmore, 2nd Commander of White Sands Proving Ground/Missile Range, was born 18 January 1890 at Bristol, Virginia. He was graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1911, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, Coast Artillery Corp, Regular Army, on 20 December 1911.
General Blackmore was promoted to First Lieutenant 1 July 1916; to Captain on 15 May 1917; to Major (temporary) 29 July 1918; and returned to his permanent rank of Captain 10 June 1920. He was promoted to Major again on 1 July 1920; transferred to the Ordnance Department 20 October 1920. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel 1 August 1935.; to Colonel (temporary) 16 October 1940; to Colonel (permanent) 1 December 1940; and to Brigadier General (temporary) 2 September 1944.
General Blackmore's first duty was at Fort Monroe, Virginia, with a Coast Artillery Company. He later served in the same capacity at Fort Hamilton, New York and at Fort Hancock, New York. While permanently stationed at these two places, he was on duty summers at General Wood's Civilian Training Camp at Burlington, Vermont, (1914) and at Chickamauga, Georgia, and Plattsburg, New York (1915 and 1916). He went overseas in October 1916 for duty with the Coast Artillery units at Fort Kamehameha and Fort DeRuccy, Hawaii, and later at Fort Ruger, Hawaii, which he commanded up to June 1919.
Returning to the mainland in September 1919, he served with the Coast Defense of Puget Sound, Fort Worden, Washington. In January 1920, he took a four month course at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois. He was then assigned to Camp Jackson, South Carolina as Camp Ordnance Officer. In October 1920, he was assigned to Yale University as Assistant Professor of Military Science and Tactics. He was assigned as Student Officer at the Ordnance School, Watertown, Massachusetts, and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1921 and 1922, and was graduated in June 1923. He then became Division and Post Ordnance Officer of the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, until 1925, when he was assigned once more to Rock Island Arsenal. He was in charge of field service activities there until July 1929, when he became a student in a caterpillar tractor plant in San Leandro, California.
In July 1930, General Blackmore was assigned to duty in the Bank Section, Automotive Division, at Aberdeen Proving Ground. He became Post Ordnance Officer and a member of the Infantry Board at the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, in December 1931. In august 1936, he was assigned as a student to the Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was graduated in June 1937.
He became Executive Assistant to the Chief, Cleveland Ordnance District, Cleveland, Ohio, and in September 1940, was transferred to Headquarters of the Seventh Corps Area, Omaha, Nebraska as Ordnance Officer. He assumed the same duty with the Ninth Corps Area Headquarters, Presidio of San Francisco, in August 1941 before being named Ordnance Officer for the Third Army, at San Antonio, Texas in December 1941. In February 1943, he went to Australia as Ordnance of the newly formed Sixth Army, commanded by General Walter Kruegar. In the same capacity he moved with the Headquarters to Milne Bay, Goodeough Island and Finschshafen, in New Guinea, to Leyte and Luzon, in the Philippines and to Kyoto, Japan. In February 1946 he returned to the United States and in April 1946 was assigned as Ordnance Officer of the re-activated Headquarters of the Sixth Army. In August 1947, he assumed command of White Sands Proving Ground.
He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Distinguished Service Medal.
General Blackmore was retired from active duty with the Army on 31 January 1950. General Blackmore died in April 1974.
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