Joseph Julian McLachlan – Colonel, United States Air Force

Jseph Julian McLachlan, 85, a retired Air Force Colonel, died of congestive heart failure July 28,2005, at Inova Alexandria Hospital. He was an Alexandria, Virginia, resident.

Colonel McLachlan was born in River Rouge, Michigan, and attended the University of Detroit. He worked as a chemist in a steel mill. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps at the start of World War II, completed his pilot training and was commissioned in 1942.

He flew two strafing missions in support of ground troops on D-Day. Shot down six days after D-Day, he hid behind enemy lines and eventually rejoined U.S. troops. He completed 91 missions as a P-47 pilot and was awarded a Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, a Purple Heart and 17 awards of the Air Medal.

In 1948, Colonel McLachlan flew 44 missions in the Berlin Airlift.

He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1956. A command pilot, he also served as a B-47 squadron commander at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. He retired as chief of foreign liaison of the Air Force at the Pentagon and was awarded the Legion of Merit in 1971.

His first wife, Audrey Davin McLachlan, died in 1966. His second marriage, to Margaret Flint, ended in divorce. A son from his first marriage, Joseph Patrick McLachlan, died the same day as his father, in a traffic accident in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Survivors include his wife of 25 years, Nadine McLachlan of Alexandria; four children from his first marriage, Michael McLachlan of Durango, Colorado, Thomas McLachlan of Sterling, Margaret Applegate of Basye, Virginia, and Patricia Simon of Cherry Hill, New Jersey; a daughter from his second marriage, Meeghan Carter of Wilmington, Delaware; a sister; two brothers; nine grandchildren; and seven great-grandsons.


MCLACHLAN, JOSEPH JULIAN
COL   US AIR FORCE
WORLD WAR II
DATE OF BIRTH: 03/19/1920
DATE OF DEATH: 07/28/2005
BURIED AT: SECTION 60  SITE 721
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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