Obituaries

He returned to Washington in 1974 to work as a real estate agent and pursue an interest in urban revitalization. He was employed by a string of real estate firms, including Dale Denton Real Estate, Beau Bogan Real Estate, Prudential Carruthers and Long and Foster, for whom he worked until his retirement last year.

He also helped restore older houses, including his own 1880s-era Logan Circle home, in which he lived with his five cats. He maintained a connection to Italian culture as a regular parishioner at the historically Italian American Holy Rosary Church in Washington, where he ministered as an Italian language lector.

He leaves no immediate survivors.

Joseph Julian McLachlanAir Force Colonel

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

Col. McLachlan was born in River Rouge, Mich., 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, Col. 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, Neb.

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