In the original "Wing Commander", Blair is a calm, handsome fellow who rarely speaks. Despite his lack of volubility, he rises steadily into the ranks of the TCS "Tiger's Claw", eventually leading his flight wing to numerous successes in the Vega Sector campaign, Operation Thor's Hammer and the Firekkan campaign, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel and being awarded numerous medals, including the Terran Confederation Medal of Honor. When the "Claw" moves into the K'tithrak Mang sector to deal with a Kilrathi command post, however, his number comes up: with the sole exception of a few pilots who had been transferred to other ships, and Blair himself who is out on patrol, the "Claw" is lost with all hands; no one can confirm how. Blair's flight data recorder picks up odd signals that appear to be Kilrathi fighters with cloaking devices, but it is stolen when he lands on the TCS "Austin". Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn believes that Blair is lying to cover his own treachery, finds him guilty of negligence (due to lack of evidence), demotes him to captain and exiles him to the backwater "Caernavon Station". Blair is widely branded the "Coward of K'tithrak Mang" and reviled throughout the Terran Confederation.