Who knew the amazing backstory these folks could tell? For years, we sat in church in Lander behind an elderly couple. They were very loving to each other and yet appeared to be somewhat of a mis-match.
The woman looked ordinary. She was white in her late 60s and matronly.
The man was a Native American, but he did not look like one of the native Shoshone or Arapaho men in our Fremont County, Wyoming. He stood tall, had a strong profile, and liked to wear turquoise earrings under a broad southwest-style cowboy hat.
Their names were Sam and Cecelia Blatchford and I was embarrassed when a journalist colleague, Brodie Farquar, wrote a detailed story about their amazing lives and how they had gotten together. I should have done that story first.
Using Brodie’s information and others, I ended up writing a tribute back in 2005 after Sam had died.
A Hero’s Journey
My column started with the line: “Our town said good-bye to a legitimate war hero.”
Blatchford was a member of that group that included many of our fathers, which Tom Brokaw dubbed The Greatest Generation.
But this man moved anonymously in our community. Few people really knew about his incredible life until we read it in his obituary.
This column is about a real military hero and perhaps his greatest conquest of all, his marriage to his childhood sweetheart 56 years after their first get-together.
Sam Died
Samuel Blatchford lived a life of sacrifice and irony. Sam died from complications of surgery at the age of 81 on Dec. 23, 2005.
His military history was incredible but so was his and Cecilia’s remarkable life story, as chronicled by Brodie Farquhar, a former long-time Wyoming journalist.
To say that Sam qualified as a military hero is an understatement. Brodie’s said he was awarded 28 medals, including the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leaf cluster, four Purple Hearts, six Air Medals and the Prisoner of War Medal. Some of his exploits included:
• Scouting for the 7th Cavalry before it switched from horses to tanks plus serving as a radio operator and gunner on a B17 Flying Fortress and getting shot down four times.
• Working with the French Resistance until his capture by the Gestapo plus numerous escape attempts from Stalag 17-B.
• Combat flying missions in Korea. and as a ground forward air controller in Vietnam.
A Love Story
Yet Sam Blatchford’s story was more than military service. He lived a love story in which he waited 56 years to wed his first sweetheart.
“So many years ago, we both were working for the Civilian Conservation Corps,” Cecelia Blatchford said. “I worked in the office, and he drove a truck before the war.” The two fell in love and were engaged in 1941 before he enlisted.
Blatchford served in the Army Air Corps, where he served as a radio operator and gunner for a B17 bomber. A standard tour of duty was 25 missions, and Blatchford’s crew was assigned a “milk run” for its 25th mission over submarine pens, on the coast of France.
Their B17 was shot down, and Blatchford was the last one out. “He couldn’t get out, trapped by centrifugal force as the plane spiraled down. He was thrown free when it blew up,” Cecelia Blatchford said.
He managed to pull his ripcord before he blacked out. Because no one saw their parachutes, the entire crew was presumed dead.
Blatchford was found by a French farmer, who hid the badly wounded airman from German patrols. The French Resistance smuggled him to where a butcher used a carving knife to remove the shrapnel.
The French government later presented him with its Freedom Medal for his work with the French Resistance, a Citizenship Medal bestowing honorary citizenship, as well as the key to the city of Lisio.
Engagement Ended
Cecelia waited and hoped, but with no news of Sam, came to accept that he was dead. She married another man in 1945 -- about the same time Mr. Blatchford was working his many escape attempts from Stalag 17-B. He was a prisoner until he was liberated by Patton’s 14th Armored Division.
Earlier, Cecelia had returned her engagement ring to Blatchford in what she described as “a bad scene,” and he left. Two months later, Cecelia’s new husband was killed in Okinawa. She eventually remarried and raised seven children.
Returning home, Blatchford went to find Cecelia, only to discover she’d thought him dead. She had married and was pregnant.
Along the way, he earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, a master’s degree in business administration and served as a site manager for Boeing Services International at an Air Force base in Turkey. In addition to his native Navajo and second language of English, he also learned to speak Turkish, French, German and Japanese.
Blatchford re-enlisted in 1952, after earning his civil engineering degree. He served as a radio operator, flying combat missions between Japan and Korea before being wounded again. After recovery, Blatchford was one of the first Air Force people trained in computers.
Shortly after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Blatchford was shipped to Bien Hoa as a computer operator. With his radio background, he was reassigned as a ground forward air controller, calling in airstrikes on enemy positions. While he was riding with his captain in a jeep, a land mine blew up, killing the captain and sending Blatchford to the hospital for his fourth Purple Heart.
After all that, Sam married, raised a daughter and a son, and retired in Illinois.
Widow And Widower Reunite
Cecelia was widowed after 33 years of marriage and retired in Albuquerque, N.M.
When Blatchford’s wife died, he decided he needed to find Cecelia. He tracked her down. They renewed their long-interrupted courtship which led to a wedding atop Snow King Mountain in Jackson in 1998.
Sam and Cecelia attended sun dances on the Wind River Indian Reservation and house sat for three winters in Fort Washakie for Cecelia’s niece, Stephanie, who was married to a sculptor, the late Richard Greeves.
“Sam asked me if I wanted to move to Lander,” Cecelia said. “We loved it here.”
This member of our Greatest Generation was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His military story is nothing short of remarkable, but his personal life was every bit as amazing.
