Grafton Samuel “Sam” Stidger was the only man his commanding officer considered fearless.

Grafton was born on Jan. 12, 1920, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and raised in Farmington, Marion County, West Virginia.

His father, Howe Stidger, was a World War I veteran and a bookkeeper for a coal mine. His mother, Hazel Sara Dudley Stidger, was a homemaker to Grafton and his four younger brothers: Anthony, George, Dudley, and David.

Grafton graduated in 1937 from Farmington High School, where he was yearbook art director. He worked in the coal mines for two years and dreamed of becoming a pilot.

He enrolled in the Civilian Pilot Program as a freshman at Fairmont State College in the fall of 1939. He left school to enter the Marine Air Corps in August 1941. He rose to the rank of captain and served as a fighter pilot in the South Pacific; his service number was O-13651.

On Sept. 14, 1943, he bailed out of his bullet-riddled fighter over Rendova Island in the Solomons. He hit the aerial wires and rudder of his plane and was knocked unconscious when he pulled his parachute chord.

He regained consciousness and was rescued shortly after landing in the water. He later wrote a note to the man who packed his parachute:

“Thanks a million for a packing job that worked. It saved my life.”

The packer’s reaction: “It makes a fellow feel good to know he helped save a pilot’s life.”

On Jan. 14, 1944, Capt. Stidger’s Corsair developed engine problems on a mission to Rabaul and headed back to base. The plane hit a log on the edge of the runway and crashed while attempting to land.

“Capt. Grafton S. Stidger of West Virginia, the only man [his CO] Bob Owens considered completely without fear, died in a mass of flames on the stinking island of Bougainville,” Jeff Dacus wrote in The Fighting Corsairs (2020).

Capt. Stidger, 24, was buried on Bougainville and reinterred in Section 12 of Arlington National Cemetery on March 10, 1949. He is buried next to his father, who died in 1949, and his brother David, who was killed in Korea in 1952.

His mother is buried in West Virginia.

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Sources:

Find a Grave:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44298484/grafton-samuel-stidger

Federal Census

U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947

Newspapers.com

Ancestry.com

Google.com

Fold3

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