African American, Alaska Highway, 97th Regiment Medical Detachment, Served in WW2 and Korean War.
Born: 14 February 1917, Tennille, Polk, Georgia. Died: 24 September 1996, Gallatin, TN. He died at Sumner Regional Hospital of a massive heart attack.
Enlisted: 12 March 1941, Camp Blanding, FL. Education: four years High School. Civilian occupation: Employee at Oldham Funeral Home.
He was attached to the segregated 97th Engineer Regiment as a medical corpsman. He arrived with the regiment at Valdez, Alaska on 29 April 1942. Snow covered the ground and the surrounding mountains. The temperature was in the low 20’s.
The 97th Engineers built the northern section of the Alaska Highway. They left Alaska in September 1943 and returned to Camp Sutton, NC. The next assignment for the 97th was Milne Bay, New Guinea, Philippines in April of 1944.
Following his military service, Sanford studied at Howard University, Washington DC. He went on and received his degree in mortuary science and business at Collier University in New York City.
He met Hattie Ruth Gibson in New York and married her on 14 September 1946. The family moved to Tennessee in 1951. He earned a license to practice embalming and he along with two other founding members formed Johnson-Coleman-Kelsey Funeral Home.
Serial #34025209