Major Samuel Blackmarr Cornelius
The 1943 Penn State yearbook, La Vie, highlighted Henry Cornelius’ involvement on the University’s sports teams, something he passed on to his son, Sam. Samuel Blackmarr Cornelius was born in State College, Pennsylvania the same year his father was honored for his athletic achievements. The Cornelius family, Henry, his wife Mary, and son Sam stayed in Pennsylvania until moving to Spearman, Texas in 1957.
Sam was a standout on the Spearman High School football team for four years, graduating in 1961. His talents resulted in a football scholarship to Texas Tech, where he played for another four years for the Red Raiders. He was awarded the Del Morgan Courage Award for being an outstanding Red Raider, played in two Sun Bowl games and was recruited to play professional football by the Kansas City Chiefs, coached by the legendary Hank Stram. Most young men would have jumped at the opportunity to play on a professional football team; but Sam had another team in mind – the United States Air Force.
Sam joined the U.S. Air Force on May 25, 1967 and went through Undergraduate Pilot Training at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock. Two months later, he married Lynda Kilchrist. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and then upgraded to the F-4, Phantom II, which dominated the skies over Vietnam.
Captain Sam Cornelius completed two tours of duty to Southeast Asia, returning home safely from both. Sam and Lynda welcomed daughter, Leslie in 1970 and son, Doug, in 1973.
After the peace treaty was signed to end the long Vietnam War in early 1973, Capt. Cornelius was assigned to the 366th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS), 4th Tactical Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB, Goldsboro, North Carolina. He was sent for Temporary Duty to Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand where he flew bombing missions into Laos and Cambodia.
On June 16, 1973, Captain Cornelius was the pilot of an F4 Phantom assigned to a target in Cambodia. Over the target, the F4 was hit by hostile fire and crashed. No parachutes were seen, and no emergency beepers were heard indicating that the crew ejected safely. Capt. Cornelius and his weapons officer, Capt. John Smallwood, were declared Missing in Action, as survival was considered unlikely. Their remains have never been recovered. During the time his status was MIA, the U.S. Air Force promoted Captain Cornelius to the rank of Major. On October 4, 1979, Maj. Cornelius was officially declared Killed in Action. Major Samuel Blackmarr Cornelius is memorialized at Arlington National Cemetery and on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
Sam is remembered as a man that led a good life, even though it was cut short at 30 years. He loved his family. He loved to hunt and fish and always had a dog around. On September 17, 2010, the Spearman airport was renamed the Major Samuel B. Cornelius Field in his honor. Texas Panhandle War Memorial joins the people of Spearman in remembering Sam Cornelius as a son, a husband, and a father who gave his life for the country he loved.
