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July 18, 2024
Bandera man leaves behind a legacy
As a youngster and teen, Samuel Jordan Bell, born in Crystal Springs, Miss., in 1931, could be found most days behind a mule and a plow on the family farm, where they grew primarily tomatoes and cabbage.
His early life was like that of many rural farm youth in the 1930s - full of a lot of hard work and exhaustion. He didn’t care too much about formal schooling and preferred to be outside learning from nature. After 8th grade, he and formal school parted ways and he worked full-time on the farm. If you have ever read the book by Jimmy Carter called “An Hour Before Daylight,” about his life growing up in Plains, Ga., during the same period, it describes a lot of his early life. He said the only difference was that the Carters had a lot more money than the Bells did.
1950 proved to be a life-changing year for Sam, when he joined the U.S. Air Force and was found to have an amazing aptitude for mechanics. He was quickly assigned to the first jet airplane mechanics division, which was a fast-track, hot-shot mechanics unit solely dedicated to the development of the B-47.
It was thought that the way the U.S. could win the Korean war was to get long-range jet bombers into the Korean conflict. Sam’s Unit was dedicated to the development of the B-47 Stratojet, the first swept wing jet bomber and the first to be designed to carry nuclear weapons. When the jet made its first, cross-Atlantic flight from the U.S. to a base in England, Sam and the rest of the mechanics unit went along to England with it. He spent most of the Korean war in England, where they supported air missions to Korea.
After an honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1954, Sam had a “right place at the right time” moment, because he had the skills desperately desired by U.S. commercial airlines that were only then beginning to acquire jet airplanes. In 1955, he began a 38-year career with Delta Airlines, starting out in Dallas, then Arlington, Va., and finally Baltimore.
He was made the youngest aircraft maintenance foreman in Delta history and ran a tight ship at Friendship International Airport in Baltimore (now Baltimore-Washington International Airport- BWI) for most of his career. He retired from Delta in 1990.
Sam passed away on June 20, 2024, at his home in Bandera, leaving behind many family members who love him dearly, and a legacy for them to remember.
His early life was like that of many rural farm youth in the 1930s - full of a lot of hard work and exhaustion. He didn’t care too much about formal schooling and preferred to be outside learning from nature. After 8th grade, he and formal school parted ways and he worked full-time on the farm. If you have ever read the book by Jimmy Carter called “An Hour Before Daylight,” about his life growing up in Plains, Ga., during the same period, it describes a lot of his early life. He said the only difference was that the Carters had a lot more money than the Bells did.
1950 proved to be a life-changing year for Sam, when he joined the U.S. Air Force and was found to have an amazing aptitude for mechanics. He was quickly assigned to the first jet airplane mechanics division, which was a fast-track, hot-shot mechanics unit solely dedicated to the development of the B-47.
It was thought that the way the U.S. could win the Korean war was to get long-range jet bombers into the Korean conflict. Sam’s Unit was dedicated to the development of the B-47 Stratojet, the first swept wing jet bomber and the first to be designed to carry nuclear weapons. When the jet made its first, cross-Atlantic flight from the U.S. to a base in England, Sam and the rest of the mechanics unit went along to England with it. He spent most of the Korean war in England, where they supported air missions to Korea.
After an honorable discharge from the Air Force in 1954, Sam had a “right place at the right time” moment, because he had the skills desperately desired by U.S. commercial airlines that were only then beginning to acquire jet airplanes. In 1955, he began a 38-year career with Delta Airlines, starting out in Dallas, then Arlington, Va., and finally Baltimore.
He was made the youngest aircraft maintenance foreman in Delta history and ran a tight ship at Friendship International Airport in Baltimore (now Baltimore-Washington International Airport- BWI) for most of his career. He retired from Delta in 1990.
Sam passed away on June 20, 2024, at his home in Bandera, leaving behind many family members who love him dearly, and a legacy for them to remember.