Army Cpl. Clinton C. Blodgett

Died May 26, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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19, of Pekin, Ind.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt, Germany; died May 26 in Baghdad when the vehicle he was in struck an improvised explosive device.

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Southern Indiana soldier reported killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

PEKIN, Ind. — A soldier from southern Indiana died over the weekend during an explosion in Iraq, the Department of Defense said.

Army Cpl. Clinton C. Blodgett, 19, was killed May 26 in Baghdad when the vehicle in which he was riding was struck by an improvised bomb, the military said May 29. Blodgett was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, which is based in Schweinfurt, Germany.

Blodgett’s hometown was listed by the military as the Washington County town of Pekin, 25 miles north of Louisville, Ky.

His father, Don Blodgett, lives in Wilson, Okla. The younger Blodgett, who was in Iraq a little more than a year, returned to Wilson to visit his family in March, his father told The Oklahoman.

Coy Blodgett decided to follow in the footsteps of his father, who served in the Oklahoma National Guard during the Persian Gulf War in the 1990s.

Don Blodgett had to sign a paper allowing his son to join the military because he wasn’t 18 yet.

“He was just independent. He always liked guns, hunting, driving four-wheelers. Over there, he was shooting guns and driving Humvees,” Don Blodgett said.

After his stint in the Army ended, Clinton Blodgett planned to return to Baghdad to work as a security guard, his father said.

Don Blodgett said the family is coping as best they can and honoring Clinton Blodgett’s sacrifice.

“There’s a lot of kids getting killed over there,” he said. “I was hoping it wouldn’t be one of mine. But everybody’s got to pay the price, otherwise they’ll be killing us in our living rooms.”

Funeral arrangements are pending with the Alexander Funeral Home in Wilson.

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Relatives, friends gather for Oklahoma soldier’s funeral

The Associated Press

ARDMORE, Okla. — When Clinton Coy Blodgett was in Head-Start, he and his classmates stood outside and waved American flags as a caravan of buses carrying troops that had been deployed for Operation Desert Storm passed by.

The teacher of that class, Jerrye Southward, remembered the 4-year-old Blodgett being proud of what he was doing.

“Now the preschoolers waved flags for him,” Southward told family and friends on June 5 during a funeral for the Army lance corporal.

Blodgett, 19, died May 26 when the Humvee he was riding in was struck by a bomb in Baghdad, Iraq. Family members have said, however, that Blodgett died when he put his body in front of a bomb-equipped camera that was thrown at the Humvee in which he and four other soldiers were riding. The other soldiers survived.

Blodgett, 19, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, at Schweinfurt, Germany.

The Rev. Jimmie Morris, minister of the Church of Jesus Christ Gospel Tabernacle in Ringling, said in a story in the Daily Ardmoreite that Blodgett’s heart was in defending freedom and defending the innocent.

“This young man has honored you more than you could ever honor him,” Morris told those gathered at Alexander Funeral Home Chapel.

Blodgett’s loyalty to his country was evident in the message tattooed on his arm from the Bible verse John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

His aunt, Rhonda Blodgett, said the surrounding communities have really helped the family. Ruth Davis, a cousin of Blodgett’s grandmother, spoke of the respect she had seen for Blodgett from Ardmore to Wilson.

In nearby Lone Grove and Ardmore, people stood along the street and watched as Blodgett’s funeral procession passed.