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Two of Roosevelt County’s last surviving World War II veterans are expected to receive special recognition at Thursday’s 10:30 a.m. Veterans Day observance at the Portales Memorial Building.
Alfredo Bachicha Jr., and Clarence Thompson both had somehow “slipped through the net” when other WWII veterans were previously honored, according to Mike Woolley, a retired Air Force colonel and lifetime member of the American Legion, which hosts the annual event.
Bachicha and numerous members of his extended family plan to be in attendance on Thursday; Thompson, who lives with his wife in an assisted living facility in Farwell, is unable to attend, but family members are expected to be on hand to represent him.
Randy Dunson, commander of the Blair-McDermott American Legion Post #31, said the Post honored what were believed to be the last six WWII veterans in 2019.
Soon afterward, they discovered they’d inadvertently overlooked Thompson.
More recently, after the passing of WWII veteran Jim Warnica, Warnica’s daughter, Terry, learned from one of Bachicha’s daughters that he also had been overlooked.
While the American Legion has worked tirelessly to pinpoint local veterans from the Greatest Generation, Thompson’s move to Farwell sent him under the radar.
Bachicha, on the other hand, didn’t come to Portales until 1947 (he was living in Encino during the time he enlisted and served), so his name wasn’t included on the original lists of Roosevelt County veterans.
Woolley and Dunson said the American Legion plans to make up for the oversight on Thursday, and they hope others in the community will join them that morning to pay a belated tribute to Bachicha and Thompson.
Bachicha, who turned 95, in June was born in Encino. He enlisted in the United States Navy in 1944, and soon found himself at sea.
“They told us to pack up a ditty bag and said we were going on a field trip,” Bachicha recalled in an interview last week in the kitchen of his home on Lime Street in Portales. “When we woke up, we were on the ocean.”
Bachicha started out on the SS Joseph Frank Irwin, then transferred to his permanent assignment: as a gunner on the USS Thetis Bay, an escort carrier that provided support to aircraft carriers.
“I was in the Pacific the whole time,” Bachicha said, “Australia, the Philippines, Pearl Harbor, a bunch of islands … we crossed the equator.”
He was honorably discharged as a seaman first class in January 1946.
Thompson turned 98 on the first day of November, according to his granddaughter, Tammy Chandler of Floyd. He graduated from Floyd High School in 1941 and joined the United States Army in 1944.
Thompson spent eight months of his service in the European Theater of Operations as a military police officer, often assigned to the front lines to guard and escort German prisoners of war.
He returned to the United States in August of 1945, and was assigned to the 76th Quartermaster Company stationed at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation in Pennsylvania.
He was a staff sergeant when he was honorably discharged in June 1946.
After the war, Bachicha came to Portales where he married Julia Baca, whom he’d met at the Encino Schools. The couple had 15 children. Twelve are still alive and eight of those live in Portales. The Bachicha clan also includes 23 grandchildren, 44 great-grandchildren, and 12 great-great-grandchildren.
Bachicha spent the first 20 post-war years working as a bookkeeper for a lumber yard and the sweet potato plant. He was a purchasing agent for Eastern New Mexico University from 1969 to 1989, and also served for 23 years on the Portales City Council.
“I’m very proud of my father,” Bachicha’s daughter Inez Rodriguez said. “He’s always telling us stories. We’re proud of everything he’s ever done. He instilled in us the importance of being proud to be an American.”
Clarence Thompson was still in the service when he married Letha Green of Causey in December 1945, according to their granddaughter. They’ve been married almost 76 years.
The couple had five children. Three are still alive, and the offspring include six grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
Chandler said her granddad was a dairyman and later became a dryland farmer in the Floyd community.
“He was on the school board for many years at Floyd,” she said. “He was involved with pretty much everything in the Floyd community.”
Chandler said Thompson is a humble man.
“He never talks about himself, and very rarely did he ever talk about the war,” she said. “Our family is honored that he’s being recognized but sad that he can’t be there.”
Inez Rodriguez said her father has always encouraged her and her siblings “to stay focused, strong, and to maintain our faith in God.”
If they do that, Al Bachicha has told his children, “The rest will fall in place.”
On Thursday, “the rest” includes overdue recognition of two veterans from an appreciative community.
Betty Williamson tips her grateful hat to all who serve our nation, past, present, and future. Reach her at: