SPOFFORD, N.H. (AP) – It’s been more than 60 years since John E. Sadd fought along the beaches of Normandy and in the towns of western Germany, but he still carries a scar.

The long, jagged line just above his knee is a reminder of his service in World War II, and of his tenacity. At 86, he’s still traveling and boating, even though doctors once said he might never walk again.

And on Friday, Sadd will carry home a different kind of reminder when he’s awarded eight belated medals honoring his service as an Army sergeant, including a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

The long-overdue recognition may never have taken place if it hadn’t been for Master Sgt. William Cafferky, husband of Sadd’s granddaughter Tammy.

Cafferky, head of base operations at Fort Detrick, Md., said he discovered the clues to the history of Sadd’s service in 2004.

Cafferky said he was looking through letters Sadd had sent to his sister Alice during World War II, and found a letter where Sadd mentioned an injury.

Despite mention of the wound, Cafferky said, Sadd never received any awards from the war.

Cafferky conducted more research, and found that a fire at the National Personnel Records Center in 1973 destroyed almost 50 years of records on Army personnel.

Sadd’s records were lost in the fire, Cafferky said, so he wanted to recreate them.

“For the past year-and-a-half I’ve been piecing together a chronological snapshot of his service,” Cafferky said of Sadd.

And last year, the family finally found out that Sadd would be recognized for his service and the wound he received in battle, Cafferky said.

He organized a ceremony at Fort Detrick where Sadd will be honored with the medals Friday, and Sadd said more than 13 members of the clan will attend.

“These World War II veteran ceremonies are becoming few and far between,” Cafferky said. “This is huge for their family.”

Sadd said the multiple awards were a surprise, and that he and Cafferky have a connection because they’ve each served in the Army.

Sadd’s wife of almost 65 years, Veronica K. Sadd, 84, said the family is proud of Cafferky’s research, especially because Sadd never discusses the battles he fought.

“He talks very little about it,” Sadd said of her husband. “(Cafferky) got more out of him than anyone else did … the years have passed, so it’s easier to talk about now.”

Sadd’s service began at 22, when he was drafted into the Army after growing up in Brattleboro, Vt.

He already was married to Veronica – the couple met at a roller-skating rink – and married in 1941. He was a father, he said, when he left for Europe.

Sadd joined the Virginia-based 29th Infantry Division in England.

After the 1944 battle in Normandy, the division moved through Belgium, Sadd said, and reached Dortmund, Germany, in April 1945.

“We had to fight our way through,” he said of the march toward Germany.

He was wounded in Dortmund, and the injury caused by a piece of shrapnel would eventually send him home, Sadd said.

“It took half my leg off,” he said.

And because trucks transporting people on stretchers could only travel at night, Sadd said, it took days to move him from field hospital to field hospital before he ended up in a hospital in Belgium.

Sometimes the trucks even drove toward enemy lines because the drivers couldn’t see, he said.

Doctors told Sadd he wouldn’t walk again, Veronica Sadd said, but he was walking within four months, and home again six months after the injury.

She said the leg still bothers Sadd.

“He was lots of times in a lot of pain but he just learned to live with it,” she said.

After Sadd returned to Vermont, he spent 20 years running a dairy business, and another 20 years as a salesman for a bookstore.

Then the couple retired, and made their summer retreat on Spofford Lake a permanent home.

Though they thought about visiting France for the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion in 1994, John Sadd said he didn’t want to revisit the past.

“I just didn’t want to go back there … its so changed,” he said. “I had enough of that.”

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Information from: The Keene Sentinel, http://www.keenesentinel.com

AP-ES-02-02-06 1551EST