My father always told me that he was a guard at General Patton's
funeral. My father was Corporal James Richard Mays. His date of birth
was July 18, 1921. How can I find out if indeed he was an honor guard
and if so, where can I obtain documentation?

---

Clarification of Question by jackson51-ga on 22 Feb 2005 21:01 PST

My father's Army Serial# was 34 443 390. He entered the Army on 6 Oct.
42 and was discharged on 7 Mar 46. He received an American Theater
Service Ribbon, an EAMET Service Medal, a World War 2 Victory Medal
and a Good Conduct Medal.

Unfortunately, you may never find out for sure. Aside from the actual
pallbearers, there were literally hundreds of men who acted as ?honor
guard? at General Patton?s funeral. From what I can tell, your father
is not named among them, but then again neither are the majority of
the hundreds of other nameless soldiers who were in attendance.

Consider this description and imagine how many honor guards there were:

?The honor guard attending Patton?s funeral consisted of an American
Battalion consisting of troops of the 1st Infantry Division, the 4th
Armored Division, the 9th Infantry Division, and the 2nd U.S. Cavalry
Division. Also serving as Honor Guard were troops from the 146th and
151st French Infantry Regiments, and troops from the Luxembourg and
Belgian Armies.

Six American Enlisted men carried the casket to the grave as the band
from the 3rd Army played the Generals March in slow time.?After the
blessing the Firing Squad fired the usual three volleys and the bugler
blew taps.?

GENERAL PATTON?S FUNERAL AND BURIAL SITE
http://www.pattonhq.com/funeral.html

Take a look at some of these photos and see if you can find your
father among them. If you do, please let me know.

Tutuzdad-ga

FYI - there are normally about 1,000 soldiers in a battalion, so from
this description we can be certain that there were at least 1,000 US
soldiers in attendance (and that even doesn't include the troops from
the 146th and 151st French Infantry Regiments, and troops from the
Luxembourg and Belgian Armies.)

tutuzdad-ga