Henderson County TX

June 6, 2003 marks the 59th anniversary of the Allied invasion of France (D-Day).  Several young soldiers from Henderson County, including LeRoy Rogers and Arthur Miles "Buddy" Thompson, participated in this great military operation that began the liberation of Europe from the Nazis.  It is fitting that we look back and honor their sacrifice and the sacrifice of all Henderson County's World War II soldiers on this occasion. 

Eulogy for Major Arthur Miles "Buddy" Thompson
Company I, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, USA
Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster
30 January, 1922 - 31 March, 1995


Sons should speak for their fallen fathers.

Of his father, Hamlet said,

He was a man.
Take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.

And so I shall not.

The men of my father’s generation are slowly passing from us, and we who are left behind and who take him to his rest today are poorer for it.  When they were young, he and his fellows lived the last great adventure of our time, and in so doing, they came to know the horror, the pain, the suffering, the loneliness, and the loss of war.  But by the courage, unselfishness, and heroism that they displayed, they won World War II and saved the world.  Through their sacrifice, they ensured that we and those who come after us will continue to enjoy the freedoms for which they paid so dear a price.

In his farewell address to Congress, General of the Army Douglass MacArthur said,

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

But I tell you today that my father’s spirit lives.  It lives in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy; in Holland and in Belgium; and in the now quiet and peaceful fields and hedgerows of Sainte-Mêre-Eglise in Normandy.  And his spirit lives at Fort Benning and at Fort Bragg and in the hearts and souls of the many, many soldiers who wear the uniform of the 82nd Airborne Division, America’s Guard of Honor, the uniform that he wore so proudly and which he wears again today.

Whenever and wherever a stick of paratroops, loosed from the bonds of Earth, jumps from a transport into the freedom of the sky to touch the face of God, my father will be there with them, together once again with General Gavin, Almieda, DeGeralmo, and the others who have gone before them.

In his old age, Tennyson’s Ulysses said,

You and I are old,
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil,
Death closes all, but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in olden days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are -
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad.  Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

2 April, 1995

Reprinted with permission by Britt Thompson RBTNYU81@aol.com

If you have any information on Malakoff history please contact Britt, he is the correspondent for Malakoff News Looking Back Column

Military Records of Henderson County TX

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