PVT Clyde Alfred Patton

courtesy of Ann Cady

PVT Clyde Alfred Patton was born 8 Apr 1916 in Madison County, Virginia. He was the 3rd of 15 children born to John Taylor and Lucy Dicey (Nichols) Patton. His younger brother, John Franklin Patton died in 1937 at age 17 when he broke his neck diving in shallow water. His father farmed for others and then for himself. Clyde was working for the Virginia highway department in 1940, reporting a 1939 income of $360. His father was apparently no longer working and the family rented a place at 101 Jackson Avenue in Manassas, Virginia.

Clyde was drafted in May 1941. Due to policies in effect at that time he was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland and assigned to G Company 116th Infantry very soon after induction. PVT Patton would have trained with the 116th at Fort Meade, in the Carolina exercises and at Camp Blanding, Florida before sailing to England with his unit aboard the Queen Mary in September 1942. Once in England he would have trained with the unit for the amphibious landings that took place at Omaha Beach on 6 Jun 1944. PVT Patton was wounded on 7 Jun 1944 and evacuated to hospital. He returned to the unit via the replacement depot on 25 Jul 1944. PVT Patton was killed in action on 30 Jul 1944.

PVT Patton was repatriated in 1948 and re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Younger brother, S2C Fred Patton, was killed in action on 1 Jan 1943 just north of Oman, Algeria when the freighter on which his ship, LCT-21, was being transported was sunk by a German submarine. Another younger brother, Gordon Phillips Patton, served as an SP3 in the U.S. Army in Korea, 1953-1956. Brother, Harry Lee Patton, served as a PFC in the U.S. Army, 1959-1962.