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2016 SESSION


HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 490
Celebrating the life of Allen Huddleston.

 

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, March 9, 2016
Agreed to by the Senate, March 10, 2016

 

WHEREAS, Allen Huddleston, a proud veteran of World War II and the last surviving member of the Bedford Boys, a company of soldiers from Bedford County that sustained heavy casualties during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, died on February 10, 2016; and

WHEREAS, after the 116th Infantry Regiment of the Virginia National Guard was activated in 1941, Bedford County provided troops to Company A of the 29th Infantry Division; approximately 30 men from Bedford County, including Allen Huddleston, were still attached to the company in 1944, when the United States was preparing to open a new front in Europe; and

WHEREAS, Allen Huddleston was recovering from a broken ankle in England during the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944; Bedford County suffered the greatest number of casualties per capita during the operation, with 19 of the Company A Bedford Boys killed on the first day of the invasion and two killed later in the campaign; and

WHEREAS, Allen Huddleston returned to Company A to find that he did not recognize many members of the company, which had suffered a 90 percent casualty rate overall; he continued to serve and was wounded again at the battle of Aachen in Germany; and

WHEREAS, after his honorable discharge, Allen Huddleston returned home to the Commonwealth and worked in a photography shop in downtown Bedford; he served the community by taking wedding photos and other formal photos, and his beautiful prints of the Peaks of Otter were well known locally; and

WHEREAS, Allen Huddleston supported his fellow veterans as an active member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Roanoke, and he provided a link to local families who had lost loved ones during the war by sharing memories and comfort; and

WHEREAS, the exceptional service and sacrifices of Allen Huddleston, the Bedford Boys, and all veterans of World War II are memorialized by the National D-Day Memorial in the Town of Bedford; and

WHEREAS, Allen Huddleston will be fondly remembered and greatly missed by numerous family members, friends, and fellow service members; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of Allen Huddleston, a patriotic veteran and a true Virginia gentleman; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Allen Huddleston as an expression of the General Assembly’s respect for his memory.