A wreath-laying ceremony to honor Lt. Gen. James Gavin, U.S. Military Academy 1929 graduate, at his gravestone took place Monday at the West Point Cemetery.
(Top left, bottom left and above) Larry Lenahan, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division Association, and Department of History Capt. Michael Matheny place a wreath at Gavinʼs gravestone with members of the Military Police Color Guard and Firing Party also a part of the ceremony.
Gavin is honored annually for leading the 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers in a combat assault on D-Day June 6, 1944 in Normandy, France.
During World War II, he was often referred to as “The Jumping General” because of his practice of taking part in combat jumps with the paratroopers under his command.
He was the only American general officer to make four combat jumps in the war. Gavin was the youngest major general to command an American division in World War II.
(Photos by Elizabeth Woodruff/USMA PAO and Jorge Garcia/PV)