Soldier's Burial

Wrote Poet Charles Wolfe of the "Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna" (1808) :

Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his corse to the rampart we hurried; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot O'er the grave where our hero we buried. . . . No useless coffin enclosed his breast, Not in sheet or in shroud we wound him; But he lay like a warrior taking his rest With his martial cloak around him. . . .

Wrote a Reuters correspondent last week:

"Somewhere in France--A general of the invading American armies, a paratrooper and glider pioneer who was killed in a glider crash, was buried here today with a simple ceremony in the country he came to liberate. . . .

"While the battle raged on all sides, the general was buried in a small field in France wrapped in a parachute and attended by a small group of fellow officers.

"There was no official salute of guns; it was not necessary. All during the service big guns pounded away and rifles cracked in battle."

Allied Headquarters filled in the story. The lost commander was one of the best-known, best-liked of U.S. airborne officers: Brigadier General Don Forrester Pratt, assistant commander of the 101st Airborne Division. He had led his detachment to a landing on the extreme right of the Allied line, northwest of Carentan. He died when his command glider crashed into a tree.

The Little General. Fifty-one-year-old General Pratt was about as unlike the strapping paratrooper type as a man could be. He was a dignified, diminutive (5 ft. 5; 135 Ibs.) neat, efficient soldier who looked like a perfect desk officer. Born in Brookfield, Mo., Pratt attended the University of Wisconsin, was commissioned in World War I, stayed in the Army after the peace.

A studious officer, he took Army courses and taught them, became a crack instructor at the Infantry School, Fort Benning, served as chief of staff of the 43rd Infantry Division. He volunteered for airborne service in 1942 and speedily won the respect of the paratroopers who had goggled at his stature.

One of the favorite stories of the hard-boiled 101st is about Don Pratt's first parachute jump, when the general's husky young aide was assigned to jump with him and pick up the pieces. General Pratt landed without a scratch and picked up the aide, who had broken his leg.

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