Tribute Center helps identify missing 29th Infantry vet

BY JOHN BARNHART
STAFF WRITER

In the centuries of warfare, one of the recurring realities is that some men died and their families never had a body to bury. By the time the soldiers of the 29th Infantry Regiment came ashore on D-Day, a lot of this had changed as far as our ability to account for the dead. The U.S. had borrowed a lot from the British during World War I.

By 1944, we had detailed records of every man who went to war. We also had metal tags that each man wore. They are officially called “identification tags,” but unofficially, they got tagged with the nickname “dog tag.” Our record keeping meant that there were a lot fewer men who ended up unaccounted for when they died.

But it still happens.

On D-Day, Sgt. Ivor Thornton, a soldier from Martinsville, was serving with H Company, 116th Infantry. His company was part of the second wave to land. The men came ashore at 7 a.m. Fellow soldiers last saw him wading ashore, then nobody saw him again. He was 34 years old.

In the wake of the fight, temporary cemeteries were built along the bluffs where the men had landed. Graves Registration was able to identify almost all of them and the doleful telegrams eventually went out.

The soldier buried as an unknown soldier in this grave at the American cemetery in Normandy was determined on March 10, 2025, to be Sergeant Ivor Thornton, of Martinsville. He was killed on D-Day.

SEE IDENTIFY PAGE A2

[Photo caption:]
Bedford Boys Tribute Center

[Text on cross:]
HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY
A COMRADE IN ARMS
KNOWN BUT TO GOD