Woodring, Horace Lynn “Woody”.

Woodring, Horace Lynn “Woody”, born 30-09-1926 in Morganfield, Kentucky, to Ulis Marion Woodring, who was 37 and his mother, Hattie Polexina, born Lynn, who was 32. Horace married Margaret Jerelene Adamson on 30-10-1948, in Henderson, Henderson, Kentucky, United States. \

Horace was raised on a dairy farm and was a rambunctious young man. Horance drove stock cars, piloted a stunt plane and, at the age of 15, lied about his age in order to get a job driving a gravel truck. He later lied about his age to enlist in the U.S. Army. He who was trained as an Army chauffeur. However, he went into the ETO as a replacement during the Battle of the Bulge. He, age 19, suffered severe frostbite of his feet, and was reassigned to the motor pool as a driver. A captain, tired of the bickering over who would drive the highest-ranking officers, decided to let the lowest-ranking driver have first pick of illustrious military passengers. Private Woodring could have picked Eisenhower but chose Patton instead. So he became the Army private who was chauffeuring the Cadillac limousine of General, George Smith Patton

  and General, Hobart “Hap” Gay

        through the German countryside a hunting trip in Germany when it crashed and caused the injuries that resulted in Patton’s death. At a checkpoint a few miles from their destination, Patton looked back and saw a dog belonging to their hunting adviser in the trailing jeep. “Woody go and bring that dog inside the car. “Patton said “He looks cold. Private Woodring fetched the dog. Patton got out of his seat and climbed into the rear with General Gay. The dog sat up front.”That simple act of kindness toward an animal ended the life of a national hero,” Mr. Woodring wrote. Moments later Patton slammed against the partition separating the front and back seats and became the only passenger injured.

On 0-12-1945, Private Woodring was behind the wheel when a two-and-a-half-ton Army truck collided with the limousine.

     General Hobart Raymond “Hap” Gay was unhurted but General Patton suffered a broken neck and was paralyzed from the neck down. He died on 21-12-1945 age 58. The New York Times reported on Dec. 13 that an investigation had determined that Private Woodring and the truck driver, Private. Robert L. Thompson, had been guilty of carelessness. Neither was disciplined. Mr. Woodring recalled that Patton in his hospital bed asked him to drive to the airport to pick up his wife and he said General, Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower

   , the Allied commander, personally told him he was in no way responsible for the accident. The case is never dissolved, but Patton, pro German? was not a favourite and it could have been more than an accident. The truck came  from a side street and didn’t use his brake ?

Patton had talked with PFC Woodring about working for him after the general’s retirement. Because of his admiration for General Patton, Woody and his wife Jerelene named their son John Patton Woodring. They moved to Michigan in 1963 where Woody bought and sold cars and enjoyed going fast on his snowmobile. Woodring lived in White Lake, Michigan, were he at the age of 77, on 02-11-2003, died in the Detroit hospital. The cause was heart disease, said his daughter Jinger DeMent. Woodring is buried on the Clay White Oak cemetery of Kentucky, with his wife Jerelene Adamson Woodring, who died 15-05-2007, age 77.