The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funeral, 1921-1969

CHAPTER XXI

Senator Styles Bridges
Funeral Without Formal Classification
26-29 November 1961

Senator Styles Bridges, Republican from New Hampshire and former governor of the state, died in his sleep at his East Concord, New Hampshire, home on 26 November 1961 at the age of sixty-three. Although he had suffered a heart attack earlier in the fall, his death was unexpected.

Final tribute was paid Senator Bridges in a private service in East Concord on 28 November and in a public service held in the state capitol at Concord on the 29th. During the interval between the two services the senator's body lay in state in the rotunda of the capitol. In New Hampshire the public service was described as a State Funeral and was reported by newspapers to be the first conducted in the New Hampshire statehouse. The senator was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in East Concord.

Military honors were accorded Senator Bridges at the wish of his widow. Mrs. Bridges made her request to the Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, Mr. Joseph C. Duke, who sent it through legislative liaison channels to Department of Defense officials.

The department arranged to send to New Hampshire two officers and nineteen enlisted men from the Washington area, most of them from ceremonial units and all of them experienced participants in military funerals. The group consisted of a commander, one other company officer, and thirteen enlisted men from the Honor Guard Company, 1st Battle Group, 3d Infantry, stationed at Fort Myer, Virginia; two enlisted men from the Ceremonial Guard, U.S. Naval Air Station in Washington; two enlisted men from the 1100th Security Squadron stationed at Bolling Air Force Base in the District of Columbia; and two enlisted men of the Ceremonial Guard Company from the Marine Barracks in Washington.

Of these troops, the six men furnished by the Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force and two of the men supplied by the Army formed a joint service body bearer team, of which one of the Army men, a noncommissioned officer, was in charge. Four Army men were a part of the guard of honor that would watch over Senator Bridges' body while it lay in state; the company officer from the 3d Infantry, assisted by a noncommissioned officer, had charge of the guard. Of the remaining enlisted men from the 3d Infantry, four served as a national color detail

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and two were alternates. The Ceremonial Officer of the Military District of Washington and an officer from the Office of the Chief of Legislative Liaison, Headquarters, Department of the Army, also went to Concord to help arrange the military ceremonies. In addition to participating in the funeral ceremonies, the experienced men from Washington organized and briefed six troop contingents from local installations which were also assigned by the Department of Defense to take part. Three of these installations furnished additional troops for the guard of honor, which was to be a joint service group: the Portsmouth Naval Base, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, one officer and six men; the Marine Barracks, Portsmouth, one officer and five men; and the Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, one officer and four men.

The Combat Support Company, 1st Battle Group, 4th Infantry, stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, furnished a platoon to act as escort in the funeral procession and during the graveside rites. Also sent from Fort Devens to serve with the escort was the 18th US Army Band. The New Hampshire Army National Guard, with headquarters in Concord, provided a firing squad of one officer and eight enlisted men and a bugler for the graveside ceremony. (Table 13)

TABLE 13-TROOP LIST, CEREMONY FOR SENATOR STYLES BRIDGES


Duty
Officers
Enlisted Men

Guard of honor
 
3d Infantry (Virginia)
1
5
 
Portsmouth Naval Base (New Hampshire)
1
6
 
Marine Barracks (New Hampshire)
1
5
 
Pease Air Force Base (New Hampshire)
1
4
Ceremonial site control officer
  3d Infantry (Virginia)
1
 
Body bearers
 

3d Infantry (Virginia)

2
 

US Naval Station (Washington, D.C.)

2
 
Boiling Air Force Base (Washington, DC)
2
 
Marine Barracks (Washington, DC)
2
National color detail
  3d Infantry (Virginia)  
4
Escort
 
4th Infantry (Massachusetts)
2
       30 (approx).
 
18th Army Band (Massachusetts)
27
Firing squad
 
Army National Guard (New Hampshire)
1
8
Bugler
 
Army National Guard (New Hampshire)
1

 
     Total
8
98

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The private service for Senator Bridges took place on the morning of 28 November in the East Congregational Church in East Concord and was conducted by the Reverend Clifton G. Davis, pastor of the church. Six members of the senator's staff served as honorary pallbearers. Some hundred persons attended the half-hour service, among them Mayor Charles P. Johnson and Mrs. Johnson of Concord; New Hampshire Governor Wesley Powell; former Governor and Mrs. Robert O. Blood; and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Vice President came to the private service because previous commitments would prevent him from attending the public service on 29 November.

At the conclusion of the private service, the joint service body bearer team, the only military contingent at the ceremony, carried the casket to the hearse. The senator's family, the honorary pallbearers, other members of the funeral party, and the body bearers then entered automobiles for the journey to the capitol in Concord, where Senator Bridges' body would lie in state. The motorcade traveled via the Bridges Highway, which was named for the senator. Local police provided the only escort as far as the Bridge Street traffic circle in Concord. Assembled at that point were the 18th Army Band, the platoon of troops from the 4th Infantry, and the national color detail, which escorted the cortege the remaining distance to the capitol. This stage of the march was made at a slow cadence meted out by the band on muffled drums.

When the cortege arrived the escort units and mourners took their positions outside the statehouse. As the body bearers removed the casket from the hearse, the military escort presented arms. While the band played the hymn "Abide With Me," the senator's casket was carried in procession into the flower-banked rotunda, known as the Hall of Flags, and placed on a bier. The body bearers were then dismissed, and the first relief, one officer and four enlisted men, of the joint service guard of honor took post. In order to maintain a constant vigil at the bier, each relief of the guard of honor stood a thirty-minute watch. In the afternoon the Hall of Flags was opened to the public. From 1400 until 2200 on 28 November and from 0830 until 1100 on the 29th more than 4,000 persons passed by the bier.

No formal invitations to attend the public funeral were issued, but long before the service it was apparent to Maj. Gen. Francis B. McSwiney, the Adjutant General of the State of New Hampshire, who was in charge, that the representatives of the federal government, active and former officials of the New Hampshire government, local leaders, and other guests would constitute an audience far beyond the capacity of the Hall of Flags. He therefore arranged to have a public address system installed with speakers in Representatives Hall, the Senate Chamber, and other rooms near the Hall of Flags. He also had other speakers set up outside the capitol to allow the public to hear the services.

Since no formal invitations had been issued, there was no formal seating plan. The Hall of Flags itself was reserved for Senator Bridges' family, the representa-

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tives of the federal government, the highest state officials, and the members of the senator's staff. A nearby room was assigned to the senator's business associates and to official delegations of various political and patriotic organizations. Representatives Hall and the Senate Chamber were set aside for members and former members of the state legislature and their families.

Early on the morning of 29 November a large delegation from both houses of the United States Congress left Washington by plane for Concord to attend the public funeral. Transportation was provided by the Air Force, as arranged jointly by the staffs of the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate and the Department of the Air Force Legislative Liaison Office. Representatives of the Department of Defense, headed by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, also flew to Concord; among them were Secretary of the Navy John B. Connally, Jr., Secretary of the Air Force Eugene M. Zuckert, and Lt. Gen. Arthur G. Trudeau, acting for Secretary of the Army Elvis J. Stahr, Jr. Arriving in Concord on behalf of President Kennedy were the President's brother Edward and Lawrence O'Brien, White House assistant for legislative affairs.

The service began at noon, led by the Reverend Frederick W. Alden, minister of the New Hampshire Congregational Christian Conference. Eulogies were delivered by Governor Wesley Powell, US Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, and US House Majority Leader John W. McCormack. Music was provided by an organist and the combined choirs of two local colleges. The Reverend Frederick Brown Harris, Chaplain of the US Senate, pronounced the benediction.

Immediately following the hour-long service, Senator Bridges' body was taken from the capitol in procession, the joint service body bearer team again handling the casket and members of the senator's staff again acting as honorary pallbearers. After the casket was placed in the hearse, the Bridges family, the body bearers, and others in the funeral party entered automobiles and the cortege left for Pine Grove Cemetery in East Concord. The military escort had meanwhile taken its position at the gravesite to participate in the final rites. Some eighty-five automobiles made up the procession, which traveled over the Bridges Highway. From each overpass spanning the highway, people watched its passage. In East Concord the procession passed by Senator Bridges' residence.

Upon reaching the cemetery, the cortege moved to the family plot near the center of the cemetery, where Senator Bridges' previous wife had been buried in 1938. The grave was at the foot of a gentle rise of ground. On the rise, as viewed from the head of the grave, the Army National Guard firing squad stood in position at the left, the 18th Army Band in the center, and the 4th Infantry platoon at the right.

The military escort presented arms as the body bearers removed the casket from the hearse. The band then played "Abide With Me" as Senator Bridges' casket was borne in procession to the grave. After the Bridges family and other mourners had been guided to positions at the graveside, the Reverend Dr. Alden

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read a simple service. Standing with him as he conducted the rites were the Reverend Dr. Davis of the East Congregational Church and Chaplain Harris.

After the benediction, the firing squad delivered the traditional three volleys and the Army National Guard bugler sounded taps. As the band played "America the Beautiful," the body bearers folded the flag that had draped Senator Bridges' casket and handed it to the commanding officer of the Honor Guard Company of the 3d Infantry, Capt. Keith Bissell, Jr. Captain Bissell gave the flag to the Reverend Dr. Alden, who presented it to Mrs. Bridges, thus closing the final rites for the senator from New Hampshire.

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