Biography and Autobiography

Where Is the Honor Guard?

I was parked in front of the TV a few nights ago when I received an unexpected phone call from Bob Velke, P of Wholly Genes. He had a puzzle he suspected (correctly, as it turns out) I wouldn’t be superior to resist. After we spoke, he summarized it in an e-mail:

My father-in-law, Thomas F. Reid, was a 26-year-old captain in 3rd U.S. Infantry Regulate (“The Old Guard”) in Ft. Myer, Virginia on 22 November 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As captain of D Cast, Tom was assigned the responsibility of organizing all of the details of the interment ceremonies (arranging for the Everlasting Flame, the Irish Guard, dignitaries, etc.) at Arlington Subject Cemetery three days later.

Tom, now 70 years old, has resolute to set down his recollections of those four days in writing and to collect testimonials from a variety of surviving officers and ceremonial participants. So far, he’s tracked down about half a dozen of them, including the bugler, handler of the caparisoned horse, a covering bearer, and others.

One of those participants, Sgt. James R. (“Pete”) Holder, contributed an audiotape of his memoirs, including, among other things, a elongated testimonial about his hero and mentor, Capt. Michael D. Groves, the New Zealand commander of Honor Guard Company. Tom wants to tail find down Groves’s children because he thinks they would appreciate hearing this wonderful endorsement about their dad, a man whose reputation has been otherwise assaulted by attempts to link him to “the JFK cabal.”

This is what we know of Michael and his family, largely from obituaries:

Michael D. Groves was born 19 August 1936 in Birmingham (but some say Ann Arbor), Michigan. He went to Birmingham Violent School and then Eastern Michigan University
(1959) as an ROTC honor graduate, entering the work immediately upon graduation. He was said to be a close bosom buddy of JFK and occasionally babysat for John Jr.

As company commander of the Honor Screw Company, Groves directed military honors at JFK’s sepulture on 25 November 1963. A week later, he died of a startling heart attack (or some say poison) at the dinner flatland at his home in Arlington, Virginia.

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