Miles, Edwin C. (P2, C3, L27)

Private Edwin “Eddie” Clyde Miles, 17, of London, Laurel County, died on 17 July 1955 at approximately 7:30 p.m. from an electrical shock when lightning struck a tree he was seeking shelter under during a storm while at Annual Training at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky – near Morganfield. Artificial respiration and efforts to revive them at a camp hospital were not successful.

Miles was a mortar gunner with Company D, 149th Infantry Regimental Combat Team of London, Kentucky. Miles enlisted on 19 July 1954 and had been in the Guard just under a year when he was killed. Miles was still a junior attending Hazel Green High School in East Bernstadt, Laurel County.

Private First Class Carl William Cloud also of Laurel County was killed in the same incident.

Miles is buried in the Swiss Colony Cemetery in London, Kentucky with his mother. His headstone lists his date of birth as 1938 rather than 1937 which is on his military paper work. He may have enlisted under age. London's Sentinel Echo Newspaper, in a story on 21 July 1955, stated that Miles had attended the Tennessee Military Institute in Columbia, TN, for the school year prior to the one he had just completed at Hazel Green High School.

Lightning Kills Two Local Men

The Sentinel-Echo, 21 July 1955, p. 1.

Two Laurel County youths undergoing training at the National Guard camp at Camp Breckenridge, near Morganfield, Ky., were electrocuted at 7:30 o’clock Sunday evening when lightning struck a tree under which they had taken shelter during a thunderstorm. They were Pvt. Edwin C. Miles, 17 years old son of Mrs. Daisy Jones Miles of London, and Pfc. Charles William Cloud, son of the Rev. and Mrs. Evan Cloud of McWhorter. Lt. Harry Hiott, Frankfort, Ky., public information officer for the Guard unit in training at Breckenridge said Miles and Cloud were waiting under the tree while a companion, Donnie Ray Miller, son of Dan Miller of London, went after raincoats.

Caught In Downpour

Hiott said the youths had been assigned to a detail in their company area when caught in the sudden downpour. They failed to respond to artificial respiration and efforts to revive them at a camp hospital. Miles and Cloud, members of Company D, 149th Inf. R. C. T. (Regimental Combat Team), Kentucky National Guards were in training with several other guardsmen from London. Both were students in Hazel Green High School and Cloud played basketball there last year. Year before last, Miles attended the Tennessee Military Institute in Columbia, Tenn. Funeral services for Private Miles will be held at 2 o’clock this Thursday afternoon at the Colony Baptist Church with the Rev. Caleb McFadden officiating. Burial will be in the Colony cemetery at Bernstadt.

Military Rites

Last rites for Private Cloud were at 10:30 o’clock this morning at Pleasant Grove, and interment followed in the church cemetery at Benge House Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements of both services at which military rites were conducted at the graves by a firing squad from Camp Breckenridge. Maj. Cecil R. Hickman, Louisville chaplain at Breckenridge, accompanied the bodies here and assisted in the services.

 

2 Guardsmen Killed by Bolt

The Advocate-Messenger Danville, KY 18 JUL 1955 Page 1 Monday

CAMP BRECKINRIDGE< Ky,. July 18 - Two teenage Kentucky National Guardsmen were electrocuted last night when lightning struck a tree under which they had taken shelter during a thunderstorm.

They were Pvt. Edwin C. Miles, 18, son of Mrs. Daisy J. Miles, London, Ky., and Pfc. Carl William Cloud, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. Evan Cloud of McWhorter, KY., near London.

Both were members of D Company, 1st Battalion, 149th Regimental Combat Team, one of the guard units undergoing two-weeks training here.

Lt. Harry Hiott, Frankfort, Ky., public information officer for the Guard units in training here, said the two enlisted men were waiting while a companion went after rain-coats.

The soldiers names were withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Hiott said the men had been assigned to a detail in their company area when caught in the sudden downpour. They failed to respond to artificial respiration and efforts to revive them at a camp hospital.

The Kentucky National Guard units from throughout the state are undergoing two-weeks of training which ends Saturday.