George D. Keathley
United States Army Medal of Honor recipient
George Dennis Keathley (November 10, 1907 – September 14, 1944) was a staff sergeant in the United States Army who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during World War II.
Biography
Born in Olney, Texas in 1907, Keathley attended Olney High School and Cameron Junior College, now Cameron University, in Lawton, OK. He attended the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas, today known as Texas A&M University, in 1937. He never graduated due to financial reasons.
He joined the Army from Lamesa, Texas, and by September 14, 1944, was serving as a staff sergeant in Company B, 338th Infantry Regiment, 85th Infantry Division. During an enemy counterattack on that day, at Mount Altuzzo, Italy, Keathley took command of three platoons which had been left leaderless due to heavy casualties. He organized the platoons' defense, gathered ammunition, and encouraged his men even after being severely wounded. He died of his injuries shortly after the attack was repulsed. For these actions, Keathley was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor six months later, on March 29, 1945.
Keathley, aged 36 at his death, was buried at the Florence American Cemetery in Florence, Italy.
Keathley's Medal of Honor is on permanent display at Texas A&M University's Sanders Corps of Cadets Center. The medal was donated to the museum by his family on July 17, 2009.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5538307. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1907, 1944, 1937 and 1945.
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