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From the Greenville Hearld Banner - March 10, 2011 - By CHAD BLACKSHEAR, Herald-Banner Staff
GREENVILLE — The body of a fallen hero was returned to Texas Wednesday, with hundreds of people turning out at Majors Field Municipal Airport in Greenville to pay their respects.

Several hundred more lined the route leading away from the airport, all of whom wished to welcome home Staff Sgt. Chauncy R. Mays.

City of Greenville and Hunt County government officials stood beside honor guards from the armed forces, area law enforcement agencies are fire departments. They were joined by representatives of patriotic organizations and local residents to greet the aircraft carrying Mays' body.

Even with the large numbers, the airport was silent with the exception of the sounds of American flags caught in the stiff north winds under a clear blue sky.

Upon leaving the airport, the motorcade passed by multiple long lines of flag-waving supporters. The employees of L-3 Communications Mission Integration and most of the businesses along Farm-To-Market Road 1570/Jack Finney Boulevard awaited the procession, alongside students from Lamar Elementary School, Greenville Christian School and the Phoenix Charter School.

Local letter carriers also lined up United Postal Service trucks near the intersection of Joe Ramsey Boulevard. Countless others were on hand as the motorcade turned east on Interstate 30, standing along the highway and waving flags from overpasses.

Mays, from Cookeville in Titus County, was the eighth United States soldier from the North Texas area killed in the war on terrorism to have been returned to the state at Majors Field.

Mays was stationed at Fort Polk, La., and served in the 705th OD Company (EOD) at the time of his death.

Mays was one of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom who died Feb. 28 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device.

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