'100% Americans' honored in Normandy

American Legion National Commander Paul E. Dillard wrapped up a weekend of honor in Normandy, France, June 6 by helping dedicate a “Statue of Liberation” immortalizing Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who in 1919 inspired establishment of the organization Dillard now leads.

“May future generations who visit this statue take time to understand what it means to be humble, brave and willing to die for values much greater than oneself,” Dillard said in a ceremony at Ste. Mere-Eglise, where the son of the 26th U.S. President was initially laid to rest after storming Utah Beach in the Allied D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. Roosevelt Jr. died of a heart attack at age 56 five weeks after he was the only U.S. general to come ashore in the first wave 78 years ago, helping lead operations that forged the Allied victory in World War II. Roosevelt Jr., who now lies at the Normandy American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach, posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions on D-Day and was later voted past national commander of The American Legion.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley was among many U.S. and French dignitaries who helped the national commander commemorate the D-Day anniversary – at the statue dedication and at the La Fiere Bridge memorial site during a weekend where thousands from around the world gathered to pay tribute to U.S. sacrifices that freed Europe from Nazi occupation.

The statue dedication punctuated a busy weekend for the commander, led by The American Legion Department of France, that included wreath-laying ceremonies at the Normandy American Cemetery, the La Fiere Bridge Memorial and at the dedication of a new Lone Sailor Statue at Utah Beach. Dillard was joined by Sons of The American Legion National Commander Michael Fox and American Legion Auxiliary National President Kathy Daudistel in ceremonies during the weekend.

At La Fiere Bridge, after rain clouds parted enough for a re-enactment of historic parachute jumps of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions on the night before the beach landings of 1944, Dillard, Fox and Daudistel walked the rows of some 30 World War II veterans and personally thanked each of them for their service. They ranged in age from 94 to 101.

“It’s like looking back in time,” Dillard said after meeting with the veterans. “When you visit this place and you see what they had to overcome, and then you look at them – still here with us today … They were tough then, and they are still tough today. They are true Americans. They are 100% Americans.”

Dillard also spoke with active-duty personnel on hand to support events, as well as veterans who came to Normandy to jump and to participate in the annual event that had largely been suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the re-enactors was Army veteran Joshua Felker of San Antonio, an infantry officer of the war in Iraq, who wore war paint and a Mohawk haircut – as did members of the 101st Airborne on D-Day – when he jumped from a vintage C-47 over the Merderet River plain. “I don’t know if I am authentic, but I am trying to be,” said Felker, who came to Normandy with his Army veteran wife for the couple’s 25th wedding anniversary. He had in recent years begun static-line jumping from C-47s in the United States, and doing that in Normandy, before thousands of cheering spectators, was “on my bucket list,” he said.

“It’s amazing and humbling all at the same time to see all these French men and kids coming out, dressing in military uniforms, whether period-specific or even now. It’s very humbling to realize what our forefathers did for this world.”

American Legion Department of France Commander Santos Alvarado was among those who were deeply humbled. His father, Francisco Chapa Alvarado, stormed Utah Beach on D-Day. “It’s an honor being here because my father landed on this beach on June 6, 1944,” the department commander said. “After he landed here, in a few days, he was captured and spent most of his time as a POW in northern Germany. It’s an honor being here, respecting my father for what he did in World War II. The French have honored him – honored them – every year, and this is my first time coming over here. I am proud to honor my father and to see what he went through.”

Commander Dillard likewise reflected on the service of his uncle, who came ashore at Omaha Beach. Dillard walked the shoreline west of Vierville-sur-Mer where his uncle entered the fighting and gazed into the channel, picturing what it was like for all Americans, more than 2,000 of whom were killed breaking through the German line into Europe, on that historic day.

Legionnaire Valerie Prehoda, who led an earlier effort to install a memorial to U.S. Navy frogmen who were first ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day led ceremonies June 6 to dedicate a Lone Sailor Statue there. “The Lone Sailor and explanatory plaques that surround it are in the middle of the breach, facing the sea,” the retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel told the crowd. “No one can go down this breach without seeing it and thinking for just a few moments of what it represents.”

The iconic Lone Sailor Statue is found at 17 other locations, from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to West Haven, Conn. On June 6, the Utah Beach unveiling represented the first Lone Sailor Statue to stand at a location other than a U.S. state or territory. “It is a recognition for all sailors, as Utah Beach is, above all, a successful maritime operation,” said Prehoda, a member of American Legion Post 1 in Paris. “It is essential to maintain this memory.”

Among the dignitaries at Utah Beach for the Lone Sailor Statue dedication were retired Rear Adm. Frank Thorp IV, president and CEO of the U.S. Navy Memorial; Rear Adm. Brad J. Collins, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Central; Ste. Marie Du Mont Mayor Charles Delasvallevielle; and Frederic Perissat, a top elected official for the La Manche region of Normandy.

The Statues of Liberation project is set to continue through 2023 and 2024 (80th anniversary of the D-Day landings) with a companion statue of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander Europe on D-Day, to be installed in Ste. Mere-Eglise.

Statues of Liberation is a joint venture of The American Legion, Operation Democracy, Amis des Veterans Americain (Friends of American Veterans) in Normandy and the city of Ste. Mere-Eglise. The Airborne Museum in Ste. Mere-Eglise also participated substantially in the project, including the contribution of metals from D-Day battle bullet casings and other materiel that went into the casting of the sculpture by internationally acclaimed artist Pablo Eduardo. FedEx provided essential shipping support of the Roosevelt Jr. statue for the June 6 ceremony.

After recognizing those who helped bring Theodore Roosevelt Jr. back to the place where he was originally laid to rest, Operation Democracy founder Cathy Cyphers-Soref made the point that the statue aims to remind future generations of the sacrifices of D-Day.

“I am certain that Teddy Roosevelt Jr. would be smiling his sweet expression, tinted with the sadness of the soldier, through his clear blue sparkling eyes, on this dedication, pleased to be a symbol, for generations to come, of courage, self-sacrifice, discipline and commitment to the idea that is America,” she said at the dedication. “We hope this inspires appreciation for what we have, rather than indignance for what we do not have.”

As the American Legion Family delegation visited historic sites, placed wreaths, dedicated statues and soaked up the culture of gratitude that permeates Normandy the first week of June each year, many members of the group stayed at Manoir du Quesnay. Owner and proprietor Jacques Fourcade, as he has done for many American Legion groups over the years, gave a presentation about his mother Marie Madeleine Fourcade, who was a top leader in the French Resistance and the subject of the 2019 biography, “Madame Fourcade’s Secret War” by New York Times best-selling author Lynne Olsen.