on June 5, 1944, the small fleet of unarmed C-47 transports started departing at five-minute intervals, carrying a total of about 200 paratroopers from the 101 st Airborne-the first “pathfinders” for the massive Allied invasion set to begin that night and the following morning. They took off under cover of darkness from North Witham Airbase in central England, more than two hours flying time from their targets in Normandy. That link is there forever because of the sacrifices of people like Earl who have really made this world a better place.Joel Crouch on June 5, 1944, just before the Normandy invasion. "This is something that will never be broken. "The United States is the oldest ally of France, and vice versa," he said. soldiers also shows the strong ties between the two countries. War comes to Beaches: Monument honors 19 killed in U-boat attack 'We stick together:' WWII's Sullivan brothers remembered at Mayport I was born in France and had the ability to be free and do what I wanted to because of Earl." If we are in France, there are villages, people, entire generations, able to be who they are. Kloc, after the ceremony, said it's a symbol of how much his country owes to soldiers such Mills, a paratrooper who saw combat during the D-Day invasion and then again at the Battle of the Bulge. American veterans who risked their lives fighting in France during World War II qualify to apply to be decorated as Knights of the Legion of Honor. The award - created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 - is meant to honor exceptional service to France. "I thank you, in the name of the French government," Kloc said, handing the medal to Mills, who on this chilly afternoon was seated outside his house, with a blanket over his legs and a green farm field behind him.
'We saw some horrible things:' Northeast Florida's D-Day vets told their stories He presented Mills - who turned 100 last spring - with the red-ribboned Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honor), the highest French distinction for military and civil accomplishments.Įarl Mills: D-Day paratrooper recalls months of battle: 'This was a job we all had to do' Army plane over Normandy, part of a wave of Allied soldiers determined to liberate the country and the rest of Europe from the threat of the Nazi regime.įrançois Kloc, France's honorary consul in Jacksonville, made the trip to Suwannee County to the family farm that Mills' grandfather homesteaded during the Civil War. France on Thursday officially thanked Earl Mills at his farm in Live Oak, almost 78 years after he parachuted from a U.S.
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