Donald Mac Carthy receives the Legion of Honor in Vierville

La Renaissance–Le Bessin of Tuesday, July 29, 2014 reported a ceremony organized the previous Thursday in honor of Donald Mac Carthy. This ninety-four-year-old veteran had landed on the beach of Vierville in 1944. Local elected officials, other veterans, family members, flag bearers and tourists had gathered in large numbers.

The French consulate in Boston wanted to decorate him with the Legion of Honor. He had agreed on condition that he received this distinction in Vierville, where he had landed seventy years earlier.

In an emotional speech, Mayor Antoine de Bellaigue recalled the place of the Legion of Honor in the national heritage and the values it embodies. He expressed his gratitude to the veteran for the regained freedom and the pride of the municipality to welcome him for this surrender.

Mrs. Casali, herself decorated, gave him her own Legion of Honor. Donald Mac Carthy, deeply touched, could not hold back his tears. After a moment of recollection during the national anthems, Philippe Josse, president of Omaha Bedford, Marsha Smith, president of Normandy Allies, and Antoine de Bellaigue laid a wreath at the monument with the veteran.

Archive image: https://vierville.cordelle.eu/PhDoc17/2014Juillet25-VeteranLegionHonneurL.jpg