Helping to liberate France from its occupiers during World War II resulted in a dozen Arkansans receiving the French Legion of Honor -- the highest award of that country's government -- during a packed ceremony in the Capitol on Monday.
More than 150 fellow veterans, elected officials and onlookers filled the rotunda and upper balconies to congratulate the 11 men and first Arkansas woman to receive the medal. Honorary French Consul Beatrice Moore told the veterans they helped her country recover its freedom, its pride and its honor.
"These veterans, today, they were just 18 to 25 years old when they landed on Omaha Beach. They were just kids. And they were, most of them, farmers," she said. "If France is a free country today, if Europe is a democratic continent at peace, we will not forget that it is thanks to you."
While she spoke, a few of the veterans looked at her. Others stared at the floor. Some kept their eyes closed.
"Today, more than ever, we need our two nations to stand together," Moore said. "Yes, more than ever, because there is another war in front of us."
Then, U.S. Reps. Rick Crawford and French Hill, both R-Ark., began reading the veterans' names: Coy Buford of Stephens, Alice Beatty of Conway, Kenneth Evans of North Little Rock, David Huckabay of Paragould, Alvin McCarn of Mountain View, Wilmer Plate of Jacksonville, Russell Salomo of Bella Vista, James Siler of Bradford, Kenneth Smith of Searcy, Chester Treadwell of Clinton, Elza Tucker of Lowell and Earnest Yarbrough of White Hall.
The honorees' contributions varied: landing on Normandy Beach, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, serving on B-24 bombers, surviving airplane crashes and transporting Jews from concentration camps. Several received Purple Hearts.
Now, they all have the French Legion of Honor in common.
"We stand on the shoulders of these men and women today who have sacrificed so much in World War II 72 years ago, to free the whole continent ... to keep our world free," Hill said.
He said that while the relationship between France and the United States "has been tested from time to time, it is eternal."
A portrait of Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat who helped secure French aid for struggling American forces during the Revolutionary War, hangs next to a portrait of George Washington, the first president, in the U.S. House chamber, Hill said.
The French nobleman "stands as sentinel in the House chamber to the eternal friendship between the French and the American people bound by the blood and victory at Yorktown during the American Revolution," he said.
After the ceremony, Beatty, the first Arkansas woman to receive the French Legion of Honor, said the ceremony was overwhelming.
Her service had "never come up before," she said.
"One of my sons has been in the National Guard. Him and some friends asked me, at one time or another. They ran out of things to do, I think," she said. "He called me and said, 'Can you tell us how it was when you were in the service?'"
"That's the only time it ever came up."
Beatty was 22 when she arrived in Europe as a secretary in maintenance and repair. She landed on Normandy Beach in early August 1944, moved to Paris in a six-by-six vehicle in September and stayed until November 1945, Crawford said.
As with the other honorees, dozens rushed to thank her for her service. She stuck around, shared pictures and shook hands well after the program had ended.
Metro on 06/28/2016