Legion Of Honor—

Newtown Veteran Receives France’s Most Venerated Medal

By Nancy K. Crevier

Newtown resident Alfred Green, Jr, can perform a pretty cool trick. Holding out one hand, he passes a small magnet near his palm. The magnet quivers, and then makes the small leap to adhere to his naked hand. It is not a trick he ever planned to be able to perform, but it is a talent he brought home from his days as a gunner with the 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion in World War II.

“I’m still full of pieces of shrapnel they couldn’t remove,” said the Army veteran, letting the magnet drop into his lap.

The distinctive Purple Heart dangles from his uniform, along with numerous other medals denoting meritorious service to his country and his affiliations. Among them is one that stands out: a white enameled Maltese cross interspersed with bright green leaves of laurel and oak, suspended from a red ribbon, the gold center stamped with the bust of Marianne, the French equivalent of the US Lady Liberty. It is not a medal awarded by his own country. It is the medal of the French “Legion d’honneur” (Legion of Honor) and is Mr Green’s newest addition to the medals he earned fighting in World War II.

On Saturday, May 8, Mr Green, his son, Alfred Green III, and granddaughter Jennifer traveled to the French Embassy in New York City for a special ceremony in which Consul General of France Philippe Lalliot awarded the World War II Army veteran and 14 of his peers the National Order of the Legion of Honor, the highest decoration of France, as nearly 200 other guests looked on.

Napoleon Bonaparte implemented the National Legion of Honor award in 1802 as a recognition of merit and to honor excellence in civilian or military conduct. It is divided into five degrees, Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand Officier (Grand Officer), and Grand-Croix (Grand Cross).

“I was shocked to get the award,” said Mr Green, who first heard a year ago that he had been nominated by the president of the French republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, for the honor. “I had to fill out a lot of paperwork, there was a background check, then it was sent to the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., before going back to the French president for approval,” said the US Army veteran.

On April 15, Consul General Lalliot issued a letter congratulating Mr Green on his long-overdue recognition by the French government. “Please allow me to offer you my warmest congratulations for your appointment as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor,” began the letter. “This prestigious distinction underlines the deep appreciation and gratitude of the French people for your contribution to the liberation of our country during World War II. We will never forget the commitment of American heroes like you to whom France owes so much,” wrote the Consul General.

Fighting All Over Europe

Mr Green was 23 years old when he joined the army in 1943. His test scores qualified him for special schooling, but the program was canceled when increasing American troop losses in Europe made it necessary for every enlisted man to be retrained and sent overseas. “I was sent to Mississippi for infantry training, and then to Africa, and from there to Naples. They fit us in wherever we were needed, and we fought our way all over Europe,” Mr Green recalled.

Stationed just north of Rome with the 83rd Chemical Mortar Battalion, Company D, he served as a mortar gunner. When volunteers were sought for glider missions into the Riviera region of France, Mr Green stepped up. “Why not?” he asked. “We called ourselves ‘The Glider Boys of the Riviera.’ But there was mass confusion on the mission,” he said, and many gliders, and the men and equipment that they carried, were released prematurely by panicked pilots towing them. Targets were missed, leaving units scattered miles from each other, and many gliders crashed to the ground. “Three hundred, twenty-seven gliders left Italy,” said Mr Green, “but only ten were salvageable in France….”

The men regrouped as best they could to make a unit, and fought their way north through small towns hoping to “meet up with the boys coming in from Normandy,” he said.

In early December 1944 in Zellenberg, France, near the German border, the unit was setting up its mortar guns when German soldiers on the other side of the mountain opened up on them, shelling the village. “I got pretty shot up in Zellenberg. I got hit in 24 places. Eleven of the 34 guys in the unit were casualties,” he recalled of the battle that lasted several days and which broke up the enemy attack.

But Mr Green did not see all of the fighting. Strapped to the top of a jeep after taking shrapnel in his legs, arms, and hands, he endured a painful and treacherous ride down through the mountains to a hospital train that could transport him to treatment. As the Red Cross train headed out to Paris, German aircraft strafed the train, despite Geneva Convention rules forbidding attack on those trains and trucks transporting the wounded. “But we shot that pilot down, and he ended up on our train to the hospital. He was not a popular fellow, but we knew that he would be questioned and maybe some useful information would come of it,” Mr Green recalled.

Arrival at the Parisian hospital was not the relief he had hoped for, however. Two days after his arrival, air raid sirens sounded. The Germans were bombing, including the train station at which the wounded soldiers had arrived, and the hospital. “Eight of us were on the top floor of the hospital and we couldn’t be evacuated,” Mr Green said, “so there we stayed during the bombing. It was frightening,” he said.

A Return Home

When the bombing ceased, Pfc Green was evacuated to Cherbourg, and then to a hospital in England, where he spent several months recovering from his wounds. “I was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries received in battle at Zellenberg while in the hospital, probably one of the worst battles we were in,” he said. On June 16, 1945, he received an honorable discharge from the army, and returned home to Connecticut.

It was yet another year after the young Alfred Green had returned to Connecticut that he was able to pick up where he had left off. He returned to the tool and die apprenticeship with Yale Locks that he had begun before enlisting, and began a career in methods engineering and purchasing, retiring from Omega Engineering in Stamford and moving to Newtown nine years ago.

He remained proud every day, though, of his part in the war, and he is proud to be the recipient of this newest medal.

The medal, explained Mr Green, is to be worn only for special occasions and functions. For daily wear, the recipients of the Legion of Honor were also provided with a tiny red ribbon that can be clipped to the lapel. “It is so small, but it is a very meaningful ribbon to the French,” he said.

Mr Green also received an embossed certificate marking his acceptance to the rank of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor, as well as an invitation to join the American Society of the French Legion of Honor. The society unites US citizens and residents who have received the Legion of Honor, and grants scholarships to educational institutions in France for visiting American students, and in the US for visiting French students.

He is not surprised that the wheels of government here and abroad turn so slowly in rewarding the soldiers who fought for freedom on foreign soil six decades ago, but he does not begrudge the plodding pace. He is pleased to have the privilege of receiving France’s highest award, at any time. “It’s a big honor,” said Mr Green. “There were so many possibilities, so many other men who could have been awarded.”