ne of the special
guests attending a reunion
of World War II paratroopers
has never jumped out of an airplane. But he has a special reason
to honor those who did 60 years ago.
Jean Baptiste Feuillye, 73, flew from his home in France to participate
in this week's farewell reunion in Gainesville of the 508th Parachute
Infantry Regimental Association. On D-Day, he was a 13-year-old
farm boy in a village about a mile from St. Mere Eglese [sic],
the Normandy town that played a key role in the June 6, 1944,
invasion that led to the liberation of France.
"We knew something was going to happen because the occupying Germans
were very nervous," said Feuillye, who still goes by "Bobbie,"
the nickname American paratroopers gave him in 1944.
Left alone in his house after his family had gone out to the fields
on D-Day, he was startled when a tall soldier who was not German
walked into his house. The soldier said nothing as he looked around,
Feuillye said, and he wasn't sure if he was American.
Later a neighbor came to get him, he said, and told him the troops
in their village were American paratroopers with the 508th and
that the long-awaited invasion had begun.
Over the next few weeks, the boy became friendly with the paratroopers.
They taught him English, but mostly American slang and curse words.
"I became their mascot until the end of the war," said Feuillye,
who perfected his English during a two-year period when he lived
in California.
After the war, he became a caretaker at the American cemetery
near Omaha Beach. He worked for the U.S. Army in other capacities
until 1967, and later led tours of the hallowed ground.
In 1994 he met O.B. Hill, who founded the 508th Parachute Infantry
Regimental Association and organized its first reunion in 1975.
They struck up a close friendship that continued until Hill's
death in 2002.
Feuillye said that, today's politics aside, all French people,
but particularly those in Normandy, honor the Americans for restoring
freedom to their country 60 years ago.
"We're more than friends," he said of the paratroopers he came
here to honor. "We Normans believe that Norman soil is still
damp with the blood of your American guys who liberated
us."
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