REGION: France bestows high honors on two North County veterans

By RENEE RAMSEY – For the North County Times

NORTH COUNTY —- France has bestowed its highest service honors on two World War II veterans from North County for their roles in D-Day 65 years ago.

Oceanside resident Jack Port, 87, departed last week for France to receive The National Order of the Legion of Honor —- an award created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 to acknowledge services of great merit rendered to France.

"I am overwhelmed at the magnitude of this," Port said about France’s highest honor to civilians or foreign nationals before boarding a plane Wednesday.

     Port will receive his medal in special ceremonies in Paris on the eve of the June 6, 1944, anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy that led to the liberation of Paris —- a turning point in the war.

Thomas Tucker, 85, of Escondido, who also landed at Utah Beach in Normandy on D-Day, received his medal from a deputy consul general of France during a private ceremony at Emmanuel Faith Community Church in Escondido on May 16.

"It’s a great honor," Tucker said last week.

Both men were presented with the rank of chevalier, or knight, in the prestigious National Order.

The French government has presented the award to dozens of Americans in recent years.

That the French government would reach out more than six decades later to honor American soldiers also is testament to the deep friendships between the two countries, Port said.

Port said he has traveled often to Normandy in recent decades, remembering fallen comrades and making new friends on each visit.

"I was just a high school kid from Escondido, but when I go back over, they treat all of us veterans as if we were Eisenhower or Patton," Port said.

Port said French communities take turns "adopting" American graves to regularly maintain and decorate with flags and flowers.

"I think our friendships are stronger than ever today," Port said.

Tucker, too, has visited the graves of fallen soldiers in Europe many times over the decades.

"On Memorial Day, they have huge ceremonies with flyovers and hundreds of people showing up," Tucker said, adding that 50 wreaths were laid at one cemetery during one ceremony to remember the 50 U.S. states.

Like Port, Tucker has made many friends in Europe, including the relatives of a family that once housed him and his fellow soldiers during the later Battle of the Bulge.

"The people of Europe remember better, because they lost whole cities," Tucker said. "They were under the yoke of the Germans."

Tucker, a retired architect, was a corporal in Company B, 7th Combat Engineer Battalion of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division during World War II. Twenty-eight members of his company were killed, and Tucker was wounded during the Battle of the Bulge.

"How do you describe the slaughter, the terror? It’s impossible to explain," Tucker said.

Port, a retired clothing store owner, described himself as a "buck private" during his service as a rifleman in the 2nd Battalion, 12th Regiment, of the Army’s 4th Division during World War II.

While the friendships forged among soldiers and civilians on the battlefields of World War II have remained steadfast over the decades, Port praised a dramatic change in today’s military leadership.

Noting that blacks were not allowed to be part of the battalion in which he served during World War II, Port said that "today our commander in chief is African-American, and I’m very proud of that."