On February 13, at a ceremony at the French Embassy in Washington, Mr. Hughes became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France. Mr. Hughes attended the ceremony in Washington with his wife Lucille, son Terry Hughes of Verona, and daughters Susan Mead (Charlotte, NC) and Patricia Hutchinson (Belmar, NJ), and their spouses, Maria, Paul and John.
In the 68 years since his service in World War II, William Hughes, a resident of North Huntingdon Township, has said little about his experiences during the winter of 1944 and ‘45. Like many of his fellow veterans of that war, their service was a matter of duty, and the circumstances they endured helped shape the aspirations upon which they went on to build lives. Together with his four brothers, Vincent, John, Emmet and Gerald, William Hughes brought his parents the distinction of having five sons in the US armed forces simultaneously, the number one service family of Osceola Mills, a small mining town in central Pennsylvania.
Thinking back on that time, Mr. Hughes now 88, remembers arriving in northeastern France in November of 1944, fighting house to house near the towns of Nancy and Metz. Then on December 16, the 80th infantry division was moved to Luxembourg for what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. After five weeks fighting in the snow, wearing camouflage made from bed sheets by the women of the nearby villages, Mr. Hughes suffered a severe head wound. He recalls waking to a medic saying to him “The war is over for you, soldier,” and offering him the piece of shrapnel that had shattered his forehead. Said Mr. Hughes, “I don’t know why I didn’t take it. I guess I just wasn’t thinking about souvenirs.”
Mr. Hughes, who spent the subsequent 6 months recuperating in hospitals in Luxembourg, England and Virginia needed no souvenirs to remember his wartime experiences. Neither, it seems, did the people of France. On February 13, at a ceremony at the French Embassy in Washington, Mr. Hughes became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France. He was joined in this honor by thirteen other American veterans of the four pivotal campaigns of the liberation of France: Normandy, Provence, Ardennes and Northern France. In a stirring address, Olivier Serot Almeras, Consul General of France in the US, explained to the veterans that “this award is a sign of France’s gratitude and appreciation for your personal and precious contributions to the US’ decisive role in the liberation of our country during World War II.”
The Legion of Honor was created by Napoleon in 1802 to acknowledge services rendered to France by persons of exceptional merit. The ceremony was followed by a champagne reception.
