THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994 TAG: 9406110312
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONY GERMANOTTA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940611 LENGTH: PARIS
Mustering on the sidewalk, between the McDonalds and the Burger King, they marched along the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe.
{REST} It was a trek long on symbolism and short in distance, just about one hectic block. The biggest hurdle was whipping these men of the 29th Division, more than 200 of them, into columns. Many hadn't been in uniform for five decades.
Barking in the vestiges of his GI sergeant's voice, J. Robert Slaughter, 69, of Roanoke, lined them up six abreast. It was tough going. A few of the marchers were too deaf to hear Slaughter call the cadence.
Three wheelchairs took the lead, two being pushed by fellow Blue and Gray division members, the third, empty, its owner determined to push it to the place where the French venerate their soldiers.
In the ranks, a retired two-star general took a position toward the rear of the line. He was a soldier on D-Day and proud to just be one of the company now.
On the street beside them, Parisian traffic hurtled by, harried drivers barely bothering to glance at the Americans. Gone were the cheering throngs that greeted these sons of Virginia and Maryland throughout Normandy on their tour commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day.
But even in this city, where the art of sophistication - some say condescension - was perfected, there were moments of appreciation.
One elderly woman, crying, tried to thank the men. She was born in 1932 and endured the horrors of German occupation. Lucie Gilrod wanted to welcome the American liberators back to Paris but spoke no English, so she wept and shook their hands.
A young man, in Paris for business, paused on the street to show his gratitude. ``I think it's great,'' Laurant Bonner, 21, said. ``We will not forget it.''
At 10:45 a.m., French police blocked traffic on the Champs Elysees. Slaughter shouted the orders to march, and a little more history was made by the 29th Division.
Ceremonies are routine at the Arc, said a member of the society that operates it, but it is rare that troops are given the right to march to it. The French still bristle at the memory of Hitler's arrival in 1940, so permission to parade down the Champs Elysees is not given lightly.
The 29th Division didn't liberate Paris; most of the troops passed it to continue the fighting elsewhere in France. Many of its members saw the city only during passes to the rear later in the war. Some were there for the first time Friday.
``Do you realize what an honor this is to be here?'' asked Charles Gerhardt Jr., whose father commanded the 29th Division in World War II.
Friday morning, some of the men relied on canes, and the formation occasionally got a bit ragged. No one cared.
When Robert Young, 74, of Akron, Ohio, pushed his empty wheelchair along the avenue, it seemed an infantryman's version of aviation's missing-man formation.
People cheered and cameras clicked, but most of the activity was from the veterans' families and friends. The column moved briskly to the Arc, where the men paused briefly before the eternal flame that burns for the French soldiers still unidentified from World War I.
Then the men marched over brass plaques, each commemorating fallen fighters from French history. There was a wreath-laying ceremony and the playing of the American and French national anthems. A few minutes later, it was over.
Monte Huffman, 81, was thrilled. ``I had a heck of a time learning how to keep step again,'' he said. Slaughter, who led the parade, took the historic view.
``I can always say now,'' he said, ``I marched the opposite way from the Nazis when they came down.''
Those German troops jack-stepped smartly along the avenue in a show of precision that made every newsreel, but Slaughter preferred the motley march of the aging 29ers.
``I think we were better than they were,'' he said.
{KEYWORDS} D-DAY WORLD WAR II NORMANDY
by CNB