Photo: John Storey / Special to the Chronicle
Posted on 12/30/2009 11:41:13 PM PST by thecodont
The government of France awarded the Legion of Honor on Tuesday to a Bay Area man who was shot down over occupied France during World War II and then joined up with a secret French underground to fight the Germans.
William Kalan, 91, a retired advertising executive who lives in the Rossmoor retirement community in Walnut Creek, received France's highest decoration from Pierre-Francois Mourier, the French consul general in San Francisco, during a ceremony at Rossmoor.
Mourier called Kalan "an exemplary human being."
"You left your country, your family and friends to fight at the risk of your life," he said.
He pinned Kalan with the Legion of Honor - a five-pointed Maltese cross with a red ribbon - then embraced the old hero. "Your sacrifice and that of your comrades has not been in vain," Mourier said.
Kalan got a standing ovation from about 100 family members and friends.
Receiving the Legion of Honor was a surprise, Kalan said. "What can I say except thank you, thank you, thank you."
Kalan had seldom discussed his wartime adventures after he returned home, but Tuesday he told his war story slowly and softly: how he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps when he was 24 and learned to be a pilot, though he had never before flown a plane of any description. A year later, he was the pilot of a B-24 Liberator bomber on a mission over occupied France.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/30/BA9F1BB67K.DTL#ixzz0bFYficNUce.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Photo: John Storey / Special to the Chronicle
Beautiful story. It warmed my heart - thanks for posting it.
I see a future movie here.
Toward FREEDOM!
While I love these old guys, we have young heroes everyday in Iraq and Crapistan dying and being maimed weekly. We just lost (8) more yesterday. I cry for them often. Yes, cry. I admit that I do so.
You don’t cry alone.
It seems that every week, or so, I read about the passing of one of these heroes. Each of their lives seems to be worthy of a movie -- that is, if Hollyweird were interested in making movies of substance.
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