Families share memories of WWII vets

 

   Only a few dozen of the thousands of young men and women from Avoyelles who served in WWII are still alive. 

  Several were honored at Veterans Day events in the parish last week. The Victory Belles singers, from the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, made sure eight of them each got a kiss in Mansura. Four were honored in Plaucheville ceremonies. R.H. Deason was honored as the oldest vet in attendance at the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe’s event at the Paragon Casino veterans monument, Sonny Harris at the event in Bunkie and Cecile Sayes at the Ward One ceremonies.

   While many of the stories of our nation’s veterans focused on their sacrifice and hardships while serving their nation, a few family members have shared some more humorous memories of their World War II veteran. 

 

   Marian Lavallais Batiste, from Mansura but now living in Baton Rouge, was visiting her brother Leroy Lavallais last week for a belated 97th birthday party.

   She said Leroy was the oldest of seven sons when he joined the Army and was shipped off to fight in World War II.

  “They told him that he had a baby sister, but he didn’t believe them,” Ms. Batiste said with a laugh. “He still laughs with me about that. He said he came home from the Army in 1946  and was presented with a 3-year-old baby sister.”

   She said the family of eight children has dwindled to two.

   “I’m the baby and he’s the oldest,” she said.

 

  Betty Lindsey of Hessmer said she is old enough to remember her first cousin, Herbert Guillory, going off to World War II. He died a few years ago.

   “He was in the Air Force,” she said, which was then known as the Army Air Forces.

  “His parents and the rest of the family wanted to be able to pray for him to have safe missions, but they didn’t know when they should pray,” Ms. Lindsey said. “The military would open the soldier’s mail to make sure they weren’t revealing any secrets.”

   Guillory and his family worked out a code.

   Whenever he was about to be sent on a mission, he would write in his letter, “Did my cow have its calf yet?”

  “Whenever they saw that in the letter, the whole family would gather everyone up and they’d go up to St. Alphonsus Church in Hessmer to pray for a safe mission.”

   Ms. Lindsey said that was how her family was able to outsmart the U.S. Army censors.

 

  Harris Ducote of Mansura entered the U.S. Navy “at the tail end of World War II.” He was  in Hawaii when the war ended and was released in late 1946. A few years later, he was called back into active duty to be a trainer during the Korean War.

  Ducote, 88, has been active in working for senior citizens and veterans rights, serving as a “Silver Haired Senator” for several years.

  He said Veterans Day is a good time to point out the problems veterans are having today with the federal government.

  “I want to get people worked up and have them contact their congressman and U.S. senators,” Ducote said.

  Ducote said he entered the Navy right after graduating from Hessmer High School in 1944.

  “I was 17,” he said. 

  Over the years he has become more and more concerned that the federal government has turned its back on veterans it called upon to fight its wars.

   He said Veterans Affairs claims representatives “are rewarded based on the number of claims they deny.”

 

   Patrick Cullen of Cottonport was a bonafide hero in WWII, receiving both the bronze star and silver star during action in Sicily, Italy and Southern France with the 7th Infantry of the 5th Army.

    He died in 1991 at the age of 68.

   His daughter, Mary Ann Carmouche, is now 68 and recalls how her daddy “wouldn’t talk to me about the war. It made him start to cry. But he did talk to other men about his experiences.”

   Carmouche and two of his comrades were able to neutralize a German artillery position during the Anzio invasion. Due to their efforts, 10 enemy were killed and 48 captured, allowing the 5th Army to continue moving forward in the campaign to take Italy out of the war.