Montana WWII Vets Receive Legion of Honor Medal From France

The country of France is rushing to distribute a medal designed by Napoleon to Montana veterans that fought in World War Two. Laurence Markarian, of Montana's Honorary Consul of France, says she has been working to distribute the medal of the Legion of Honor for three years now, but time is running out.

"I started this program three years ago, and I'm still, even as of today, still finding new WWII vets, every so often," Markarian said, "but also we have some veterans that applied, for whom I've filed the paperwork and in-between, they pass away. Unfortunately, the medal of the Legion of Honor, is not an award that can be given after death."

Markarain has only been able to reach about a quarter of the veterans on her list in Montana so far, but each medal holds a special significance.

"For me, I'm very connected to [WWII], It is real to me. My mom has terrible memories about the war, she was separated from her mom in 1939 when she was seven and she never saw her mom again. To know that these gentlemen that are in front of me, to whom I present the medal, are part of the liberation of France... every time I present one medal to one veteran, it is special."

Over the weekend, Markarian presented a Legion of Honor Medal to 99-year old Lincoln County veteran Joseph Patrick Hume, who volunteered to fly 41 bombing raids during the war after flying his required 25 sorties. On top of that, Hume and was shot down three times, twice over Germany and once over France. Markarian said that it is thanks to men like Hume that France still speaks French.