A Veteran’s Extraordinary Service in World War II

On September 1, 2016, my husband and I, along with cousins and other family members, gathered at the French Embassy in Washington D.C. as my aunt, Dorothy Kabat Pollack Kirby, was presented with the award of Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honor by the French government. This is the highest award the French bestow on those who served on French soil to help liberate France from the grip of the Nazi regime during World War II. Afterward, many people asked me how my aunt was awarded this great honor and what she did to deserve it. To mark our recently celebrated Veterans Day, as well as my aunt’s 100^th birthday, this past November 6, I want to share her story as well as the work I did to make this great day happen.

Although many American men fought and died in France while wearing the uniform of the United States military, many others fought and survived, and they deserve to be awarded the French Legion of Honor award. But few pursued this award after the war. The Greatest Generation came home and quietly rebuilt their lives, moving on from the memories of war and their service, not only to their country but to the countries that fell under Nazi dominion. Far fewer women ever sought this award, mostly because they were not aware that they were eligible for it.

Women did not serve in combat, but many women served as nurses and put themselves in harm’s way to tend the wounded. The army nurses of World War II were brave women who tended to the wounded in frightful and dangerous circumstances. My Aunt Dorothy was no exception. After graduating from nursing school in 1941, in Pittsburgh, Dorothy joined the U.S. Women’s Army Corps. She was stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington for a year, and then at Fort Lee in Virginia, and, finally, in Nashville. She was part of the 48^th General Hospital, which shipped out for Europe on New Year’s Day, 1944. They sailed aboard the Queen Mary to Glasgow and were stationed in Petworth, England, where they set up an evacuation hospital to treat the wounded who were being evacuated from Europe.

After D-Day, when the beaches were secured, they were sent to Omaha Beach and billeted in Normandy to treat the servicemen wounded on D-Day. Dorothy’s unit was one of the first nursing units to arrive and to set up a hospital to treat the wounded. It was two weeks after D-Day; Dorothy still remembers seeing the bodies lying on the beaches.

Subsequently, Dorothy was sent to Paris, where she was stationed for one year, and she set up a hospital to treat the wounded. She witnessed the Battle for the Liberation of Paris, August 19 to 25, 1944, and received the Bronze Star for tending to the wounded during the shelling of Paris. She also remembers treating the massive numbers of wounded that flooded into Paris during the later German offensive, the Battle of the Bulge, which extended from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945. She was in Paris when the bells rang heralding Victory in Europe Day, on May 8, 1945. She remembers treating returning Holocaust survivors as well.

A Long Process

The women who served during World War II were heroes, and many of them deserve to be honored for their service on French soil. Unfortunately, time is running out, and most of our WW II veterans have passed away or are quite elderly. My Aunt Dorothy was just shy of her 96^th birthday when she was awarded Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honor.

I first heard about this award in 2014, when my dear friend Chana Kagan told me about her mother-in-law being given this award in Florida. She was the same age as my aunt and had also served as a nurse. She died not long after receiving the award. Chana urged me to apply for my aunt. It took two years from the time I applied until my aunt actually received it. I was very afraid that she would not live long enough since this honor is not given posthumously. After the application was submitted, we spent a lot of time calling and emailing to check on the status of the application. We felt that time was running out, and we wanted the French to move quickly on my aunt’s application.

I first contacted the Consulate General of France in Miami, Florida. Their website explains how to apply for the highest French distinction and details the strict criteria for getting this honor: “Interested veterans of all the different armed forces must have fought in at least one of the four campaigns for the liberation of France: Normandy, Provence, Ardennes, or Northern France. Actions having taken place in Belgium, Germany, Italy, or other neighboring European countries are not taken into consideration.”

A person applying must create a file, which must contain the following documents: either an honorable discharge paper, Military Separation Order, or DD Form 214. In addition, there must be citations for previous military awards, such as the Silver Medal, the Bronze Medal, the Purple Heart, or higher distinctions indicating meritorious actions during combat operations. There must be military records mentioning their missions in France before May 8, 1945, and a short paragraph must be written to explain these missions. The form “Proposal Memory” must be completed. In addition, a copy of a photo ID is required.

The first hurdle for me was to get the paper that showed that my aunt was honorably discharged and did, indeed, serve in the armed forces. I found out that during the time she served the DD Form 214 was not yet in use. The records for veterans of WW II are housed in the National Archives National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

 You can fill out an online request for service records, however, there was a fire at the archives in St. Louis, in 1973, and most of the records of our servicemen and women were destroyed. This happened before the archives were digitized, so the chance of receiving any WW II service records is small. But it does not hurt to try, and since I had been successful in obtaining my father’s WW II records, I thought I would try to get my aunt’s as well. But then I did what every good genealogist should do: I asked relatives! And it turned out that Aunt Dorothy’s daughter, my cousin Ina, had her mother’s original Certificate of Service, and she was more than happy to make a copy and send it to me.

The next step was another one that good genealogists should do, especially with their elderly relatives: interview the person you want information from.I went to my aunt’s home in Washington D.C. and interviewed her about her service, particularly in France.

From the notes I took that day, I was able to fill out the Proposal Memory form, which I had printed out from the French Consulate’s website. The three-page form asks for details on the person seeking the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor. There is personal information, military career information, all American and foreign official decorations and citations, chronological progress of the person’s professional career, their education, their service to the community, their activities in the social field and in the community, any works they have published, and then the detailed military facts related to the WW II. You must know the person’s rank; their military unit; military occupational specialty; wounds received, if any; if they were ever a POW, and where and for how long; and an entire chronological progress of their military career during the Second World War. In addition, you must list all battles and campaigns they were engaged in, the specific heroic actions they were involved in, and references for contacts.

After completing that, I had to write up a page detailing in story form my aunt’s wartime service on French soil. I photocopied her photo ID and put everything together in a file, which I mailed to the Consulate General of France in Miami. I later found out that this was an unneeded extra step, as they reviewed her application and sent it on to the French Embassy in Washington D.C. It took a long time for the review process as our application came in the midst of increased terrorism in France, and the French had more pressing matters to be concerned about. Finally, my aunt’s application passed the inspection of the French Embassy in Washington and was sent to Paris for final inspection and authorization. Again, this took an agonizingly long time, and every day I was concerned that it would come too late. Every day of life when one is 96 is a bracha. Finally, I was notified that her application had been accepted and she qualified for the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honor.

The Big Day

The next step was scheduling a date for the bestowing of the honor. Again, I pushed hard to have it as soon as possible. The ceremony was to be held at the French Embassy in Washington, and we had to submit a list of guests in advance so they could be given security clearance. We were only allowed a certain number of guests, and my cousins agonized over the guest list. The big day finally arrived, and we carpooled to the French Embassy, with my aunt coming in a wheelchair-accessible taxi.

On September 1, 2016, just before she turned 96, my aunt was presented with the rank of Knight by Michel Charbonnier, Consul General of France in Washington. He gave a moving speech on Aunt Dorothy’s wartime service, as well as the longstanding friendship between France and the United States. I do not think there was a dry eye in the room when he pinned her medal on her. Afterward, we gathered at her home to see the medals the United States had given her for wartime service and for all those unable to attend the ceremony to offer their congratulations.