The memories are mixed up somewhat but they are still vivid. 78 years later, Chester Sloan, whom everyone calls “Buck” returns to Normandy for the first time. “His Last Wish,” indicate Randy Buelens. This 24-year-old Belgian, passionate about history, has already had the opportunity to meet many veterans, including Buck. He decided to help him return to France by launching a kitty on the internet to finance the trip and fulfill the wish of the 98-year-old veteran.
Take advantage of the last witnesses of history
Buck is welcomed as a hero in the small room of the Normandy Victory Museum in Carentan. “It’s unthinkable to see gentlemen like that,” raves Hubert. While vacationing with his wife, Pascale, they bumped into the veteran earlier today. “I met him this morning at the Pointe du Hoc,“says the holidaymaker, “I saw this gentleman arrive in a small car, immediately he shook my hand and I was told that tonight he was giving a conference so I did not hesitate.” Many of those who have come to listen to Buck Sloan are aware that veterans are becoming fewer and fewer and that meeting them becomes rare.
So Buck tells his story, in episodes: his childhood in America during the Great Depression, in Texas, after the crisis of 1929, his memory of the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, “on a battery radio” because he had no electricity at home, or his mobilization in the infantry. The memories are mixed up a bit, but they are there and the public is listening attentively. “It’s very poignant,” entrusts Pierre, who has come to listen to Buck, “we have the films, we have the books, but the best testimonials are the veterans themselves.”
The Texas veteran, passionate about country music and who had a difficult time on his return from the war, depressed because the soldiers were not spoken of, forgotten once the peace was won, wrote part of his story in songs.
And the public rushes to meet him once the conference is over.
– Sarah Saltiel-Ragot
“This flag, it will never be at the bottom of a drawer”
“The first returns are very emotional because they never saw what Normandy was like today,” explains the guide and historian Florent Plana who organized the conference, “When they come back here, it also allows you to heal a little bit of all those war wounds that you can’t see but that are in your head.” For Buck, a moment of his return has already been very significant: the American cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer where more than 9,000 of his comrades in arms are buried. “Over there, there are two big flags,” says the veteran, “they lowered one, they gave it to me and i cried. It was very emotional because this flag means so many have fallen for this country. This flag will be hung in my house on the wall. It will not be never at the bottom of a drawer.”
– Sarah Saltiel-Ragot
With Randy who put this whole trip together, and Florent Plana who offered himself as a guide, Chester “Buck” Sloan will retrace his 1944 journey since his arrival in Normandy, about a week after D-Day, to the Ardennes where he was wounded and demobilized in December, passing through Brest where he fought hard. From this Thursday, the small group takes the direction of Calvados to stop at Trévières, but before leaving, the veteran concludes his intervention with a “Thank you! I love you all!”