France honors Southern Nevada vets in ceremony — PHOTOS
Two World War II veterans from the Las Vegas Valley on Saturday received the National Order of The Legion of Honor in the rank of chevalier, or knight — the highest award France bestows on its citizens and foreign nationals —for gallantry in France against the enemy.
Eric Auger, the honorary consul of France for Southern Nevada, presented the awards to Henderson resident Lyle Wells, who served as a U.S. Army master sergeant during World War II, and Las Vegas resident Vernon Fulcher, who was a U.S. Army private, first class, during World War II, during a Saturday ceremony at the El Cortez.
Wells entered the war two days after D-Day in Normandy, France, with the 1st Maintenance Platoon of the 581st Engineer Field Maintenance Company.
After the war, Wells stayed in Europe and became part of a Graves Registration Company. Accompanied by his interpreter, who became his wife, Wells traveled town to town, finding and digging up soldiers’ remains so that they could receive dignified burial.
Fulcher entered the war three days after D-Day in Normandy, France, as a member of the 358th Engineers. He slept little as he patrolled Normandy’s infamous hedgerows and photographing German V-1 rockets as they rained down death and destruction on the civilian population.
Las Vegan Stephen Nasser, a Holocaust survivor and author of a diary he wrote while in Auschwitz that became the book, “My Brother’s Voice,” gave the keynote address at the ceremony.
