Honor

I had the most interesting conversation with Christian.  We were talking about WWII and he mentioned that he was part of the honor guard for Charles de Gaulle’s 1970 funeral.  What?

It turns out that Christian was in the army when de Gaulle died and was a member of de Gaulle’s former regiment.  21 soldiers were selected from this regiment to make up the honor guard.  As an outstanding soldier, Christian was chosen to be one of them.  And as one of the taller members, he was in the front row.

What an honor!  This must surely have been the most important French state funeral of the 20^th century.  The closest I can think of for us would be the honor guard for Kennedy’s funeral.  But this was something more – de Gaulle was a giant of modern France, the greatest Frenchman of the century.  To be part of his funeral was to be part of history.

Christian remembers the day vividly.  The long, slow march into de Gaulle’s small home town, where he chose to be buried.  The thousands and thousands of people lining the road.  The surprising heat that caused a number of people to collapse.  Having to stand at attention for four (!) hours, then the long, slow march back out of town.

Christian’s picture was in a lot of newspapers and his image in the nightly news.  But as he says, “I was too young and stupid to save any of it.”  Tant pis !

KVS