I met
Paul Lamoureux at the Easy Company reunion in Paris 2001 and during the premieres
of the tv-series "Band of Brothers" ©
Paul was the 'baby' of the group and joined Easy Company at the age of 18,
two years after the Company was formed. Together with the other 45 veterans
of Easy Company, their families and guests, he watched the preview of the
series in a huge temporary theater near Utah Beach.
It was not his initiative to go to Paris. He never talked about the war and
never visited a reunion before.
His son Jerry was scanning the Internet when he learned that HBO was planning
a mini-series bases on a book authored several years ago by Stephen Ambrose.
He also learned that the network was planning to fly all members of Easy Company
out to France for a reunion and sneak preview of the miniseries. Jerry sent
in the information and before Paul knew they were on there way to France.
There the veteran and his wife Rita were treated like royalty during their nine-day stay in France, courtesy of HBO. Flights, living accommodations and food were all picked up by the network. "The only thing that we had to pay for was souvenirs", Paul said.
Painful, emotional scars prevented Paul from outlining specific details of the horrors that he observed while serving as an 18-year old paratrooper. He recalls how he and other company members were forced to jump their plane at an accelerated rate of speed, and how he landed in an apple tree in a field outside of Ste.Mére Eglise. Enemy artillery fire was so intense that the plane's pilot was forced to maintain higher rate of speed than normal, and Easy Company landed 11 miles from his intended drop-off point. Paul was lucky he spoke French, so a few of them went to a house and they were able to tell them what direction to take. The next day they met up with a few more guys and they headed to Carentan and they rejoined their unit. They considered themselves lucky. Several Easy Company members didn't even have a chance to jump, their planes blown out of the sky by enemy fire, killing them instantly. Paul was one of the youngest of Easy Company, together with Lester Hashey. He joined the unit 2 years after it originally was formed.
After the War Paul returned to Slatersville, where he grew up, and began dating his wife Rita (l) and married April 26, 1947. They have a son and a daughter (Jerry and Sue) 4 grand children and 3 great grand sons.
After the preview of the series his son asked him about the authenticity of the series and he told him that he did not count the bullets, but it was really what happened. "None of us were heroes. We just were doing our duty for our country. I never was looking for publicity. If my son hadn't found out about the series, we never would have gone to France." Paul says.
There is something that sticks out in his mind about the summer's trip to France. It was how villagers there waved flags at the aging veterans, thanking them for their efforts in the liberation of their country, and how school children in France are remembered weekly about how the American soldiers freed their ancestors from Nazi terror.
Frenchy: "They had it rough and want their kids to remember what it was like. Over here, a lot of people just push it aside and say it was in the past. The series was real. I lived through the whole thing. There were about 1500 people watching the preview and there weren't two of them who had dry eyes when it was over."
from the "Valley Breeze" by Paul R. Dubois
'Frenchy' passed away on January 15, 2005. May he rest in peace. Currahee.
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