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FORMER SENATOR HONORED FOR WORLD WAR II

HEROICS -- "You saved the life of your comrade,

showing an incredible heroism in action that was

to be recognized with the prestigious Bronze Star."

 

 

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Former senator honored for WWII heroics

By John Castellucci
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — When Pfc. John F. McBurney Jr. landed at Marseilles with the Seventh Army on Oct. 20, 1944, the Army of the Third Reich had its back to the wall, having been pushed there by Allied troops after the Normandy invasion.

So McBurney and his buddies encountered some of the fiercest fighting in the war, which liberated France and the rest of Europe from the Axis occupation. Before the end of the year, French Consul General François Gauthier said, German troops would be forced back to Germany.

“Their fury was all the more violent,” Gauthier said, “since they understood the threat of a defeat.”

Gauthier came down from Boston yesterday to give McBurney the French Legion of Honor, the award for service and valor established by Napoleon.

Gauthier made the presentation in a room at the State House that was packed with McBurney’s friends and family members, as well as past and present Rhode Island officials, many of whom served with McBurney, now of Pawtucket, when he was a state senator, from 1959 to 1975.

“I read with a great deal of emotion the documents that reported your participation in the operations that took place on French soil in 1944, [when] you were 19 years old,” Gauthier said, addressing McBurney.

“You were there on Nov. 22 in Strasbourg with Sgt. Alonzo Bryant, the first American soldiers to enter the city,” Gauthier said.

“You were there in a small Alsatian village near Woerth on Dec. 11,” he said, “when you saved the life of your comrade in the 411th Infantry Regiment, showing an incredible heroism in action that was to be recognized with the prestigious Bronze Star.”

McBurney, who was promoted to corporal, became a lawyer after the war, founding a law firm in Pawtucket and the political family that includes his son, state Senator John F. McBurney III, 56, D-Pawtucket, and daughter, Pawtucket Probate Judge Cristine L. McBurney, 52.

Now 82 and frail, the elder McBurney had to be helped to his feet so Gauthier could pin the medal on him. But when he spoke, his voice was loud and clear; his words carried across the room.

“The other day, I saw in a newspaper that I was labeled a hero. I feel anything but that,” McBurney said. “What I did in France was merely to follow orders that were given to me by superior officers. I don’t consider myself a hero. But I was a witness to many heroic acts in World War II.”

“Many were performed my own division, the 104th Division. We were the federalized Arizona National Guard, and we were about 75-percent American Indians. And they were great fighters and showed a lot of courage,” McBurney said.

But the most impressive acts of heroism were performed by the soldiers of the Free French First Army, McBurney said, who, he said, took the city of Saarbruecken back from German troops, which were much better equipped and armed.

“The courage of the young French soldiers in that battle for the liberation of the city was phenomenal,” McBurney said. “After the battle was over, there were French soldiers dying and dead in the streets. Those who were still alive, I tried to console them as much as I could.”

McBurney was originally scheduled to receive the Legion of Honor along with 18 other veterans on the Boston Common last month.

But illness stopped him from attending. He was hospitalized from March 13 to May 21 due to an adverse reaction to medication, and missed the ceremony, May 19.

The Boston-based French consul general offered to bestow the award on McBurney after his discharge from the hospital. Gauthier said after yesterday’s ceremony that he and the French government often make special arrangements to accommodate American veterans.

“It’s not only a duty, but it’s also a pleasure,” he said.

jcastell@projo.com

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Larry Scott  --