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EAST EDITION
Westside News Established 1953
Serving Suburban News North and South edition areas
Serving the communities of Spencerport-Ogden, Churchville-Riga, North Chili, Hilton-Parma
June 20, 2021
Issue No. 25
westsidenewsny.com
WWII Veteran Eugene Dollard of Hamlin receives France’s Legion of Honor Medal United States Naval Veteran Eugene On D-day, June 6, 1944, beneath swirlD. Dollard of Hamlin is a member of the ing gray skies, Eugene D. Dollard, United vanishing Greatest Generation who sur- States Navy, rode the angry rising swells vived fighting Germans in France during and rough, tumbling, mountainous breakWorld War II. He was recently honored by ers of the English Channel. Endless numthe Ambassador to France for aiding the bers of ships sailed as the largest invasion liberation of hundreds of thousands from in history was to unfold. Eugene’s ship, the grips of Nazis 77 years ago. USS Henrico, took in Eisenhower’s 1st By presidential decree of French Presi- Division in the initial wave on Omaha dent Emmanuel Macron, the Legion of Beach, providing supporting naval artilHonor Medal awarded is the highest honor lery for the landing forces. conferred for military bravery and service, “It was wholesale slaughter where 7,000 notably initiated by French Emperor Na- men were killed in the first 24 hours,” said poleon Bonaparte in 1802. Eugene. As a distinguished recipient of France’s Eugene was in charge of the LCVPs Legion of Honor Medal, Dollard is in good or small crafts off the USS Henrico company, sharing promiAPA 45. Merciless Gernence with other Ameriman firing off the French can recipients, including cliffs hammered the beach Generals Dwight David and waters. Under enemy Eisenhower, Douglas Mac aircraft fire, the heroic Arthur, George S. PatFrench Resistance ran to ton, and Admiral Michael the small boats to asMullen. sist. Aboard ship, Eugene So, what is there in a manned twenty-millimeter person’s history that turns machine guns. He scrutian average man into an nized the water – nothing extraordinary human bebut blood. Under a heavy ing? At a glance, you might barrage of bullets, Eugene consider Eugene Dollard of landed on the beach and Hamlin to be average. Dedove in the trenches. He spite his 96 years, he maincrawled out and scrambled tains several businesses, through corpses and scatattends church every Suntered limbs, dragging nuday, and keeps company merous wounded men into with his wife, Marci. Yet, the trenches to administer there remains an untold first aid. story of commitment and “Most of them were shot selfless service that remain up pretty bad. I talked the core components of to many French Resishis identity sharpened as tors who were happy to a World War II Veteran. Dollard was awarded France’s see us. They wanted to Fighting valiantly to secure Legion of Honor Medal. get rid of the Germans. our freedoms, he faced a You heard the Germans tyrant on stormy Omaha Beaches on D- backing down, but then another German Day and later on the bloody beaches of division arrived with crack SS Troops. Okinawa. We kept bearing down on the cliffs where In 1943, at 18 years of age, with one they had bunkers with built-in cannons semester at the University of Notre Dame and machine guns. Ear-splitting gunfire under his belt, he answered the call by whistled like swarming bees. There hovenlisting in the United States Navy. Gene ered an asphyxiating pall of acrid smoke, endured three months of grueling training, burning flesh, men wailing, chaos. My divided between Sampson Naval Base, friend, Charles Gartley, was killed on the Geneva, NY, Lido Beach, Long Island, and fifth wave.” then onto Quonset Point, Rhode Island, From the bloodbath of Omaha Beach, he for gunnery school. Assigned to the US moved to North Africa – Morocco (French Naval Amphibious Division, he departed Colony), and Oran, Algiers (French from Hoboken, New Jersey, on the newly Colony). “I remember riding horses with commissioned USS Henrico. swastikas burned into the animal’s flanks After refitting at Bayonne Naval Sup- across the Algerian mountains.” ply Depot in New Jersey, his ship headed While in the Mediterranean, the USS out to Great Britain. In a cat and mouse Henrico was hit, remaining faintly above game to distract the Germans, his ship water level. Later in Naples, Italy, they constantly moved about England’s and picked up General Patton’s 3rd Army, Scotland’s harbors, including Weymouth, delivering the troops to St. Tropez, and Portsmouth, and Greenock, preparing then onto Marseille for Southern France’s and amassing for the greatest armada in D-day Invasion on August 15, 1944. “In history. Marseille, I remember the tank battle on
Shown at the pinning ceremony (l-r) are Consulate General of France, Jeremie Robert, Eugene Dollard, Congressman Joseph Morelle, and Monroe County Executive Adam Bello. the many steps of a Cathedral. The Ca- emerged a life and death struggle. Gene thedral was saved by Allied and tenacious yelled to his two companions for help. French forces.” “They were new recruits from the states Gene was transferred to the USS Chil- with no combat experience and froze like ton for the Pacific tour, island-hopping to deer in the headlights,” he said. Born the Marshall Islands, Caroline Islands, with an instinct for survival and with and onto the chain of the formidable superhuman strength, Gene wrenched Ryukyu Islands. In June 1945, at Okinawa the general’s arm in a half-nelson move. Island (closest to mainland Japan), a He gladly turned the Japanese general thirty by fifty mile stretch of land, Dollard over to the Military Police. Gene survived faced the greatest carnage of the war. The terrible typhoons rivaling our hurricanes, Japanese nickname “Violent Typhoon of asserting the South China Sea to be the Steel” referred to the ferocity of the fight- roughest in the world. ing, the sheer numbers of In 1945, after three years Allied ships and armored of brutal war, Gene Dollard vehicles up against a masstood honorably discharged sively enemy-entrenched from the United States island. Fifty thousand Navy, returning home to Americans died. Gene did pick up his life. He finished not escape injury. His ship at the University of Notre heaved, struck by a fierce Dame, including law school, kamikaze, and he was and chose to take over the wounded. family business in Hamlin, Later on Awase Beach, where he resides as a sucOkinawa, he was assigned cessful businessman of 74 the Herculean task of overyears. seeing vast supply shipIf you happen by Dollard’s ments, including trucks, Town and Country Liquor tanks, food, jeeps, and Store in Hamlin, stop in and weapon carriers. Despite Eugene Dollard served in the shake hands with Gene. For the fact the US had taken US Navy during WWII. you’ll be holding the hand of over Okinawa, the Japaa man who by all appearancnese still loomed menacingly, and securing es seems average yet whose lasting legacy the island proved problematic. of hardship, struggle, and survival demonGene said, “You could pretty much set strate the highest standards of character your clock. At 1 a.m., the Japanese would and dedication. Inspiring generations to bomb the island.” While in a bunker during follow, Eugene Dollard is an average man one of these bombing raids, he observed turned extraordinary, thrust into remarkshadowy figures along the beach. He able events, selflessly serving our country crawled out into the darkness and tackled in order to protect the freedoms that we as a Japanese general. a nation enjoy today. With a knife held at Gene’s throat, it Provided information and photos