William F. Lyford Jr. left his family at 18 to join the Army in World War II, spent more than 400 days in combat across eight battles, and on Friday, at 102 years old, the Woodstock resident stood before nearly 100 friends, neighbors and four generations of family to receive France's highest distinction: the Legion of Honor medal.
Charlotte Montel, the consul general of France in Chicago, presented Lyford with the medal during a ceremony at the McHenry County Building in Woodstock, according to Shaw Local. Montel said the honor recognized Lyford's courage and dedication in helping defeat the enemy and allow France and Western Europe to live in peace. She described presenting the medal as bringing her true emotion, and called Lyford part of the greatest generation.
From Anzio to the Heart of France
Lyford's wartime journey began in 1943 with basic training and intensive infantry instruction, the outlet reports. By February 1944 he had joined the 45th Infantry Division's 157th Infantry Regiment, Company G, 1st Platoon, 3rd Squad, in Anzio, Italy, where he was assigned as a Browning Automatic Rifle gunner. He went on to fight in the Battle for Rome before training for an amphibious landing in southern France, where he fought in Operation Dragoon.
In an earlier interview cited in the same account, Lyford said his unit did most of its fighting in the Alsace region, which Allied forces liberated in 1944 and 1945. He also fought in the Battle of Reipertswiller in northeastern France. Montel said that fight claimed 900 soldiers, though a separate history of the 157th Infantry Regiment published by 45thdivision.org breaks the toll down differently, listing 158 GIs killed in action, 350 wounded or injured and evacuated, and 426 captured by the time the fighting there ended on Jan. 20, 1945.
Montel said Lyford's regiment and its rapid advance were instrumental in disrupting German defenses and helping liberate France. The regiment's push through France reportedly also freed the hometown of a French man named Sylvain Ducrot. Lyford fought in combat on multiple fronts across Italy, France and Germany before celebrating Victory in Europe Day in Noyon, France, on May 8, 1945.
A Life Built After the War
For his service, Lyford earned the Combat Infantry Badge, the Bronze Star, eight Campaign Stars and an arrowhead signifying his amphibious landing in northeastern France, the report states. After returning to the United States, he married his girlfriend Eileen, and the two were together for 69 years until her death in 2015. They had a daughter, and Lyford worked first as a carpenter and later as a home builder.
At Friday's ceremony, Lyford said he felt blessed by the French people, by his family, and by his neighbors and friends — at least a dozen of whom showed up for the event itself, with nearly 100 friends, neighbors and family members joining across the day's festivities. He said the whole country worked together during World War II, and he urged people to visit the cemeteries where returned service members are buried. Lyford said he believes Memorial Day should be used to remember fallen service members rather than treated as a picnic occasion.
He planned a Friday-night party at his home to thank the friends and neighbors who supported him, and he said he might stay awake that night holding the medal and thinking about the day. Lyford is not the first Woodstock veteran to receive the Legion of Honor; in an earlier case reported by Tribune Ledger News, Woodstock resident Alan Hall, a Navy veteran who took part in the D-Day landings, received the same honor during a ceremony at a VFW post in Marietta.
