On August 11, 1944, a 15-man OSS Special Forces team parachuted into the mountainous region of Southern France to rendezvous with the French Underground and sabotage enemy troop movements. Roy Armentor and Claude Galley—two Cajuns from south Louisiana—were part of this Operational Group codenamed PEG. For two weeks, they conducted hit-n-run missions behind enemy lines alongside their French counterparts. Both were severely wounded and were taken in by local French people. The Cajun French language, which they had been told to forget growing up in school, proved invaluable to their experiences ..read more

Of the 450 men in US Army VII Corps HQ, only one spoke French—Ned Arceneaux, from Lafayette. As the Quartermaster for his unit, Ned was in charge of precuring all the supplies. When they landed on Utah Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Ned’s French-speaking abilities proved invaluable to his commanding officers and to his comrades. He served as an interpreter for Gen. J. Lawton Collins, known as “Lighting Joe,” one of the senior leaders in the European Theater during WWII ..read more

In the mid-night hours of September 10, 1944, Captain Orleans Pitre, a Cajun from Cut-Off, Louisiana, jumped out of an airplane over France with a team of special agents from the Office of Strategic Services. Their mission: to rendezvous with the French Maquis, supply them with weapons, and coordinate attacks against the retreating Germans. Pitre was one of a handful of Cajuns recruited by the OSS because of their French. Their secret missions behind enemy lines are the stuff of legend. Listen to his amazing story, as documented by his nephew in a 1991 interview.    ..read more

The stories of the Acadians and Cajuns are intertwined and remarkably similar. In October 2022, I had the honor of traveling to the Acadian heartland in the Canadian Maritime Provinces to interview the last of the French-speaking Acadian veterans of WWII. In this special episode, you will hear stories from the veterans themselves, from family members, and from local experts. Most fought in Italy, France, Belgium, and Holland. Many did not speak good English when they joined, but they learned quickly. The Acadians were dispersed throughout nearly every branch of the Canadian Armed Forces, so le ..read more

The Cajun Ace, Jeff Deblanc, shot down 5 enemy aircraft in one engagement in the South Pacific. For this, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. It’s an amazing story of aviation agility, skill, and grit—but it’s not the whole story. Enroute over the Solomon Islands, DeBlanc’s external fuel tank on his F-4F airplane malfunctioned. He realized at that moment that he would not have enough fuel to complete the mission and make it back to Guadalcanal. But he pressed on anyway knowing that, after the battle, he would have to ditch his plane in the ocean, swim to a remoted island, and surv ..read more

This is a Frenchie love story, as told by Dennis Neal, a Cajun from Pointe-au-Chien, who met his wife while stationed in France in WWII. Dennis was assigned to a military intelligence unit and drove a jeep for two officers who gathered communications from the French underground. While in Paris, Dennis met a French girl, who became his war bride. The couple, and their infant son, returned to Louisiana after the war and lived a quiet, comfortable life in Terrebonne Parish as a bi-lingual family ..read more

Norris Morvant, a WWII veteran from Thibodaux, La, was one of our honorees at the recently held “Cajun-Acadian WWII Commemoration” at the National World War II Museum. He was one of a dozen French-speaking WWII veterans whom I had the chance to interview since resurrecting this long-running oral history project in late 2019. He was assigned to Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters in France as a liaison man with the 89th Compliment Squadron of the 8th Air Corps. His primary mission was to drive across France in a jeep to deliver orders and small equipment to commanders on the field. His Cajun Fr ..read more

In this special episode, we revisit the recently-held "Cajun-Acadian WWII Commemoration" that took place at the National World War II Museum in April 2022. This historic event—20 years in the making—was a collaboration between myself, the Consulate General of Canada, and the WWII Museum in New Orleans. We honored 4 French-speaking WWII veterans; 3 from south Louisiana and 1 from Beaubassin in New Brunswick, Canada. We were joined in the Freedom Pavilion by several dignitaries and guest speakers. It was the first time that the “Frenchies” were recognized on such a grand stage. A link to the hou ..read more

In Part II of the Cajun National Guard, we follow these young men to the shores of North Africa, Italy, and Southern France where they served as combat military police. Several hundred Cajuns from the Bayou Country made up the 2nd Battalion of the 156th Infantry Regiment. According to records, the 2nd Battalion was sent to North Africa “due to its French linguistic abilities.” These French-speaking Cajuns utilized their language skills in communication, intelligence gathering, interpreting, escort guard duty, transportation, and security. It was in French North Africa where these Cajun “French ..read more

In Episode 5, we chronicle the Cajuns of the Louisiana National Guard. The 2nd Battalion of the 156th Inf. Reg. (31st Dixie Division) consisted of several companies of guardsmen from the bayou country. Nearly all of them grew up speaking French as their first language. This entire unit spent more than 2 years training together before being shipped overseas as combat military police units. The history of this Cajun Guard unit is particularly unique, as it represented the largest French-speaking American infantry unit within the US military during World War II. In this first of a two-part series ..read more