On August 6, 2011, a select entourage of the “Greatest Generation” will gather at the Memorial Amphitheatre at Arlington National Cemetery. American, British, Canadian, Free French, and French Resistance comrades will stand side by side to reflect on the 67th anniversary of Operation Dragoon, the Allied landings on southern France on August 15, 1944. American soldiers like Gene Frice who parachuted behind enemy lines with the 517th Parachute Combat Regimental Team and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, Robert Maxwell, who made the amphibious assault on the beaches with the famed 3th Infantry Division. Nearby, is the gravesite of 1LT Audie L. Murphy, America's most decorated soldier, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism during the Operation Dragoon campaign.
As in past year's gatherings, the French government will pay homage to those living veterans who freed them from Nazi Occupation. Receiving the French Legion of Honor Medal will be Lieutenant General (Ret) Richard Seitz (517th ABN), John Keller, 3rd I.D., John Carter, 1st Allied Airborne Task Force, and Roy Brumfield, 3rd I.D.
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