In 2008, as part of our Honoring Veterans Project, we made a short film about Howard Manoian, who was a semi-permanent resident of Normandy. For 35 years Howard, an intrepid member of the 505 p.i.r 82nd Abn, regaled visitors and locals with his stories of D-Day. He described in minute detail how he had landed by accident in the cemetery of Ste Mere Eglise and stealthily avoided certain death. Local dignitaries described him as 'Our Veteran,' never tired of buying him drinks and listening to his tales. In 2009, perhaps on account of the imminent release of this short tribute to him, Howard's life began to unravel.
On June 6th, during the 65th anniversary celebrations, just as Howard was receiving France's highest award, The Chevalier de La Legion d'Honneur, the Boston Herald printed an article entitled Phoney Paratrooper Feted by The French. He had never been a paratrooper at all! He was a veteran, but of a chemical decontamination company that came over Utah Beach on the afternoon of D-Day. The evidence, produced by investigative journalist Tom Farmer and supported by a forensic historian, Brian Sidall, was incontrovertible.
As daily we are losing WWII veterans at an alarming rate, it is sad that this old soldier, who passed away in 2011, will be remembered as a fraud rather than what he was, a real Hero of D-Day.
