Edgar's Special Day

Edgar Peara was admitted to the French Legion of Honor this afternoon in a ceremony in Eugene.

After participating in the WWII invasions of Sicily at Gela (July 1943) and the mainland of Italy at Salerno (September 1943), Edgar was reassigned to train soldiers who would participate in D-Day. The training took place off the southwest coast of England. He, along with many of the men he had trained, landed in an LCI (landing craft, infantry) at Utah Beach on June 6, 1944 ? D-Day.

Edgar went on to serve in the Pacific campaign, notably at Okinawa, and then Korea, to garrison and disarm the Japanese occupying force there.

However, it was his service in helping to liberate France that was recognized today.
The National Order of the Legion of Honor was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 as a substitute for the various orders of chevaliers, or knights, of the pre-French Revolution aristocracy.

After the war, Edgar became a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1962, believing, he said, that all persons and creatures are related to the divine and will be reconciled to God. Those who see Peara often know that this is how he lives his life.

When he speaks of his time at war, he is self-deprecating. But his voice will falter at times, and in his eyes can be seen the reflection of battles he has known, the inhumanity he has witnessed. Edgar is a man who kept his humanity in the midst of mankind?s greatest attempt to deny humanity, World War II.

He is a man who works for peace, because he has seen the ugliness that is war, and knows that war is never the answer.

(Narrative by Jim Schmidt, President of Eugene Chapter 159 of Veterans for Peace.)