Created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, the Legion of Honor is the highest award given by the French government. It is traditionally reserved for French nationals; however, an exception has been made for thousands of American soldiers who helped liberate France in World Wars I and II.

Vicksburg-native and World War II veteran Fielding Tucker learned on April 28 — his 84th birthday — that he had been selected to receive the Legion of Honor, and he immediately began making arrangements to travel to the Consulate General of France in Atlanta to receive the honor at an Aug. 21 ceremony.

As he was busy arranging for some of his family members and old military friends to make the trip with him, Tucker became concerned about a persistent ache in his back and went to see a doctor to make sure he could travel.  

“For months he had thought he had a pulled muscle in his back,” said Ed Tucker, one of his eight children. “It turned out he had malignant tumors running up and down his spine. He had it for over a year and didn’t know it. Within three months time he was gone.”

Tucker died on July 29, in Natchez, where he had made his home for decades and had retired from the Natchez Democrat after more than 30 years as a press operator. He also had worked for The Vicksburg Post in his younger days and for the City of Vicksburg for a few years following his retirement in Natchez. He was given a military funeral and was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Tucker had spent his last months in and out of hospitals, said his son, always concerned about not being able to make the trip to Atlanta. A few weeks before his death, Ed Tucker knew his dad would likely not make it and decided he had to do something.

“He was so honored to be chosen for this, and at the same time so worried that he wouldn’t be able to receive it. I called the French Consulate and said, ‘you gotta find a way to help him get this,’” he said. “The Legion of Honor is not the type of award you can just have mailed to you. It’s basically like being knighted, and you have to receive it in person from someone who has already been knighted.”

Two days after pleading with the French consulate to make an exception for his dying father, the Tuckers received a letter from the French ambassador stating the rare exception had been granted; the medal and certificate would be mailed to Natchez as soon as possible.

Without any high officials decked out in military regalia or any showy speeches, the Tucker family was nonetheless able to award Fielding Tucker the Legion of Honor at his home one day before the decorated veteran would be admitted to the hospital for his final stay — just days before his death.

“He spent 45 minutes just holding that certificate and medal,” recalled his son as he choked back tears. “He didn’t say a lot. He just teared up and eventually said, ‘this is for me and all of the others who fought in the war.’”

Tucker’s experiences in the U.S. Army and World War II were incredible by any standard. Turned away as too young at 17 by one recruiter, Tucker persisted and eventually found a recruiter who helped him enlist. He completed basic training at Fort McClellan in Alabama, then went on to train at Fort Meade in Maryland before being shipped to North Africa to train for the invasion of Italy.

Nicknamed “Skippy,” Tucker spent 39 months in Africa and Europe during World War II — 15 on the front lines — and saw it come to a close while he was in Gingen, Germany. He was in Normandy for the famed D-Day Invasion, was among the first platoons to liberate Rome and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. For his service, he received the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, a Presidential Citation for his service in the Battle of the Bulge and numerous other decorations.

While in France in November of 1944, two of Tucker’s closest friends, Archie Taylor and Charley Holm — with whom he had served since basic training — were killed by German fire before his eyes. The event stuck with him for the rest of his life, and eventually led him to fight for the memory of all those who made the ultimate sacrifice once his military career was long behind him.

“I made a promise to myself that day,” Tucker said in November for an article in The Vicksburg Post. “I promised that I would go back to that place to honor them if I ever got the chance. It wasn’t that I wanted to go back. I had to go back.”

Tucker would eventually get the chance to return and make good on his promise, but not for 47 years. After returning from the war, Tucker settled back in Natchez, where he got married and started a family. In 1991, he made the first trip back to France to honor his fallen friends — the first of what would become five return trips. He was planning to return for a sixth trip this fall.

When he traveled through Europe he stayed with friends he had helped liberate and met with other war veterans, including German soldiers whom he had once fought against.

“In his later years he really cherished those trips back,” said his son. “He generally stayed with the Bott family — whom he discovered hiding from the Nazis between big caskets of wine on their vineyard. He just made a lot of friends over there during the war and in the years since, and they would not let him stay in a hotel when he visited.”

In 1998, Tucker was successful in lobbying the mayor of Saint-Leonard, France, to honor Taylor, Holm and the rest of the 36th Infantry Division by adding a memorial plaque to a prominent monument in the village. He also met with European World War II re-enactors on several occasions and led them on treks through the fields and forests he walked as a young solder decades ago. 

“Meeting veterans such as Fielding had a great impact on me and my fellow re-enactor friends. What sometimes seemed just a silly pastime has never made more sense then when we retraced, dressed as 1944 GIs, the steps of Fielding D. Tucker, 143rd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, in November 1998,” Amsterdam resident Frank de Koning wrote to Ed Tucker upon hearing about Fielding’s death. “I feel very privileged that I was able to meet Fielding and several other U.S. veterans of World War II, and even more privileged that they shared their sometimes terrible memories with us… I like to think it has made me a better person.”

Tucker’s desire to pass along his memories of the war and reconnect with those he had served with only grew with age, said his son. Over his last 15 years Tucker had written and distributed a quarterly newsletter, “FDT’s Newsletter,” to survivors of the war and the relatives of those who died in action. He wrote several memoir pieces for the CNN-sponsored website www.memoriesofwar.com and had been working on a book, “Promise Made, Promise Kept,” at the time of his death. Ed Tucker said he spent many late nights with his father working out his wishes for the book in the weeks leading up to his passing.

“The only thing he didn’t have in the book yet was the Legion of Honor award. He really wanted that included in the last chapter,” said his son. “We’ve got it in there now, and we’re going to get the book published with the last chapter the way he wanted it.”

Outside of his extraordinary military career, Tucker’s son remembers his father as a man who put faith and family above all else. He was a devout member of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Vidalia, and spent much of his time in the company of his eight children, 18 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren, all whom live in the Natchez area and Louisiana. He also made regular trips back to Vicksburg, where his sister and other family members and friends live.

“He was just a big patriot; all country,” Ed Tucker said of his father’s legacy. “And he just felt the guys who he went to war with were all for their country, too, and he had to keep their memory alive. I think he felt he owed at least that much to the men who died alongside him in the war. That was Dad.”  

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com