Chandler man treks back to France
On return journey to commemorate D-Day anniversary, WWII veteran reunites with French who found him.

The journey to foreign soil for Harry Hoots of Chandler was the first since he had jumped from a C-47 in 1944 as part of the Normandy invasion. This time, he traveled by commercial airplane with the World War II Airborne Demonstration Team for a 60th anniversary celebration commemorating D-Day.

The Oklahoma-based team of parachutists performed World War II-style air drops June 5 the day before the D-Day anniversary near Sainte Mere Eglise. Along for the trip were Hoots and five other veterans who had first-hand knowledge of the invasion.

Hoots was one of 820 paratroopers with the 377th Parachute Field Artillery battalion of the 101st Airborne Division who parachuted June 6, 1944, into the French countryside.

The countryside he visited June 2-9 was much different, he said, from the last time he left it after a three-week stint as a prisoner of war in Volognes. What he saw, and the welcome he received, was far different from what he expected, he said.

New buildings had replaced those that were destroyed and fields were lavish with growth.

Hoots said he was hesitant to think the French would welcome their visit, after Allied troops had waged battles that leveled villages, destroyed crops and demolished homes.

"All these years I've worried they would have a little animosity toward us, with the way we blew their country to bits, Hoots said. "Instead, I was hugged and kissed on the cheeks everywhere I went. I guess the Germans treated them worse.

The French had not forgotten how Americans helped liberate them, he said.

George Hicks of Chandler, a member of the demonstration team, said the group discovered that Hoots' name had been part of World War II folklore in the village Quettehou. People there had wondered what had happened to the injured paratrooper they knew only as Hoots, who had stumbled onto a farm after a battle with German troops.