At 93-years-old Dennis Trudeau is one of a dying breed: a Veteran of World War II.
“They’re leaving pretty fast aren’t they?” said former Grovetown, Georgia Mayor Dennis Trudeau.
Trudeau saw some of the hottest action of the second World War, as a paratrooper in the “Canadian Army,” his family were Americans, but lived in Canada. So at 17 he enlisted.
“I figured I owed Canada that, my service. So that’s why I did it and joined the Canadian Army,” Trudeau said.
The service brought Trudeau to England, where he and his fellow paratroopers trained for the invasion of Europe.
And about eight hours before the Allies landed on D-Day…Trudeau and the Canadian paratroopers were making a night jump into France starting the battle.
“It was the Fourth of July, upside down, there was fire,” he remembered.
And Trudeau caught some of that fire, from British bombers.
“I had shrapnel in both my legs, my back, my butt,” he said.
A wounded Trudeau kept fighting his mission. Blow up a couple of bridges, but he ended up getting captured. A telegram home said he was missing in action but he ended up spending almost a year in a German POW camp.
“Of course they would get mad at us, tell us they’re going to kill us and all that crap,” he said.
But when the allies started closing in, his German guards fled, and Trudeau and the other POW’s started walking until they found an American soldier.
“I walked up to him, I hugged him, I kissed him and thanked God. I told him I’m free, the war is over, I’m going home,” he said.
Home was Minnesota. But even after all of his service, he was still eligible to be drafted into the American amy.
“I had two years that I had to do,” Trudeau said.
So he enlisted again and did a little more.
“I did 22 years,” he said.,
He’s a veteran of two armies, a Canadian and a U.S. soldier. Serving his countries, even though his first time was harrowing.
“I’m a slow learner,” hhe said with a big laugh.
Well the U.S. and Canada are better for it.
