Avalon Summer Resident Waited 70 Years for French Military Honor

AVALON – Some veterans joke of their length of service, “I’ve waited in a chow line longer than you’ve been in the service.” Waiting is something any military veteran knows well. Hurry up and wait is the shared standard of enlisted and officers.
Curtis Deardorff, 93, a summer resident of this resort, of Lansdale, Pa. waited from World War II 70 years until March 26 when he was named a “Chevalier” of the French Legion of Honor, one of 14 who received a similar honor that day. Making the presentation was Olivier Serot Almeras, consul general of France.
The wartime honor was bestowed on the former Army first lieutenant at the French Embassy in Washington for his role in freeing the French republic from Nazi domination. His long-time friend Norm Blum thought the residents of Cape May County ought to know of the honor, since the news had been carried in the Philadelphia area, not here.
Joining Deardorff for the ceremony was his daughter Barbara, son, Curtis, his grandson and granddaughter and Richard Frank, an Avalon friend.
When at Drexel University, Deardorff excelled in baseball and basketball. He graduated first in the Class of 1943.
As World War II tore nations and lives to pieces, Deardorff answered his nation’s call in June 1943. He served for three years in the Army. An infantry rifle platoon leader, Deardorff received for his service the Bronze Star, Combat Infantryman Badge, World War II Victory Medal, and European Theatre of Operations ribbon, Rhineland ribbon and Ardennes-Alsace ribbon.
According to a release, Deardorff’s first taste of combat was experienced on Christmas Eve 1944 outside Marche, Belgium.
On Jan. 9, his outfit marched all night in the snow to Grande Halleux, Belgium. On Jan. 15, 1945, Deardorff’s outfit, the 2nd Battalion, 291st Infantry Regiment, and 75th Division relieved the 2nd Airborne Division. They attacked German troops in an open field that was covered with 18 inches of snow and the air temperature was 8 degrees. They were pinned down all day and night.
That day, his company G lost 30 members killed in action, had 33 wounded and had three missing in action. That included the first platoon leader who was wounded and confined to a wheelchair for the remainder of his life, and the second platoon leader who was killed.
Following the Battle of the Bulge, Deardorff’s outfit rode railroad cars to the “Colmar Pocket” in France. Then, on Feb. 1, 1945, Deardorff and his battalion joined forces with the French 5th Armoured Division attacked the enemy in the Wolfgantzen. That battle lingered for five more days. In that time, Deardorff sustained a concussion from an incoming shell and his feet were frozen.
Evacuated to a field hospital in Strasbourg, France, and then to the 5th General Hospital in Paris, and then to a convalescent center in England.
In May, Deardorff departed the European theatre aboard the Queen Mary along with 14,864 others for the U.S. One shipmate on that homeward odyssey was movie actor Col. Jimmy Stewart.
In April 1046, Deardorff was discharged at Ft. Meade in Maryland.
His post-war life took shape in 1947 when he went to work for Lees Carpets. Controller, he was promoted to executive vice president. It was also that year when he married his high school girlfriend, Helen Barbara Long. The couple had two children, Barbara and Curtis.
In 1960, Lees Carpets merged into Burlington Industries, Inc. At that firm he was executive vice president of finance and administration of the carpet divisions in the U.S., Canada and Germany.
After 41 years of service, Deardorff retired in 1986. In 2000, he relocated to Brittany Pointe, Lansdale. When in Avalon, fishing is his favorite pastime.