In the final weeks of his life, 99-year-old John Valancius received a beautiful medal for what 19-year-old John Valancius did as an American soldier in France. On April 8, in a brief ceremony in a Pennsylvania restaurant, a French diplomat presented him with the Légion d’Honneur, pinning the medal to his lapel and thanking him for his role in liberating France from German occupation during World War II.
