Super Senior: Frank Allard

BRIGHTON, Vt. (WCAX) - In the Northeast Kingdom town of Brighton, Frank Allard and his nephew-in-law, Scott Chapman, are checking out the war memorial in the village.

On one side, the Korean and Vietnam veterans. On the other, the World War II veterans like Allard. “Very patriotic town,” Chapman said.

“It is,” Allard said.

Allard is one of the few survivors of the 260 men and women honored in Brighton, but he says the real heroes are the ones that never came back. “They’re the ones who paid with their lives for the war,” he said.

At 17, Allard enlisted in the Navy a few months before the D-Day invasion on the shores of Normandy.

Reporter Joe Carroll: Were your parents okay with you joining the Navy?

Frank Allard: They were not. They had to sign for me. My mother was not pleased. My dad understood that I was grown up and I was starting to make my own decisions.

The Navy kept him stateside until he was 18 and then they shipped him off to the Pacific on the USS Vulcan, a floating fix-it shop for anything that needed repair. “We could fix anything from the smallest watch to the biggest ship,” Allard said.

By 1945, the Japanese had lost many battles. The dropping of the atomic bomb by the Americans on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war in the Pacific. Allard says there was an outpouring of celebration when sailors heard that the Japanese had signed the unconditional surrender on the USS Missouri. “Some of the ships fired off their ammunition, fireworks and we had a hell of a hootenanny,” he said.

But in Japan there was misery. Hiroshima was flattened and an estimated 70,000 people were killed instantly or shortly after the blast. Thousands more died from the effects of radiation. “There was a lot of destruction,” Allard said. “We went into occupied Japan and we swept their mines, their minefields.”

In 1946, Allard sailed back to the States.

Reporter Joe Carroll: How did it feel to be home?

Frank Allard: Oh, it felt great.

At 97, Allard’s memory and energy is fading.

Reporter Joe Carroll: You a little tired?

Frank Allard: Real tired.

According to the National World War 2 Museum, of the 16 million who served, less than 120,000 are still alive.

Reporter Joe Carroll: Does it seem like 80 years ago?

Frank Allard: It doesn’t seem like 80 years ago, it went by real fast.

Stories from the Greatest Generation that live on.

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