MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Dozens of glasses were raised to toast the brave Alabamians who sacrificed their lives to free France from German rule. They toasted the men of the 167th.
Rod Frazer raised his glass with emotion etched into his features.
His father, William Frazer, was one of the members of the 167th Infantry Regiment or the 42nd Rainbow Division who fought in France during World War I. He planned to unveil and dedicate a 10-foot bronze statue of the Rainbow Soldier to the city honoring Montgomery’s WWI legacy.
“We had a robust role to play in World War I and it was played well,” Frazer said of his father and that of the 167th. “The fighting qualities of our mostly country boys was superior, and their performance was beyond reproach.”
Frazer, a Korean War veteran and Silver Star recipient who is also an author and historian, also was honored on Sunday on Maxwell Air Force Base. Dozens of military, state, city and county leaders joined representatives of the French government to award Frazer with their country’s highest civilian honor.
The President of France, Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron, signed a decree in May that made Frazer a knight of the French Legion of Honor for his civic service and promoting the close relations between France and Alabama.
Consul General of France Louis de Corail presented Frazer with the French Legion of Honor award during a ceremony dinner at the Maxwell Club. World War I Centennial Commissioner Dr. Monique Seefried fastened the medal to Frazer’s coat and gave him a warm embrace.
De Corail had met Frazer only a few months ago at a southern college where he gave a presentation. Yet, even before then, he had heard of Frazer’s work researching WWI, the Rainbow Division and memorializing their gallant efforts to free the French from German occupation.
The sculpture by artist James Butler stands in front of the historic Union Station where 3,677 Alabama guardsmen hopped onto one of eight trains to fight in Europe.
It will not be the first bronze dedicated to the Rainbow Soldier.
“Every year families bring their children with tears in their eyes to the site of the Battle of Croix Rouge Farm in France to remember the battle fought there,” de Corail said. “I am moved by the dedication of Frazer and Seefried who helped make Croix Farm a memorial.”
Croix Farm saw 168 Alabamians die, July 26, 1918. It is second only to the Battle of Gettysburg as deadliest battle in history involving Alabamians.
Frazer commissioned the famous British artist Butler about six years ago to create the initial statue that stands in France that depicts two men. A man in WWI military garb wearing a hat that covers his face looks down at a dead soldier in his arms.
Frazer approached Butler nearly a decade ago with the idea. He met Butler in England and on the 30-minute ride to his studio had convinced the artist to take on the project.
“I didn’t know much about the French connection, but when Rod came to my studio he had such a vivid story of the battle that he wanted me to depict it became a great occasion for me,” Butler said. “He had such enthusiasm. I felt that he was a man that I could admire and work well with.
“When he first talked to me about his interest in the battle, the more he spoke, the more I began to get involved in the whole thing.”
Butler began to read Frazer’s work and learned more about the men and the Alabama soldiers who had fought. What he created, inspired by another artist, Charles Sargeant Jagger, who Butler and Frazer both admire, tells a poignant story of death and sacrifice.
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