Greetings to all my Armed Guard heroes and their supporters! Even though I haven't been to the boards in quite some time, I think of each of you often.
My sister has been doing some remarkable work concerning the veterans who participated in the invasion of Normandy. In fact, she's been in France numerous times including a very long stint there since well before June. She says that the French are so very grateful for our liberatiing them. She wants to have a plaque established there to commemorate the Armed Guard. Do any of you know how to go about doing that? It may be entirely up to the French. I don't know. Do you think we would need permissions from anyone in the States?
How nice to have you back on the message board. We've missed you.
As to your questions, you might start by contacting the Navy Memorial in Washington, DC http://www.navymemorial.org/. (As you may know, the Memorial includes a commemorative plaque jointly honoring the Armed Guard and the Merchant Marine.) In particular see the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the home page; a retired Navy vice admiral, John Totushek, is the president and CEO of the Memorial. Maybe he would have some ideas or even some contacts. Just by the way, I see that your father's name is included in both the "Navy Log" at the Memorial's website, and at the website of the National World War II Memorial. Good for you.
Or maybe the U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command (http://www.history.navy.mil/) could offer advice. A Captain Henry J. Hendrix II is the current Director of Naval History.
You are probably correct that the final say is up to France. So you might try contacting either the Embassy of France (http://ambafrance-us.org/) or any of the ten French consulates around the country (in Boston, New York, Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and, again, Washington, DC) in case your sister is contemplating an in-person visit to present her idea. Perhaps one could start with the cultural attaché and/or the defense attaché at the Embassy.
Good luck and best wishes.
Ron Carlson, Webmaster Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website www.armed-guard.com