Armistice Day commemorated with wreath-laying ceremony | THE DAILY HERALD

Préfète Déléguée Sylvie Feucher prepares to lay a wreath at the war memorial during the Armistice Day commemoration on Sunday. (Robert Luckock photo)

Préfète Déléguée Sylvie Feucher pins decorations onto the lapels of Gendarmes Julien Azzopardi and Xavier Jacquemin. (Robert Luckock photo)

Ten civilians also received decorations during the Armistice Day ceremony for acts of courage. (Robert Luckock photo)

Territorial Councillor Pascale Alix-Laborde laid a wreath accompanied by Youth Territorial Council President, Achille Brooks. (Robert Luckock photo)

MARIGOT–Armistice Day was commemorated in the garden of Hotel de la Collectivité on Sunday morning with a wreath-laying ceremony attended by an honour guard of Gendarmes, Territorial Police and war veterans.

Armistice Day is commemorated every year on November 11 to mark the armistice signed between the allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I. This year marks 101 years since the war ended on the 11th hour of the 11th month in 1918.

Wreaths were laid at the war memorial by Préfète Déléguée of St. Martin and St. Barths Sylvie Feucher, St. Martin War Veterans Association President Robert Garron and Territorial Councillor Pascale Alix-Laborde.

Feucher read out a message from the Minister of the Armed Forces followed by a reading out of the names of war veterans from St. Martin who died for their country. A class from École Lamartine sang the Marseillaise and a hymn in Creole.

The occasion was also an opportunity for Feucher to present decorations for acts of military or civilian bravery. Bronze Medals of Honour were awarded to 10 civilians, including the five young persons – Steve Artsen, Raheim Louisy-Wilson, Rahjanie Louisy-Wilson, Enderson Lovinsti and Brisaxelle Malik Richardson – who rescued tourists from drowning in the bus that landed in the water on the Marigot waterfront on June 22.

The five other recipients were Didier Caballero, Christian Richard, Jean Carty, Kim Louisy and Stephane Marc Lake.

Interior Security Bronze Medals were awarded to Gendarmes Julien Azzopardi and Xavier Jacquemin for “exceptional engagements” during operations in maintaining order during 2018 and 2019. Specific details were not mentioned.

Caballero and Richard, tenants in an apartment building, on hearing cries for help from neighbours went out during Hurricane Irma to rescue a couple and their two young children when the house they were in was destroyed in the storm, forcing them to hide in kitchen cupboards. With the exterior staircase also destroyed, Caballero and Richard helped them down from the first floor and sheltered them in their own apartment for a few days.

Carty from French Quarter who has a wife and three children, lost the roof of his house during the first part of Hurricane Irma, forcing the family to hide in the bathroom. During the passing of the eye, he moved his family to his brother’s house, but water was rising there to the first floor. He saved his mother and father from drowning and managed to get them out by breaking a window. Despite the trauma of the events he went to work next day at the Caisse Territorial des Oeuvre Scolaires (CTOS) kitchen, helping to clean up and prepare meals.

Louisy during the passing of the eye rescued a handicapped neighbour who had lost the roof on her house. He carried her on his back amongst the debris to his house where he sheltered her and four children for a few days. Immediately after the passing of the hurricane he saved a woman who was buried in rubble in her house, unconscious and seriously injured in the head and abdomen. With great difficulty he managed to find transport to get her to hospital where she was eventually transferred to Guadeloupe in a critical state.

Volunteer firefighter Lake, who was honoured by the Collectivité earlier this year for his heroic acts, rescued 10 people from a roof in Around the Pond, French Quarter, guiding them to safety, and swimming back and forth across the street with mask and snorkel. He also conducted house-to-house searches for victims, saved a family of three from drowning and evacuated others. Once the storm had passed, he continued to administer first aid to victims.

Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/92426-armistice-day-commemorated-with-wreath-laying-ceremony

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