Operation Band of Brothers says 'merci'

SANDPOINT — More than 60 years later, French teacher Christelle Zuccolotto and her students haven’t forgotten the international sacrifices of the D-Day landings.

For almost 10 years, Zuccolotto and her middle school students have interviewed World War II veterans, factory workers and war orphans all across the United States. The annual project is meant to show appreciation of the men and women throughout the world who fought to keep Europe free from fascism, Zuccolotto said. It’s a lesson that hasn’t gone ignored by her students.

“I wanted to write to you: thank you again and again for liberating us,” one of her students wrote to a veteran during the project. “It’s thanks to you that the 15-year-old French girl I am can live serenely.”

Now, for the first time since beginning Operation Band of Brothers, she is visiting America in a trip she calls a pilgrimage. The journey across America is intensely personal and emotional for Zuccolotto, who knows full-well that this will likely be her only chance to see many of these individuals.

“I know that my veterans will be gone soon, and I wanted to come and visit them,” she said through tears. “It may be my last gift to them.”

Zuccolotto arrived in Bonner County Thursday and is staying at with Michelle Parnell-Rohrer, whose mother, Betty Parnell, worked in a California factory that turned out airplanes for the war effort. As one of the “Rosie the Riveters” profiled in Operation Band of Brothers, Parnell was one of the people Zuccolotto wanted to visit in her trip across the states.

The French teach worked with Parnell and Parnell-Rohrer two years ago to produce a presentation of her war experiences. That included her factory work and the loss of her brother, Charles Harding Pausner Jr., a Santa Clara University student who enlisted in the Army and was killed in France.

“I had to do something for my country,” Parnell said, describing her work in the factory. “I had to do something for my brother overseas.”

As with all individuals profiled in the Operation Band of Brothers project, Zuccolotto’s students relay questions to between two and five veterans or other individuals impacted by World War II. Zuccolotto then compiles those interviews into documents between 20 and 30 pages long. Finally, the interviews are combined with photographs and presented on boards that often span entire walls. Always a labor intensive project, Operation Band of Brothers typically involve 90 students each year — 45 of which visit Normandy for the annual ceremonies commemorating the D-Day landings.  

Zuccolotto is approaching the end of her trip around the United States, which began after landing in Rhode Island at the beginning of July. Since then, she’s visited Operation Band of Brothers interviewees in Virginia, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington state. After she leaves Idaho on Tuesday, she’ll head to Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey to complete her visits by the end of the month. It’s been a profound journey so far, she said.

“I was able to see the house of where (one of the veterans) lived just before he enlisted, and I realized just how far away these people had come,” she said. “It was a shock to me.”

After spending a weekend taking in the Idaho sights, Zuccolotto will give a presentation about Operation Band of Brothers at the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center 6 p.m. Monday. All are invited to attend and ask questions.