STATE COLLEGE — As cadets from Penn State’s Air Force ROTC presented the colors and the Nittany Knights Barbershop Chorus sang the national anthem, residents of Foxdale Village rose to their feet for a neighbor they’ve long considered a quiet hero.
On Wednesday, Dec. 10, that hero — 101-year-old World War II pilot Sir John F. Homan — received France’s highest decoration, the National Order of the Legion of Honor, during an emotional ceremony at the State College retirement community where he lives.
Homan flew 34 combat missions with the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force in 1944, piloting a B-24 Liberator in some of the most dangerous months of the air war over Europe. One-third of those missions were over France, including bombing runs that helped break German defenses in Normandy and supply drops to civilians and Allied troops as they pushed east.
“Through his courage and his dedication to both the Allied forces and French civilians, First Lieutenant Homan embodies the values France wishes to honor today,” said Caroline Monvoisin, Consul General of France in Washington, D.C., before pinning the five-armed white cross to Homan’s blazer. “You served a country that was not your own. And France has never forgotten and will never forget. We owe you our deepest gratitude. So may your story continue to inspire future generations and remind them of the price paid for freedom.”
Created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, the Legion of Honor is France’s highest civil and military decoration, awarded to those who rendered “exceptional service” to the nation.
The afternoon at Foxdale was as much a community gathering as it was a diplomatic ceremony. Friends, fellow veterans, Foxdale staff and families of Homan’s wartime crewmates filled the room, alongside viewers watching via livestream.
Homan’s eldest daughter, Kimberly, offered a portrait of the man her family knew at home. A devoted husband to his late wife, Irene, a hard-working executive and a hands-on dad who built porches, rebuilt old Thunderbirds and taught his kids to swim, skate and “the proper way to butter an ear of corn.”
“As we were kids growing up, our father never talked about his war,” she said. “Our father has always insisted that he was not a hero because others flew the same missions that he did. But he was always a hero to us. And so, Dad, we salute you. Anti fascist then, now and always.”
After the war, Homan used the GI Bill to go to college while working full time and raising a young family. He rose to become a vice president at a large corporation and, his daughter said, took special pride in mentoring younger employees who stayed in touch well into his 40 years of retirement.
In recent years, Homan has become a familiar figure in Centre County’s history circles. He co-authored a memoir, “Into the Cold Blue: My World War II Journeys with the Mighty Eighth Air Force,” with Penn State Altoona history professor Jared Frederick, who served as the ceremony’s keynote speaker.
“From the very beginning, John was adamant that his memoir would not glorify war,” Frederick said. “He wanted to recount his combat experiences truthfully, without sanitizing the horrors.” Their work together, Frederick added, gave him not just a history project, but “a dear friend.”
Chris Kuhns, director of the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg, called Homan’s ongoing public talks and interviews “one of the most vital acts of preservation that a veteran can undertake,” noting that hearing history from the person who lived it offers young service members “a powerful and indelible moment of connection and mentorship.”
When it was his turn at the microphone, Homan kept his remarks characteristically modest and focused on others.
“It is a distinct pleasure and surprise, a big boost to our whole crew,” he said of the medal. “I want to dedicate the medal also to all 10 of our crew members. And I want to also congratulate the people at the ground crews that worked all night. I give them a lot of credit too. Again, I appreciate the medal and hope I can live long enough to bear out all the compliments.”
