"As long as I live I don't guess I'll see a parade like that. Most of us slept in pup tents in the Bois de Boulogne the night before, and it rained like hell and we were pretty dirty, so they picked out the cleanest guys to stand out in front and on the outside. I had a bright new shiny patch, so they put me on the outside. It was a good place to be, too, because every guy marching on the outside had at least one girl on his arm kissing him and hugging him.
"We were marching twenty-four abreast down the Champs Elysees and we had a helluva time trying to march, because the whole street was jammed with people laughing and crying and yelling and singing. They were throwing flowers at us and bringing us big bottles of wine.
"The first regiment never did get through. They just broke in and grabbed the guys and lifted some of them on their shoulders and carried them into cafes and bars and their homes and wouldn't let them go. I hear it was a helluva job trying to round them all up later." Private First Class Verner Odegard, quoted in The Taste of Courage, p. 921.
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