More than 80 years after he flew over occupied France in World War II, a 100-year-old American veteran received the highest French military honor.
Retired Staff Sgt. Phillip Bruce Cook was presented with the Legion of Honor on April 9 by Anne-Laure Desjonqueres, the French consul general. Cook, who flew as a ball turret gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress during some of the heaviest aerial fighting of the war in Europe, is now a Knight of the National Order of the French Legion of Honor.
“Mr. Cook, you are a true hero — your example gives us inspiration for the future and your legacy provides a moral compass for generations to come,” Desjonqueres said at Thursday’s ceremony.
It was a long journey for Cook. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces — the precursor to today’s Air Force — in June 1943. According to Cook, he had originally tried to be a fighter pilot, hoping to be in a P-38, but was instead trained as an aerial gunner. A year later, he was with the 524th Bomber Squadron, 379th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force, based out of a Royal Air Force base in England. The 8th Air Force’s bombers were tasked with taking out important German facilities, from factories to bases.
According to his own account, which he told the WWII Veterans History Project, he was a small soldier, weighing 138 pounds, allowing him to fit inside the small ball turret. Sitting inside the heavily armed B-17, he took part in missions targeting enemy positions in France, including German submarine pens in Calais. He also hit some of the launch sites used by the Nazis to fire V-1 missiles. Later missions included bombing runs in Germany and the occupied Netherlands, as well as Normandy during D-Day. The 379th Bomb Group also supported ground forces during the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.
“We would bomb just about anything that would disrupt the [German] war effort,” he told the WWII Veterans History Project.
The air war was notoriously brutal, with bombers suffering heavy casualties. In 1943, the Army Air Forces set up a rule that crews that completed 25 missions could finish their tour and go home. By the time Cook was flying over Europe, that had been extended to 35. He avoided being wounded, despite the dangers he faced, and flew his last mission on Feb. 16, 1945, and was discharged in October of that year.
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The award was approved by French President Emmanuel Macron. The Legion of Honor was created 200 years ago under Napoleon, and has been awarded to French nationals and others, including British and Americans, who fought to liberate France during World War II. Cook is one of several American veterans to receive the honor and become a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
According to the South Carolina legislature, when he was approved for the medal, Cook said: “Never would I have thought that what I did in WWII would mean so much, not only for the United States, but for those who had to endure years of enemy occupation.”
After the war, Cook returned to Lexington, where he worked as a jewelry technician until he retired in 1983.
In addition to his newest honor, Cook had previously been awarded the Air Medal with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the European African Middle East Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.
