LONG ISLAND G.I. CELEBRATES 70 YEARS IN GREENSBORO

Most G.I.s pleaded to be sent home after VE-Day, but Sydney LeBrun’s plea was just the opposite, “Please don’t send me home yet.  My mother must not see me like this.”

75^TH INFANTRY DIVISION HEADED FOR BASTOGNE

“THAT’S ME WITH THE BIG BUTT,” SAYS SYDNEY LEBRUN

While six German bullets had shot away 16 cubic inches of his flesh during the Battle of the Bulge -- leaving a horrendous scar across his face -- the wounds were slowly healing.  Even so, he thought his mother best not see him yet.

PFC SYDNEY LEBRUN -- 1943

The Army agreed.  After treatment in field hospitals, two months in a body cast, and two more months in Army hospitals in Belgium, France and England, LeBrun was posted to an Army Detachment near Paris, “I rode with French Gendarmes.  We rounded up G.I.s and French girls for various reasons.  With the assignment came free time and passes to interesting venues – and even the use of my own Army command car at times.”

LeBrun researched his family tree roots.  He visited World War I sites, Metz and Nancy.  He visited Nice, on the French Riviera, and certainly did not neglect Paris.  “I did Brussels and crossed over into Germany, just to say I had been there, but I enjoyed Switzerland most of all.  At Davos, I learned to ski – that became a lifelong obsession.”

As the adage goes, that good thing came to an end for LeBrun -- abruptly, “The Detachment moved out while I was away.  A buddy told me I could be considered a deserter and shot.  I told him I had been shot six times – if they wanted to shoot me for a seventh time, let them go ahead.  ! didn’t care.”

He was not shot, but sent home on a victory ship, based on the points he had accumulated.  He attended Syracuse University briefly but dropped out due to his wife’s illness.  His mother had always hoped he and his brother would start a business together.  In 1946, Sydney LeBrun joined his brother, Bernard, in Greensboro.

“Bernard was a terrific salesman and had saved a few bucks -- I had $100 in mustering out pay.  He loaned me $3000 and we started producing solid cedar chests.  Later, we made solid cedar bedroom furniture and finally moved to solid Cherry and Maple case goods.

Along the way, we purchased and expanded an ORD gymnasium.  That housed our offices and manufacturing operations until we sold out to Ridgeway Clocks.”

LeBrun spent more time skiing after selling the business, but was open to new job challenges.  “Judge Rufus Reynolds offered me a job as Trustee in Chapter 11 Bankruptcies.  The pay was competitive -- the experience quite challenging.  Emerald Pointe Water Park and the chain of Royal Villa Hotels were two of my largest projects.”

Over the years, LeBrun has volunteered with International Executive Service Corps (IESC).  “On the model of a higher echelon Peace Corps, I did consulting work in furniture manufacturing in such countries as Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadimes, Kenya, Ecuador, Mexico, Romania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Honduras, Belize, and other countries I may have forgotten.”

When LeBrun introduced me to Dali and Samantha, the LeBrun cats, he explained the ground rules under which they live, “This is my house and they can scratch wherever they please.”

Dali is named after the artist.  Memories of bankruptcy work involving a Salvador Dali painting led to his cat-naming. 

LeBrun owned and operated a postage stamp vending machine business for almost 30 years, “I had hundreds of machines around the Carolinas, but sold out when I became 85 – the guy who bought the business was only 80.”

Now 91, he has two daughters, a deceased son, and two grandchildren.

FURNITURE EXECUTIVE SYDNEY LEBRUN,
“I REMEMBER THE BULGE ALMOST AS IF IT WERE YESTERDAY!”

He can’t say enough about Army Medics who risked their lives to save his.  Or, about Army doctors who performed miracles with his injuries.  Or, about the Army Chaplain who prematurely gave him his last rites.  “Right pew, but wrong church,” LeBrun (who is Jewish) maintains.  Or, the Army Nurse who calmly said, “Soldier, glad you made it.”

He has less serious memories too.  “My father advised me to tell the Army that the NMI in my name meant, “Not Militarily Inclined.” 

“My French Forty & Eight railcar ride was certainly memorable.  A soldier bayoneted a wine barrel on a nearby railcar and caught the leaking wine in his helmet. We all did the same.  The next day, we all had dysentery. 

Forty & Eights did not have bathrooms, but the doors were exactly two G.I.s wide.”

His health isn’t the best, but even after quadruple heart bypass surgery, four back operations, and a severe stroke, LeBrun is active and on the go, “I am a lucky guy to be here – great friends, great family, great cats -- my life is very full!

OL'HARRY