American Triumph

Posted March 2, 2004 at 2:22pm

A 21-year-old Frank Lautenberg visits the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in 1945 after U.S. forces helped liberate the city from Nazi rule. Lautenberg, a Democrat now doing his second tour of duty as a Senator from New Jersey, served in the Army’s Company B-3185 Signal Service Battalion and was stationed in Europe during World War II. The Arc, which overlooks the famed Champs Elysées, was the site of the 1944 parade celebrating the liberation of Paris. The structure, completed in 1863, was commissioned by Napoleon after the French victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805.