Alderic O. “Dick” Violette (L) and Paul Bordeleau, veterans of the Asian and European theaters respectively, compared notes at the New Hampshire Telephone Museum in Warner, N.H., on May 24, 2013.
Bordeleau was the speaker at the “kickoff of the 4th Fridays series” at the museum. Bordeleau “served as a corporal in the 246th Signal Operations Company attached to 1st Army Headquarters during World War II” and spoke about his first assignment on D-Day at Omaha Beach, “to install and operate the first telephone switchboard on the continent for Gen. Omar Bradley.” He later served in the same capacity for Gen. George Patton at 3rd Army Headquarters in Germany “until the end of the war in Europe.”
Violette served in the Pacific theater, and with his son Paul is the founder of the New Hampshire Telephone Museum. Dick is the senior member of Wilkins-Cloues-Bigelow-Pearson Post 39 in Warner.
The museum opened in 2005 and is constantly expanding their collection of more than 1,000 pieces of historical artifacts, which features the collection of Dick Violette and serves to show the growth of the communications industry.