World War I vet gets hero’s burial
France unfurled its military majesty in honor of its last World War I veteran, who died last week at 110, and all the other Frenchmen who fought in the conflict.
Flags fell to half-staff, and at the gold-domed edifice where Napoleon is buried, the president unveiled a plaque to honor Lazare Ponticelli and the 8.4 million other Frenchmen who served in the war.
Ponticelli was a French citizen for most of the last century and an unusual soldier who fought first for France, then for Italy, where he was born. Representatives of the Italian Alpine brigade for which he fought, along with its French counterpart, attended a funeral Mass for him.
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