NOIRMOUTIER, France— Dressed in a genuine World War II nurse's uniform, Pam Coffield said she now understands what it's like to be a movie star.
"Everybody keeps asking to take my picture," Coffield said.
Coffield borrowed the uniform from the Baker Block Museum, where she is a volunteer, when she and her husband, Joe, joined Crestview's delegation to the French island of Noirmoutier, where they helped their hosts celebrate Saturday's 70th anniversary of France's liberation at the end of World War II.
She wasn't the only one dressed for the occasion. The Coffields' hosts, Jean-Paul and Dominique Brochard, and their son, Anthony, provided Joe with a recreated uniform identical to that worn by celebrated and unconventional "Black Sheep Squadron" leader, Maj. Pappy Boyington.
"You see where Dominique had to fix the length for me," Coffield said, laughing as he displayed about 5 inches hemmed up from the bottom of the khaki trousers he wore.
An intermittent rain during Saturday's victory celebration didn't damper the Coffields' spirits, nor those of an estimated more than 1,000 residents, visitors and dignitaries, including the Crestview delegation and Northwest Florida State College performing arts students.
As a brilliant sun illuminated Noirmoutier, which is Crestview's sister city, Pam and Joe Coffield, riding in Anthony Brochard's Willys Jeep, participated in a victory parade of restored war-era vehicles that, led by a Sherman tank, snaked around the island through all four towns and along its beaches.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview residents celebrate France's WWII liberation