Two local Army veterans will soon receive the highest honor that can be bestowed by the government &mdash; the French government.</p><p>Loren J. Clark and Frank E. Royer, both octogenarians who were part of the liberation of France in World War II, will be presented with the Legion of Honor on Sunday.</p><p>The same honor was recently bestowed on a Kansas City, Kan., veteran. </p><p>In fact, it has become a fairly regular event across the country.</p><p>But it&rsquo;s not because the French are tossing the medals out like Mardi Gras beads. In fact, it is a tradition that dates to Napoleon Bonaparte, and the French take it very seriously.</p><p>And it&rsquo;s not just because the World War II generation is dying off, although that surely has something to do with it. The honor is not bestowed posthumously.</p><p>A spokesman at the French embassy in Washington speculated that recent medals may have more to do with publicity surrounding recent anniversaries of the 1944 D-Day invasion by the Allies on the French beaches of Normandy.</p><p> Scores of U.S. veterans received the honor when President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac marked the 60th anniversary in 2004. Scores of others were so honored last June in a ceremony with Presidents Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy.</p><p>Those events may have made more Americans aware of the Legion of Honor and prompted many of them to submit nominations to the French government, the embassy official said. </p><p>Neither Clark nor Royer, however, know how they came to the attention of the French government. Paul Frampton, commander of their VFW post, didn&rsquo;t know either.</p><p>But both Clark and Royer, who were part of the Allied effort that pushed the Germans out of France, received letters from the French consul general in Chicago saying they were to be awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honor medal.</p><p>&ldquo;More than 60 years ago you gave your youth to France and the French people,&rdquo; Royer&rsquo;s letter read in part. &ldquo;Gratitude and remembrance are forever in our souls.&rdquo;</p><p>Royer was actually awarded the Legion of Honor in 2007 but was unable to travel to St. Louis for a formal presentation. Both his and Clark&rsquo;s medals will be presented Sunday by Col. Jean-Claude Brejot, the French liaison officer to the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth. The ceremony will take place at Post 7356 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Parkville.</p><p>Brejot also presented the same medal recently to Raymond A. Schrader of Kansas City, Kan. </p><p>Clark was barely 18 when he was drafted into the Army in late 1943. He was a gun crewman in the 758th Field Artillery and became a &ldquo;buck sergeant&rdquo; with three stripes. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge.</p><p>Clark said he got frostbite during the war but was not injured, he saw Paris and he was discharged in March 1946. He has Army battle stars for service in the Ardennes, the Rhineland and Central Europe.</p><p>Clark, who has never lived more than 10 miles from where he was born in Farley in Platte County, is looking forward to the presentation of the Legion of Honor.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very proud to receive it,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>Royer also was drafted into the Army in 1943, just a couple of months after he turned 18. He shipped out to France a few weeks after D-Day to join the 9th Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division as a private rifleman. He was part of the operation that captured the German submarine base near Brest. He was wounded by a grenade in that campaign. He also fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was a German prisoner of war.