MIDDLEBURY — With history looking on, benefactors and public officials took up their shovels and a bit of French spirit to break ground for Middlebury’s Rochambeau Memorial at Meadowview Park on Tuesday, October 7.
The ceremony marked the official start of construction on the long-awaited monument honoring General Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, and the French soldiers who passed through Middlebury in 1781 on their march to Yorktown, Virginia, where their alliance with General George Washington secured American independence.
Middlebury Historical Society President Robert Rafford opened the event, welcoming local and state dignitaries and describing the day as an important moment in the town’s history. He thanked the many donors, volunteers, and committee members who “kept faith that this monument would one day stand.”
Benefactor Larry Janesky, who with his wife Marie pledged $100,000 to the project, recalled that their home sits on the site of the original French encampment. “No French Army coming through Middlebury, no United States,” he said. “We’re moving forward on faith and optimism to create something permanent for this community.”
The featured address came from Lieutenant-colonel Patrick Dutertre, Vice President of Le Souvenir Français, who traveled from Bethel to represent the French-American heritage organization. In uniform, he paid tribute to both nations’ shared struggle for liberty, declaring, “Our duty today is to protect this heritage, to cherish and defend all that unites us—for the good of the world and of the next generations.”
Among those attending were State Representative Bill Pizzuto, First Selectman Edward B. St. John, Selectmen Jennifer Mahr and J. Paul Vance, sculptor Tony Falcone and his wife Judi Andrews, and benefactor Penny Albini, whose family is sponsoring the statue’s pedestal.
When completed, the bronze statue of a French infantryman will stand on a landscaped plaza beside the Meadowview Park pavilion. The unveiling ceremony is planned for June 27, 2026, coinciding with the 245th anniversary of Rochambeau’s march through Middlebury.
Fundraising continues for the final phase of the project. Tax-deductible donations may be made through the Middlebury Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, at www.middleburyhistoricalsociety.org.
Media Contact:
Terry McAuliffe
Media Relations, Middlebury Historical Society
Cell: 203-770-9744
Summary of Lieutenant-colonel Patrick Dutertre’s Remarks
Lieutenant-colonel Patrick Dutertre, Vice President of Le Souvenir Français, delivered a deeply moving ten-minute address that traced the roots of the Franco-American alliance and its enduring meaning. Speaking in his French officer’s uniform, he said he was proud to stand on the same ground once crossed by Rochambeau’s soldiers and imagined that one of his own ancestors might have marched there nearly two and a half centuries earlier. He said he appeared not only as a representative of France, but as a descendant of those who fought for freedom on both sides of the Atlantic.
He recalled his childhood in rural France, when he first asked his mother what “Made in USA” meant. He said that as a small boy he learned that America was not just a distant land but a country that had twice saved France. His grandfather, a Resistance leader, had been freed from a death cell in 1944 when the Americans liberated Paris. Earlier, during the First World War, millions of Frenchmen had died or been wounded, and the arrival of American soldiers—shouting “Lafayette, we are here!”—had turned the tide of that war. He told how his father later received a tractor labeled “Made in USA,” a postwar gift from the Americans to rebuild France. That gesture, he said, shaped his lifelong admiration for the United States.
He went on to explain that France continued to honor America’s sacrifices through annual memorials, monuments, and ceremonies, remembering the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who gave their lives in Europe. He noted that he himself co-founded The French Will Never Forget, an organization dedicated to preserving that gratitude. On the American side, he said, remembrance continued through events such as Connecticut’s commemoration of Washington’s meeting with Rochambeau and annual observances at Valley Forge.
To illustrate the shared heroism of both nations, he recounted two soldiers’ stories. The first was François-Louis de Fleury, a French engineer who volunteered for the Continental Army, led troops at Stony Point, and received one of the first medals created by the U.S. Congress. The second was Staff Sergeant Marion Gray, a D-Day medic who crawled through withering fire to save his comrades at Omaha Beach, surviving grievous wounds. Dutertre said he had met Gray years later while presenting him with the French Légion d’honneur and was told that the scenes of Saving Private Ryan were “exactly like it was.”
He said both men had fought not for their own homelands but for the ideal of liberty itself. He reminded the audience that Lafayette once declared, “The world needs a strong America,” and that this truth remained relevant today. He urged his listeners to cherish and protect the democratic values born of the American and French revolutions, calling them “two sister causes born of the same mother.” He closed by warning that freedom must still be defended, noting that Europe once again faced threats to its democracy, and that solidarity through NATO and shared ideals remained essential.
He ended by thanking the people of Middlebury for honoring an ordinary French soldier, saying their monument would stand as a testament to friendship and sacrifice. “In this duty, in this mission,” he said, “the unknown French soldier of Middlebury will be front and center.”
Larry Janesky’s Remarks – Rochambeau Memorial Groundbreaking
Standing at the podium beneath a bright October sky, benefactor Larry Janesky spoke of gratitude, faith, and history’s turning points. “My wife Marie and I are fortunate enough to live on the property where the French Army actually camped,” he said, holding up several artifacts found on his land. “Originally, I offered part of my property for the monument, but we realized few people would ever see it there. So we looked for a location where everyone in town could see it often—and ended up here, in the perfect place.”
Janesky, who pledged $100,000 toward the project, reminded the audience of the French contribution to American independence. “No French Army coming through Middlebury, no United States,” he said to knowing laughter and applause. He described the monument as “a permanent addition to Middlebury for the benefit of its people, for generations to come, to understand and memorialize what happened here and its significance to the successful founding of our country.”
He noted that the effort was still operating “on faith and optimism,” with no government funds to date, and said he had taken on the role of general contractor for the project. “We’re using the skills and talents of my longtime friend and contractor, Vinny Vizzo of Oxford,” he explained. “We’ll have the plaza done before the snow flies, and the statue will be placed next season.” Looking across the crowd of town officials and residents, Janesky said the project was a community’s way of saying thank you—“not only to Rochambeau and his men, but to the spirit of friendship between France and America that endures to this day.”
