Michigan Navy sailor killed in D-Day invasion honored

(CBS) – A U.S. Navy sailor killed 80 years ago is being honored thanks to a Rochester teacher and his former student.

Rochester Middle School social studies teacher Matt Cottone and Ian Smith, now an 11th-grader at Adams High School, were able to track down Seaman Auvergne Breault, a native of Escanaba, Michigan, through a scholarship from the Albert H. Normandy Institute, the Michigan Education Association said.

Breault was 20 years old when he died during the invasion of Normandy in France, known as D-Day. According to the American Battle Monuments Commission, he was ranked as a Torpedoman’s Mate Second Class at the time of his death.

According to records, Breault was aboard the USS Corry on June 6, 1944, when it was hit and sunk off Utah Beach in Normandy.

“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to truly take education outside the classroom to the beaches of Normandy, where so many brave Americans sacrificed their lives for the freedoms we and our allies enjoy every day,” said Cottone, who is an MEA member. “Ian was the perfect partner and we immediately got to work.”

Cottone and Smith were selected as participants in the Albert H. Normandy Institute fellowship to help identify a Michigan soldier who died on D-Day and is buried in Normandy.

The duo was the only team from Michigan to participate in the program run by George Washington University.

MEA officials say the team found 10 people on Facebook with the last name Breault and narrowed the number down to three who said Auvergne looked like a relative. They were referred to the Delta County Historical Society and a library, where they were able to identify him.

Two women identified as Breault’s nieces presented Cottone and Smith with his birth certificate, military registration, family photos and newspaper clippings, a news release said.

“I consider this adventure the latest in my ongoing efforts to help my students understand that the world is much bigger than just the Rochester schools,” said Cottone. “It has been a long and winding road, but one that has provided both Ian and me with a once-in-a-lifetime learning experience, and I can’t wait to share that experience with my students.”

MEA says Cottone and the student will write and deliver a eulogy in Normandy, where it will be kept in the Normandy American Cemetery archives. A copy of the eulogy will also be sent to Breault’s niece in Escanaba.