Allentown native, Col. A. Albert Restum, U.S. Air Force, retired, has received the Legion of Honor.

Axel Cruau, Consul General of France, presented the Chevalier dans l'Ordre National de la Légion d'Honneur to Restum Jan. 30 at the Bob Hope Patriotic Hall, Los Angeles.

The National Order of the Legion of Honor, established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, is France's highest honor recognizing those who have distinguished themselves in the service of France.

Hundreds of United States veterans of World War II have received the award. Restum, 89, received the Chevalier or Knight class of the award.

As a result of his actions in France with the 274th Infantry Regiment as an 18-year-old rifleman, Restum was awarded the Bronze Star for exemplary conduct against the enemy on March 22, 1945. He also earned the Combat Infantryman Badge, Army and Air Force Commendation Medals and European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three battle stars.

Restum was inducted into the Army in August 1944, completed infantry basic training at Camp Hood, Tex., and shipped to the European Theater, assigned to the 274th.

He entered combat in France during the fierce winter in early January 1945 in the vicinity of Phillipsbourg and was involved in 60 days of continuous combat in the Rhineland, Central Europe and Ardennes campaigns. His regiment crossed the Saar River in pontoon boats in late March 1945.

"I was in combat within a week," Restum says in a recent phone interview. "They were throwing everybody on the line. I was just a first scout in a rifle squad." Restum was hit by a piece of shrapnel.

Restum resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife, Barbara (nee Brown), who he married in Tripoli in September 1954.

He is a 1943 graduate of then Allentown High School where he was on the track and wrestling teams.

Restum is the son of the late Mary and Albert Restum of Allentown. He is the brother of the late George and William Restum.

Restum's French- and Arabic-speaking parents were from Lebanon where they lived before World War II, relocating to Marseille, France, before emigrating to the U.S., settling in Allentown where their first son, Albert, was born.

"I learned a little kitchen Arabic," Restum says. It would form the basis of his career.

After his discharge from the Army, the combat veteran traveled for a while in Mexico where he picked up a working knowledge of Spanish before enrolling in Tulane University, New Orleans, La.

Restum says he was accepted into the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps (AFROTC) because he knew how to march. He was an AFROTC honor graduate and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the brand new Air Force (former Army Air Corps) -- just in time for the Korean War.

Instead of Korea, the new lieutenant got orders to a school of foreign service and was sent to Tripoli, Libya, where he worked as a liaison officer at the Air Force Base.

By 1958 he was the Assistant Air Attache at the U.S. Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon. His Arabic language skills were paying off.

"I confirmed that Gary Powers was in Beirut before he was shot down," Restum says, recalling the 1960 incident when CIA pilot Frances Gary Powers was shot down while flying a U-2 spy plane over the former Soviet Union.

Later, Restum says, he was chief of operations, American Embassy, Athens, Greece. He also served in Tehran, Iran; Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Washington, D.C.

After retiring from the Air Force, Restum worked in the corporate world as a trade and finance officer and then was president of a Washington, D.C., consulting firm.

He and his wife are parents of Chad and Dean and the grandparents of Alexis and Marshall.

Restum is active in veterans' affairs and a member of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, Allentown.