The Des Allemands man is still wearing his Navy cap, proud of service
Still wearing his blue cap with U.S. Navy insignia, Vantan Larousse Sr. recalled how much it meant to him when the ROTC of Hahnville High School suddenly stopped marching in the recent Krewe of Des Allemands parade and saluted him.
“I was surprised … and the way they handled those guns … cher lawd,” Larousse, in his Cajun accent, recalled of the way the students acknowledged him. “That was a good thing to do for me. Even my daughter appreciated that.”
Janet Larousse, his daughter, witnessed the salute and wondered how the ROTC knew this Des Allemands resident had served in the Navy. But there was no questioning what she saw when they saluted her father.
“He was practically crying sitting in his walker with the wheels,” Janet said. “He was sitting there and like just looking really surprised about it. He had me crying with him.”
The ROTC waved flags and did a gun salute in formation for Larousse right in front his house on Old Spanish Trail in Des Allemands.
“It was really neat,” Janet said. “We were just awed.”
Military service was a long time ago for this 91-year-old serviceman, having served in World War II.
Larousse and his family were living on a plantation in Mathews when he was drafted into the Navy in 1943.
“I had hard work … swinging that blade all day,” he said of helping to harvest sugar cane. He was one of 13 children. And, with one of his brothers being 93 years old today, it appears longevity runs in the family.
So when the opportunity to serve in the military came along, Larousse was ready for something new. It became a time when being Cajun might have made him more special.
“They knew I came from a bunch of coonass people I guess,” he said of having served as a cook at Naval Base San Diego in California. The military base served as the principal home port of the Pacific Fleet. “They kept me in San Diego and I was a cook for a little while.”
From 1943 to 1945, Larousse served up the Cajun food at the base.
“I enjoyed it,” he said. “I wish I would have stayed.”
Those serving at the time got to eat Larousse’s Cajun delicacies of jambalaya and gumbo.
“Oh yes, they liked that coonass cooking,” he said. “They liked that – a lot.”
Between meals, Larousse soon ventured out and got to see places like Hollywood and “the people living on them mountains.”
“It was a place I’d never seen before,” he said. “I had never seen nothing on the farm – just sugar cane.”
His military service also became his adventure, but Larousse also understood the importance of what he was doing there.
“You fighting for your country,” he said. “That’s the best thing of it. I didn’t run away. When I was drafted – I went.”
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