Ervin Aden, a retired sales manager who as an Army lieutenant participated in the D-Day invasion of France and years later won the French Legion of Honor for his bravery in the fighting to liberate France from Nazi occupation, died Monday in New Orleans.
He was 97.
Aden was born in rural Nebraska. As a young man, he showed great ability on the baseball sandlots and was signed by the Cincinnati Reds organization.
In 1940, he played professional baseball for the Reds in Mexico and Latin America, but later that year he joined the Army.