“Let us honor our dead from the Battle of Normandy”

An archaeologist for almost thirty-five years, Louis Mouillac exercises a rare specialty: the search for the bodies of soldiers missing in combat. Coming from a line of farmers and wine growers from the Périgord pourpre, this 59-year-old father says he was born “with his hand in the land”. Growing up in a territory rich in vestiges of the past also had an impact on him: “My family was passionate about History, and this passion that was mine has never left me. »

Today head of a company based in Lorient (Morbihan), Louis Mouillac works, via his Memorial Investigations Agency, for foreign armies wishing to repatriate the bodies of their missing soldiers. “I was the first to collaborate with the American army to find a pilot who had disappeared in Orne. I was taken to the guts. » Missions whose human stake goes well beyond scientific techniques: “At the end of all this research, there are families waiting,” he recalls. The average age of the 16 million American soldiers who liberated us was 26, the age of my youngest. »

A question of respect

Convinced of the importance of honoring these dead by bringing their memory to life and, more broadly, that of the Battle of Normandy, the archaeologist is offering a series of conferences open to all, at the initiative of the diocese of Coutances and Avranches and in collaboration with the Mont-Saint-Michel Foundation. “In the United States,” underlines Louis Mouillac, “there is a whole ceremony around these missing men who never returned to the country. In France, we are far from showing as much consideration. »

If he remains discreet about his spiritual journey, he recognizes a “natural” link between his Christian faith and his desire to put himself at the service of these dead awaiting burial. “We can only have immense respect for all these soldiers. And when we can provide everyone, according to their beliefs, with a dignified funeral, then yes, my investigative work takes on its full religious meaning,” he concludes.