PARIS – The Maine Veterans Home in Paris has announced its Veteran of the Month, Armand Gagnon.

Gagnon was born in New Brunswick, Canada, and served in the 5th Army Military Police during World War II from 1942 to 1945. He saw wartime service mostly in Italy doing military police work.

After discharge from the service, he married his wife, Phoebe, and they had a daughter, Beatrice, a son, Wayne, and then adopted a son, Elmer Dumont. In 1955 they lived in Auburn, and he worked at Morin Brick Co.

Gagnon later worked at Maine Line Fence Co. in Portland, retiring in 1985. In 1960 they moved to Westbrook where they lived for eight years before moving to Sebago Lake. Thirty years later they made their retirement home in Van Buren.

The Gagnons were married for 62 years. Phoebe died in 2005 and Gagnon lived with his daughter, Beatrice McLaughlin, prior to moving to the Maine Veterans Home in September 2007.

He has nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. He enjoys watching the Red Sox and the New England Patriots. He says he likes living at the Maine Veterans Home because he is around people his age and they have lived through similar circumstances. “We all understand each other,” he said.