It had been 67 years since Fred B. (Ted) Morgan Jr. had been back to La Fière, Normandy, in France, but it was certainly worth the wait. “It was the most amazing trip of my life,” the much-decorated town father of Edgartown said this week upon his return from visiting the place where he played a part in making world history on June 6, 1944.

In a ceremony at the La Fière bridge, where Mr. Morgan risked his life to save another’s, he and his fellow medics from the 82nd American Airborne division were honored for their heroism, and for liberating the province on D-Day.

Part of the reception they were given included the dedication of a plaque in their honor, near an existing monument, a statue of an American soldier known as Iron Mike. Mr. Morgan said he had a hand in the wording on the monument: “It’s in honor of the medics,” he said. “Our motto for the medics in the Air Force is, ‘So that others may live.’ But I suggested to the historical groups over there [in France] that we make it, ‘So that our fellow troopers may live.’ ”

Mr. Morgan and another medic from the company who joined him on the trip, Duaine (Pinky) Pinkston, were welcomed to the town as heroes. “The people couldn’t have been happier to see us. The memory of the war is more alive for them than it is for us since the Germans were there. It really was a sentimental journey,” Mr. Morgan said.

The journey was documented in a CBS News special that aired on the anniversary of the liberation, perhaps contributing to the aura of celebrity that followed the two men around northwestern France.

Mr. Morgan, who is 89 and still plays golf in Edgartown nearly every day, quietly marveled at the experience.

“You know, we took pictures with thousands of people, and thousands asked for our signature. One man took a picture of his little boy — about four years old — standing with me. He left the picture at the house where we were staying, wondering if I would sign it, and came back later to pick it up. He had tears in his eyes as he walked out of the house,” he said.

While the veterans were overjoyed at the hospitality and enthusiasm of their French hosts, Mr. Morgan couldn’t help but dwell on the poignancy of the visit: “You think of when you were there then, and the conditions there then and the conditions there today. There is such peace and quiet now.”

But that is not to say that the memory of his experience as a medic and paratrooper in World War II has ever been far out of mind, or body. Mr. Morgan, who earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his service, still has a piece of shrapnel in his finger from the battle at Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte, a nearby town that he helped liberate. “I left that in there purposefully as a memento,” he said. “The memories of the events are indelible in your mind. I can’t remember what happened yesterday, but I can remember specific events and dates from the war. It doesn’t leave you. “