The “first salute” is a long-standing tradition in the U.S. military, generally given to new officers by a family member whenever possible. But on Monday, one new member of the Maine National Guard fresh out of Officer Candidate School got the recognition he’ll remember forever from a D-Day survivor living at the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough.

Fernand Gaudreau of Westbrook, then an infantryman in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne division, jumped into France over a section of the Normandy coast known as Omaha Beach during the Allied invasion on June 6, 1944. He fought across France, Italy and Holland, eventually earning a Purple Heart in Nuremberg, Germany.

Gaudreau was a sergeant when discharged at the end of the war, and spent his civilian career as a postman in his native Westbrook. But on Monday, he resumed his military bearing, issuing Maine Army National Guard 2nd Lt. John Hobbs of Portland his first salute as a commissioned officer, following his graduation from Officer Candidate School in Fort McClellan, Ala.

“He needed it,” joked Gaudreau afterward. “But, like I told him, he’s going to get a lot of them before he’s through.”

According to Jeffrey Roosevelt, director of marketing and public relations for the Maine Veterans’ Homes, no one has ever before asked to receive a first salute from a resident at one of the state’s six veterans homes.

“No one recalls a time that this has ever happened at our homes in our 30-year history. So, this is very special,” he said.

“I wanted Fern to salute me first because he was one of the first veterans I met here at the home and he really inspired me,” said Hobbs, who works as a registered nurse at the Scarborough veterans center. “His experiences serving our country are remarkable he’s done the things we only read about, he was part of the battles we study and he still epitomizes the Army values that we now both have in common. Even years after he got out, he still very much represents what we were taught.”

Hobbs, who grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, followed his wife to Maine five years ago. Two years later, he landed a job as an aide at the Scarborough home. But then about a year ago, less than six months after earning his RN certification through Central Maine Medical Center, Hobbs decided his true calling was yet to come, so he enlisted in the National Guard, joining an aviation unit in Bangor, where he hopes to eventually become a Blackhawk helicopter pilot.

“Getting to know the residents here gave me that push to finally do something I’ve always wanted to do,” said Hobbs. “Interacting with these men and woman here, seeing how they were just everyday people who did what they did, it really made me feel like I had that obligation, too.

“It definitely motivated me,” Hobbs continued. “If I hadn’t worked here, I wouldn’t have got that final push.”

“It was all regular routine stuff, although, I’ll tell you, I wouldn’t want to do some of it again,” said Gaudreau of his World War II service.

His only regret in life, said Gaudreau, was not taking advantage of the G.I. Bill to get a college degree. Even so, his three and a half years in the Army served him well, he said, filling him with a sense of self-discipline that served him well throughout his life.

“It’s a funny thing,” said Gaudreau. “We were all in there, taking care of each other, like brothers you might say. I got disciplined from time to time, but at that time I never thought anything of it. Back then it was all just part of the routine. And we never thought of ourselves as heroes. All we knew then was that we had something we had to do and we did it. That was all.”

Gaudreau said Monday that Hobbs, at age 30 and a first-time father of a 6-month-old boy, has earned his respect, based on his level of discipline and self-motivation. His only advice for the new officer: “Keep it up just like you’re doing, someday you’ll be a colonel.”

Maine Army National Guard 2nd Lt. John Hobbs, right, gets his first salute as a commissioned officer Monday at the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough from Fernand Gaudreau, a World War II veteran who jumped into France during D-Day.