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PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT CLARK
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By Debra Adams Simmons, Executive Editor, History and Culture
In the United States, 234 World War II veterans are dying each day.
Of the 16 million who served in World War II, 240,329 were alive earlier in 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
On Veterans Day Thursday, we collectively honor the service of those from all wars.
Originally called Armistice Day, the holiday was declared on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month beginning in 1919 following the 1918 ceasefire agreement that brought World War I to a close. In 1954, the day was extended to honor all veterans. British Commonwealth countries call the day Remembrance Day.
As members of the Greatest Generation fade, it’s important to remember their sacrifice and honor their resilience. National Geographic commemorated the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in 2020 by capturing their voices and chronicling their memories. (Eight WWII survivors are shown above, from the U.S., Japan, Germany, and Russia.)
Their stories are poignant.
Bill Montgomery, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran was one of only a few soldiers to endure the entire 36-day fight in the brutal battle for Iwo Jima. Of the 50 men in his unit, only a half-dozen or so survived, he told Nat Geo last year.
Harry T. Stewart, Jr., the 20-year-old grandson of a man born into slavery who had never driven a car before the war, became a fighter pilot in the famed all-Black unit known as the Tuskegee Airmen, flying 43 combat missions and earning a Distinguished Flying Cross. Fewer than 10 Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots are still alive.
Mallie Osborne Mellon and her family boarded a bus from Kentucky to Detroit in 1943, responding to a radio ad for civilian war jobs. By then more than 300,000 American women – nicknamed Rosie the Riveter -- were involved in aircraft production, many by shooting rivets into warplanes in the Motor City’s factories.
Betty Webb had been taking a home economics course at age 18 but joined Britain’s Auxiliary Territorial Service—the women’s army—because, as she put it at age 97, “I wanted to do something more for the war effort than bake sausage rolls.” Webb was bilingual—she’d grown up with a German au pair and had been an exchange student in Germany—so she was ordered to report to Bletchley, Britain's top-secret code-breaking center. “It was so secret I had no idea what it was—nobody did!—let alone what I was getting into.”
Lawrence Brooks, 112, of New Orleans, the oldest living veteran, faced hostility abroad and at home as a Black soldier. Today, in the face of a complicated history, two of the country’s top military posts are held by African Americans, including Lloyd Austin, a retired four-star general, who serves as Secretary of Defense.
And on Friday, the life of Gen. Colin Powell was celebrated, a four-star general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State. It was the character, steadfastness, and moral compass of Powell that were noted—something many people seek from the longest survivors of a nation’s wars.
For the living, it’s that hope of emulation, as Powell’s son Michael reminded funeralgoers. “We can strive to do that,” he said.
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