Local WW II veterans make sojourn to memorial”They fought together as brothers-in-arms. They died together and now sleep side by side. To them we have a solemn obligation.” – Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, inscribed on the eastern corner of the new World War II Memorial
WASHINGTON – As a steel gray sky slips away, revealing warm summer sunshine, about 15 area veterans, many accompanied by their wives, stroll across the Capitol steps, touring. With pins from different tours glinting on black and gold military ball caps, the men gaze across the mall, watching hundreds of people peruse the sites and remember the day when the country paid the price of freedom.
“It was one of the greatest things to see the country come together like we did,” said Bill Rostich, a Navy veteran from New Salem. “It was the women who were left behind, and they did, just like the men, the job that needed to be done. They became welders and mechanics – everyone sacrificed and did their part.”
Rostich, who hit the beach in Normandy the second day of the Allied invasion, said the memories of what the United States’ liberty cost will never die, as long as the nation remembers the price that was paid with more than 400,000 lives.
He said the day he rolled off a makeshift pontoon onto the Normandy sand and the day he climbed that same beachhead in 1995 on a tour of the battlefield are memories he wants preserved.
“I don’t remember being nervous,” Rostich said. “I just remember getting off the ship and climbing down this netting. I was very fortunate. The Germans were right there all around us. We knew what we had to do. They wanted us young bloods out there. We were so gung-ho. We wanted it.”
Rostich, who traveled with 25 other men and women, is one member of a large contingent, about 650 area vets and their families, making a four-day pilgrimage to pay tribute to those who fell during World War II and to all those who served and sacrificed.
Today, the men and women will join about 800,000 others to formally dedicate the National World War II Memorial, marking what many call the greatest generation, and celebrate during a “Tribute to a Generation.”
The ceremony will include remarks by President George W. Bush as well as Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks and NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw.
Rostich, who was drafted two weeks out of high school, agreed with some fellow travelers that the memorial is long overdue for the sacrifices made by the service men and women in the war, which claimed more the 52 million lives worldwide.
Donald Smith, 85, a Navy veteran from Carmichaels, said the ceremony will be a fitting tribute to the sacrifices the country made.
Standing near him, his World War II Air Force hat pulled low across his brow, 77-year-old Bill Brant of Uniontown agreed.
“I think we will all enjoy this,” Brant said, noting that while the tribute will be nice, it is something the veterans don’t expect and shy away from. “The way we were raised, we knew what sacrifice was.”
He said that even though he couldn’t bring anyone on the journey with him, Brant felt he should be part of the ceremony.
“My Missus has arthritis too bad, but I had to come, though,” Brant said. “There were four of us who joined together, and I’m the only one still living. I had to be here.”
And so did his comrades.
With some struggle, Smith works his way up the steps of the Supreme Court building. Cane in his right hand, Smith holds onto his wife, Ruth, and keeps his head up.
There is too much to see to watch his feet betray him on the white marble steps, and he learned not to let anything slow him down.
“Things were different. We grew up different,” Smith says. And although he is tired, he flashes a toothy grin as he pushes, one foot at a time, up the brilliant steps.