News : Veterans lead celebration of 70th anniversary of end of WWII

Veterans offer a rifle salute to those who died in WWII, during Saturday's 70th anniversary event.

These men served their country during WWII and celebrated its end 70 years ago this month.

For Americans, August 1945 arrived with a mixture of elation and fear. American troops were among other Allied forces occupying France at the end of the war in Europe – which was also for much of Eastern Europe the beginning of the reign of the Iron Curtain as Soviet troops made it clear that the end of WWII was the beginning of the Cold War.

And in the Pacific, Japan had made it clear that it was prepared to fight until the bitter end – U.S. forces were conquering islands, heading westward toward a planned invasion of the Japanese homeland.

But in the first week of that month, President Harry S. Truman made the decision that would end WWII but begin the nuclear arms era. After the bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, 1945.

On Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015, dozens of veterans, including several World War II vets, gathered at Celebration Park in Vinton to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, and to share their memories.

“Harry Truman saved my life,” said one Navy veteran, a Seabees who said America was two weeks away from invading Japan when the A-bombs led to the surrender. The Seabees were engineers who went in with the first wave of troops to prepare roads and other infrastructure for invading forces.

Other World War II veterans who attended Saturday’s celebration were in Europe, where Germany had surrendered a few months earlier. The surrender meant they could soon count on heading home. Still others were just finishing basic training when Japan surrendered; they would never see battle in the South Pacific.

Of the more than 400,000 Americans who died during World War II, more than 100 were from Benton County. Saturday’s ceremony included the reading of the names of those who died between the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the summer of 1945, and the ringing of a bell accompanied the reading of each name.

There were also displays of WWII-era items, and the playing of records from the 1940s. Members of the three area community bands also played a variety of music from that period in honor of those who did their part to help win the war.

See more photos HERE.