Low-tech edition
Low-tech edition
Lawrence, Kansas
The Douglas County Memorial of Honor was dedicated on the 2004 Fourth of July weekend, a tribute to Lawrence-area soldiers, sailors, police and firefighters. To commemorate the event, Journal-World reporter Joel Mathis collected stories for the newspaper, 6News and World Online to tell the tales of veterans in the "Portraits of Honor" series.
As fighting raged on and around Iwo Jima in World War II, Walter Wettstein had a feeling his brother -- Harold, a sailor on a Navy destroyer -- was close by. While fending off Japanese air attacks on his small amphibious cargo ship, Wettstein scanned the Pacific Ocean around him.
The first time Germans shot at Ken Pine during World War II, he couldn't shoot back. His rifle was clogged. Pine, a young infantryman from Lawrence, was in a three-truck convoy to Forbach, France, in February 1945 that came under artillery fire.
The work is finally done. Four years and more than $200,000 after then-Mayor Erv Hodges and a small group of Lawrence residents began their efforts, the Douglas County Memorial of Honor will be dedicated this morning at the Lawrence Visitor Center, 402 N. Second St.
Bernie Hill had barely arrived in Korea when enemy mortar shells started dropping all around him. "They told you it took quite awhile for the mortars to zero in on you -- one ahead and one below, like that," Hill, 74, a Lawrence veteran of the Korean War, said recently. "In my experience, there was one ahead of me and the next was in my hip pocket. So it's kind of scary, because I thought I had more time to get in a foxhole than I did, really."
Bernard Kennedy was dead. His buddy thought so -- and would keep thinking so for more than 50 years. Kennedy's wife, Berniece, only had to live with the fear for two months.
Robert Johnson didn't make it to Omaha Beach until the day after D-Day, but that didn't mean the danger had entirely abated. "There was enemy fire, still a good deal of artillery fire on D-plus-one," Johnson, a retired Lawrence resident, said recently of the beach, where he landed June 7, 1944.
Nearly 60 years have passed, but Virginia Visser remembers her visit to Buchenwald concentration camp -- in the days after it was liberated -- as "one of the most searing experiences I've had in my life." Visser, then a young Army nurse serving in World War II, had no idea what she was getting into when offered the tour.
More stories about Lawrence veterans ...
Walter Wettstein, a former coal miner, enlisted in the Navy in 1943. He served on a cargo ship and found combat in the Pacific. Watch clip.
This weekend the Douglas County Memorial of Honor will be officially dedicated. To commemorate that event we're bringing you the stories of a few Lawrence veterans in our Portraits of Honor series. Here is Robert Johnson's story. Watch clip.
Virginia Visser was an Army nurse during World War II. She was one of the first Americans to see the results of Nazi atrocities. Watch clip.
The Douglas County Memorial of Honor, featuring the statue "From the Ashes," was dedicated over Fourth of July weekend, a tribute to Lawrence-area soldiers, sailors, police and firefighters. Watch clip.
When he came home from Army service in World War II 60 years ago, Alan Fisher went back to work and got on with his life. "When we came home, nobody expected there would be a memorial," recalled Fisher, a past commander of Lawrence's American Legion post. "Nobody thought about it."
A month remains until the dedication of a new memorial honoring Douglas County veterans, and organizers say work is on track. "Other than landscaping and waiting for the sculpture, it's all finished," said former Lawrence Mayor Erv Hodges.
The centerpiece of the new Douglas County Memorial of Honor was lowered onto its pedestal Tuesday to the cheers of three dozen people gathered for the event. "Did you see that?" exclaimed former Mayor Erv Hodges, who has led the memorial effort. "It fit!"
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How high do you predict gas prices will get this summer?
"I’ll guess $3.40 around here. Things seem tenuous with the oil supply, so I can see it getting that high. I hope not, but I can see it happening."
— Steve Bradt, brewer, Lawrence
