WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and SportsStanley Area Historical Society honors WWII Veterans

Stanley Area Historical Society honors WWII Veterans

Stanley (WQOW) - The Stanley Area Historical Society honored World War II veterans this weekend by holding a public event where vets could talk about their experiences in the war.

Stanley veterans who served in the Pacific during World War II came together on Sunday to share their incredible stories and memories of a war that happened almost seventy years ago.

Don Daniels Sr., a World War II veteran in the Navy, says, "I graduated, and about two weeks later I received a letter from the President, and it said greetings, you have been selected by a group of your friends and neighbors to join the armed services. That made me real happy."

"I saw the raising of the flags the small one, the flag went up, and a cheer went up and down the beaches by everyone," said John Gospodar, a World War II veteran in the Navy.

One veteran, Ewald Koch, a World War II veteran in the Army Air Corps recalled his memories of how he was wounded at Pearl Harbor.

"In the morning of the attack, I was getting ready to go to that church, and these fighters came over, the first thing they were after was the airplanes. I could feel something, and they asked me how bad it was and I said, I don't know, I can't look down."

One man, David Burzysnki, spoke on behalf of his father, Frank Burzysnski, a World War II veteran with the Army, who was a prisoner of war in France who passed away five years ago.

"He always considered himself lucky. We went to Fort Snelling, and he would see somebody with a lost limb, and he say I was a lucky one, I can walk."

A former Navy and Marine, Justin Rosemeyer, was thankful that he was able to stay stateside during the war.

"It's hard for me to imagine, that the good Lord was with me to the point, that instead of going out into the Pacific, I went home with my wife, we were married for sixty years and had eight children."

No matter what their memories, one thing was for sure: they were all thankful they survived to tell their stories.

The Stanley Area Historical Society Museum houses many different artifacts from World War II, including several military uniforms and flags from the U.S. and even Germany and Japan. Every year the historical society holds an event like this.