Georgia veterans recall World War II service, making history, and the importance of remembering

MARIETTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Veterans Day has been around since 1954. As time passes, there are fewer and fewer veterans who served before that time.

Numerous museums, nonprofits and other organizations work to keep that history alive, including the Aviation History and Technology Center museum in Marietta.

“Veterans are also kind of like superheroes!” Fiona Rainwater said to a group of elementary-age children.

Kids from across North Georgia took tours this Veterans Day. At the Aviation Museum, they also made “Thank You” cards.

“I look at it as a great adventure,” said World War II veteran Robert Earl Brown, 98. “I’m a small-town boy from Waycross, Georgia.”

Brown is one of six children and enlisted as soon as he was eligible as a teenager.

“I’m as proud of my service as anybody possibly could be,” he said.

Brown served aboard wooden PT boats, specializing in disrupting German cargo vessels.

“We were designed to come out, hit hard, and run like hell,” he said.

It’s men like Brown who created history, long before the history at the Aviation Museum got off the ground, but 97-year-old veteran Glenn Gray made sure they did get off the ground.

“I’m hanging in pretty good for 97,” Gray said.

Gray hunted hurricanes for three years as a Navy pilot in the late 1940s, then became a test pilot for Lockheed.

“[I flew] every type and model of airplane that was built here from 1957 to 1990,” he said.

Together, the two veterans traveled the world and helped topple empires.

“I’m not sure we realized how consequential things were in those days,” Gray said.

Now, they’re called upon to remember and to teach. They spend their days talking about their victories and their losses.

“My brother lost his life over there,” Brown said. “He was a waist gunner on a B-17.”

They’re called the Greatest Generation.

“People adjust to whatever is going on and do whatever is necessary to survive,” Gray said.

They hope nobody ever forgets how great.

“I had a young man ask me once, ‘Are you a hero?’ and I said, ‘You’re damn right, I’m a hero.’ All veterans are heroes,” Brown said.

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