SEQUIM — To observe the 75th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4760 held a special luncheon and presentation and hosted dozens of veterans — including four local World War II veterans.
Three of the four men served with the American Merchant Marines: Lee Cox, 94, and Robert “Bob” Barbee, 94, both of Sequim, and Art Bradow, 94, of Port Angeles. Claude Giles, 93, of Sequim served in the Army Air Corps.
Barbee said in his conversations that this was the most Merchant Marines and VFW members he had seen together in a while.
John Rust, senior vice-commander of the VFW of Washington, also was in attendance at the June 8 meeting.
Event organizers said they felt honored to have four World War II veterans join the many other veterans who served in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and many other places.
For the afternoon event, former post commander Neil Gamroth shared the history of D-Day and how its impact helped turn the tide of the war against Nazi Germany.
He said experts estimate more than 71 million people died across the world during the war and that as of 2017 there were more than 400,000 U.S. World War II vets still alive.
Cox said he joined the Merchant Marines at age 16 and served from 1942 to 1947 all over the world, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. Cox has been with the VFW in some capacity for more than 25 years including the past 15 in Sequim, he said.
Barbee said he had just arrived in Seattle on D-Day after eight months of island hopping in the South Pacific while serving as a “grease monkey.”
Bradow said he served in the Pacific Ocean in an engine room during the war and at one point his ship was torpedoed and they had to wait to be picked up.
Giles said he was in high school during D-Day and he joined the Army Air Corps at 18 but he didn’t go to flight school as a Navy pilot until 1947.
He worked for 21 years as a pilot serving in the Korean War and Vietnam War in different capacities.
For more information about Sequim VFW Post 4760, 169 E. Washington St., see vfwpost4760.com or call 360-683-9546 or 360-683-9123.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
