WASHINGTON, D.C. – Less than one percent of the nearly 16-million Americans who served during World War II are still alive today. Almost every Wednesday, one of these veterans visits the World War II Memorial in our nation’s capital, greeting visitors and veterans who stop by. This veteran does this voluntarily in hopes of teaching visitors about the war and about the hardships Americans and servicemembers faced.
“Here we are at the World War II Memorial and it’s a beautiful memorial,” said Thomas Evans, a World War II veteran. He’s just a couple years shy of 100 years old but he’s still full of energy.
“I was in the service in 1944 got out at 1946,” said Evans.
Evans was 14 years-old when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Empire of Japan. Three years later, he joined the service.
“I was considered a child and there were about a quarter of a million of us children all the way down to age 14 who served in the war,” said Evans. “Most of them saw action, I did not. I was trained as a radioman. I wore earphones, had a telegraph key and a typewriter. I sent and received messages at the radio base at Pearl Harbor.”
Evans lives near Washington, D.C. One day while he was here at the World War II Memorial, he came across a group of veterans visiting DC on an Honor Flight.
“So I got to thinking about it: maybe I could come here, learn more about the memorial and share it with people,” said Evans.
Almost every Wednesday for the past eight years he’s done just that. He shares bits of information about the Memorial and the war for those who stop by.
“This is a replica of the WWII Victory medal, and it was awarded to all 13-14 million of us who served during WWII,” said Evans to a group of tourists.
He hopes the people he encounters learn from him about the war, how it started and the sacrifice millions of Americans made.
“It wasn’t until the war that really brought us all together,” said Evans. “That we had a common thing to do we had to get through this war.”
He doesn’t ask for anything in return but these visitors thanked him for his service.
“I would like people to feel the significance that ten percent of our population went to war and protected all the people that are here today; to have the freedom of speech, voting, education and to stop nagging each other and accept each other,” said Evans.
