National Spirit of '45 Day brings forth a flood of personal stories

. . . Clayton P. Graybill, Joseph Guizio Jr., Bernard V. Fite . . .

 Their names are forever etched into the base of the Angel of the Resurrection at 30th Street Station, a memorial honoring more than 1,300 employees of the Pennsylvania Railroad who died in World War II.

WWII veterans - the country's "Greatest Generation" - were honored Sunday at a ceremony in front of the towering sculpture by Walker K. Hancock, also a veteran.

The observance was one of hundreds across the country, with Philadelphia hosting the official opening ceremony. A two-day tribute was held over the weekend on the Battleship New Jersey in Camden.

Last year, Congress declared the second Sunday of every August the National Spirit of '45 Day. This year it coincided with Aug. 14, 1945, when President Harry S. Truman announced the end of the war.

Warren Logan Sr., 85, remembers that day 66 years ago. The retired Amtrak supervisor was a young Navy gunner's mate aboard a ship passing through the Panama Canal, headed to fight in the Pacific. That's when he heard the war was over.

"There was a lot of relief," Logan said, waiting for Sunday's ceremony at the train station to begin. Men on the ship cheered when they heard the news, he said.

Logan, of Morrisville, was about 16 when he dropped out of high school, fibbed about his age, and followed his three brothers into service. He retired from Amtrak in 1988.

Of the 16 million WWII veterans, the youngest now in their 80s, approximately 1.98 million are still alive, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

As part of the tribute, a 50-foot-long banner decorated with 1,000 images of WWII veterans was on display.

One of the photos was of William Art "Otto" Bilger of Port Richmond, who was sitting in the crowd.

The Port Richmond native, now 90, said he helped ferry troops and supplies during the war. He saw action in Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, and other big battles.

The baseball hat William Bilger wore was decorated with "bric-a-brac," the ribbons and pins he received for service as a radio operator aboard C-46 and C-47 aircraft during the war. He pointed out his discharge pin, a presidential citation, distinguished unit badge, and good conduct pin.

Bilger was at the ceremony to watch his son, Edward Bilger, deputy executive director of Buglers Across America, conduct the band.

A featured speaker, Deanie Hancock French, 64, of Gloucester, Mass., daughter of sculptor Walker Hancock, spoke about her father's statue and his lifelong love of art. She grew up looking at the plaster casts of the angel holding a fallen soldier that were kept in her father's studio. It was her father's experience in WWII that inspired the sculpture, she said.

"He couldn't have done this, it wouldn't have been so eloquent," she said.

Hancock was one of the Monuments Men, a group charged with retrieving priceless art looted by the Nazis. Their efforts are chronicled in the documentary Rape of Europa.

Near the end of the war, Hancock went to Siegen, Germany, in search of art. He learned the townspeople had been living in a cave with the art treasures. In a tense situation, her father entered the cavern. A young German boy walked over and took his hand, Hancock French said.

"That broke the ice," she said.

After the ceremony, Edward Bilger went up to Hancock French to thank her for telling her father's story.

"Everyone has a big story," she said of the veterans.

. . . Miles Cleland, Frank J. Catania, Paul A. Bennett . . .