(Tribune News Service) — Thank you. That was the message from Alex Straatman, city councilman for Kearney, Neb., when he presented two World War II veterans with a medal and a certificate at the assisted living facility Brookestone Gardens on Thursday afternoon.

“Thank you doesn’t seem like enough,” Straatman told Gerald Baker of Kearney and Jack Northrop, who lives by the neighboring city Clay Center. Their families and friends were on hand for the presentation.

The ceremony was part of an initiative launched this year by Gov. Jim Pillen and the Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs to honor the state’s living World War II veterans in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of the war.

Baker was drafted in 1944 and served in the U.S. Army for 18 months. He played the alto sax and clarinet in the Army band.

Northrop enlisted with the U.S. Navy and served from 1943 to 1946.

Asked to speak briefly, Baker talked about the end of the war, when U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki persuaded the emperor of Japan to surrender.

“They didn’t know what to do with the (U.S.) soldiers then,” Baker said. “I was assigned to be a guard in a German prisoner camp. I ended up as a company clerk,” he said.

When Northrop was asked to comment, he looked at Baker and said, “And Navy beat Army in the football game that year.”

During his opening remarks, Straatman said both of his grandfathers were World War II veterans, but he didn’t hear any war stories until his mother’s father finally “slowed down” and shared some of his memories.

That inspired Straatman to join the Army Reserves when he was 31. He has served for 15 years and is now lieutenant colonel and member of the United States Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General Corps.

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