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a. Note:   WAR IS HELL
 Talcott's war experience began with the melancholy thought that he might never see Lady Liberty again.
  He had been stationed in New York and his last image of America was from the back of a boat, watching Ellis Island fade away.
  "I watched the Statue of Liberty until I couldn't see it anymore," he said.
  Talcott was bound for the battlefields of the European theater. Three years after the December devastation in the Pacific, Talcott's unit enjoyed a brief respite from the carnage. They dined on a Christmas dinner in Southern France.
  "When we got through with dinner, we picked up our guns and walked one mile to the front line," he said. "We could hear the firing going on while we were eating."
  On the a battlefield north of Marce, France, covered in 14 inches of snow, Talcott had his first encounter with land mines. He said the mines were nearly impossible to see in the snow and were taking men all around him.
  He heard screams from people wondering if they still had their arms, legs or eyes.
  "I tell you, that was a baptism," he said.
  The opening experience changed everyone, he said. Some couldn't cope.
  He recalled one man seeing the carnage and turning and running. It was months before he knew what became of that man.
  Four months later, he was asked to stand guard at an injury station in a southeastern German town. When he looked in the tent, he saw "Ol' Dixon," the man who fled.
  "He saw me and he just grinned," he said. "I could have shot him right there."
  Protecting a coward, he said, was unfathomable, especially considering the changes firefights had instilled in him. The killing and death surrounding him had just become a part of life.
  "At that time, shooting another human being -- one more wouldn't have made any difference to us," he said.
  LIFE AT WAR
 Talcott found himself in some of the war's bloodiest battles. It was a semi-relaxing moment, however, that could have done him in.
  After taking the south side of a German headquarters, the American troops were resting in a house, preparing to drive the Germans out of the north end. A crash hit the house and Talcott said he thought it was some guys messing around.
  An artillery shell, at least 2 feet long, had been fired into the house and lodged in a staircase. It was a dud.
  "It was about 18 inches behind my back," he said.
  The accuracy of the German weapons were usually dead-on, Talcott said. The whistling of a tank-fired artillery shell instilled fear in those close enough to hear it.
  "When a shell goes off, you hit the ground and you lay there until you don't hear anything else," he said. "You start gradually looking around to see who's left. Sometimes you see the whole person, sometimes you just see pieces of him."
  On Wake Island, Becker was lined up on a road with other Americans and had a gun put to his head by Japanese soldiers.
  "I thought, 'well Becker,' you made it to 21, but that's as old as you're going to get," he said.
  "Luckily," he added, "I was wrong."
  Years later, he learned that 98 men were executed on the island. Becker was transported to Shanghai, China, to work.
  The only knowledge of the war came from an occasional English version of a Shanghai newspaper.
  "That was only when the Japanese were winning," he said. "They wanted us to know how bad we were getting whipped."
  In 1943, Becker was moved to Japan to work in steel mills. A straw mat about one foot wide in a run-down barracks was home.
  "You feel like your life isn't worth anything -- it isn't," he said.
  Becker was unaware the United States dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945. When the emperor of Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, Becker was free.
  It was his 24th birthday.
  RETURNING HOME
 Talcott endured his last battle in early May 1945. His division paved the way for the capture of Hermann Goering, one of the main architects of Nazi Germany.
  To this day, Talcott has trouble with crowds. With a son living in Washington, he's been to two Seattle Mariner baseball games.
  "I was ready to be out of there by the fourth inning," he said.
  Bright flashes and popping sounds still give Pederson the impression he's being fired at. Though, he said, all the beautiful country he experienced while flying is something he won't forget.
  He's spent many Memorial Days in parades, but now tries to pay respect by leaving flags and flowers at local veterans' graves.
  "It's something that they try to do all over the country," he said, "and I'm proud to be able to do it."
  Talcott said World War II was supposed to be the war to end all wars, but it didn't happen that way. At the time though, he was just happy to see Lady Liberty once more.
  "When we did come back, we came back the same way," he said. "I was waiting to see it. When I did see it, I knew I was going to get my feet on dry ground again."
  Becker, meanwhile, carries with him the image of Old Glory being replaced by a Japanese flag.
  "It's in your mind all the time," he said. "You just can't shake it -- no need to try, but it sure makes you thankful for what you have."
  He said not a day goes by that he doesn't reflect on his experiences. That singular Wake Island image that reminds him how much he appreciates this country.
  "Let's never forget that feeling when the stars and stripes went down and that red ball went up," he said. "That flag means everything."



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