Tazewell County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds John Ackerman (left) greets Ben Maurer, 99, of Hopedale during a ceremony honoring World War II veterans. (Photo by Tim Alexander/for Chronicle Media)

The massive, black curtain adorning the stage of the Bertha Frank Auditorium on the campus of Morton Community High School parted to reveal 14 seated veterans of the Second World War, ranging in age from as “young” as 95 to a seasoned 106, backed by a giant American flag flown vertically from center stage.  

A near-overflow audience of more than 400 people, many quite emotional, came to their feet to applaud and honor the WWII veterans who, for two hours, would share their personal recollections, stories and experiences with those lucky enough to be in attendance.  

By the time the veterans — whom each call Tazewell County their home — had finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. In addition, plenty of laughs were shared and hugs exchanged. The stories they told painted a real-life portrait of the Second World War from the viewpoint of some of the few remaining souls who lived it and kept the audience rapt with attention.  

“When you see these gentlemen, you pay your respects,” said Steve Saal, superintendent of the Tazewell County Veterans Assistance Commission and commander of Pekin’s Post 44 American Legion Chapter, who helped introduce the veterans. “These are truly the greatest generation.” 

In total eight of the surviving WWII Tazewell County veterans are from Pekin (though not all could attend the ceremony). In addition, three are from Hopedale, two are from Washington and the remaining three are from Morton, Tremont and Green Valley. At one point there were 16.2 million WWII veterans nationwide, but that number has trickled down to around 80,000, Saal noted.  

In order to locate the local veterans, Tazewell County Clerk and Recorder of Deeds John Ackerman and others combed through election databases and American Legion Post records, while verbally passing the word that they were seeking WWII veterans to honor on Memorial Day. 

“Many of them are leaving us, continuously,” said Ackerman, alluding to the fact that there were over 100,000 living U.S. WWII veterans as recently as 2023. “It will not be long before their voices go silent forever. Before that happens, we need to make time to capture their stories, to listen to their stories.” 

 Living Legends share precious memories 

Those stories were forthcoming over the next two hours, beginning with Max Tessier, a 101-year-old

Fourteen World War II veterans from Tazewell County attended a Memorial Day ceremony at Morton Community High School. (Photo by Tim Alexander/for Chronicle Media)

Washington man who served three years from 1942-45 in the U.S. Army with the last 1½ years spent in the Philippines. Tessier, like most war veterans, was modest about his role in the defense of our nation and the free world.  

‘I was moved to Leyte, which is where we got into air raids. On New Year’s Eve 1944 or 1945, the Japanese dropped a whole raft of personnel bombs right down on the area where we were camped. You could hear those babies go off and whistle, but if you were in a foxhole where you belonged you were pretty safe. That was the end of it for me before they shipped me back to the States and discharged me,” said Tessier, who returned to central Illinois to enjoy a long career as a respected agriculture educator and administrator.  

Stuart Ruch, 99, of Hopedale, joined the armed services in 1943 immediately after high school. After basic training in Texas, Ruch ended up serving as a bombardier in the U.S. Air Force and flew 13 missions over Japan. He sadly recalled one day late in the war when he and his squadron were deployed to firebomb a Japanese town, which he did not name. 

“It was burnt to the ground,” the veteran airman reflected. “We flew one or two more missions dropping bombs, and the last one was on the 12th of August (1945). We had about 20 aircraft in my platoon, and we were then given the job of transporting Japanese prisoners of war down to Manila. That was a very gut-wrenching job, because the prisoners were malnourished and in such bad shape.”  

Some of the World War II veterans, who attended the Memorial Day ceremony. (Photo by Tim Alexander/for Chronicle Media) 

Some veterans were brief and succinct, such as Richard Lohnes, who at 106 was the oldest of the veterans able to attend.  

“I had a job to do, and I decided I’ve got to do it,” he said of his service, which ran from January 1943 to 1945. “So I did it.” 

After the war, Lohnes served his community as the first fire chief of the Green Valley Protection District for 26 years. The Green Valley baseball and softball fields were named for him in 2017. 

Arthur Reynolds, 101, teasingly said he would write a book about his experiences in the war “but every time I start I forget everything I know.” The Washington resident joined the Navy and served for three years “chasing submarines” from U.S. and Canadian coastlines.  

“They tried to get in, coming from Canada and Alaska under the ice, until the Navy sank them. And that was the end of that,” Reynolds recalled.  

Many of the veterans onstage at the Frank Center, including Ray Bianchi, 96, of Pekin, served in postwar roles that sometimes involved occupation and reconstruction of foreign lands. He joined the Navy in January of 1946, just months after the official end of WWII. After boot camp, Bianchi boarded a ship bound out of San Francisco to Pearl Harbor and on to Guam, where he was based.  

In a lighter moment, Bianchi shared a story about encountering bare-breasted native women while patrolling one of the Mariana Islands.  

“We decided ‘hey, why don’t we go get them some T-shirts.’ So we got them some of our white T-shirts. The very next day we saw that they had cut two holes in their t-shirts,” he said, producing the largest laughs of the afternoon. 

 Community, civic leaders express gratitude 

Mayors or other appointed leaders from the communities the veterans hailed from were in attendance to issue proclamations of honor. Some also came with official proclamations from state lawmakers to present to the vets. In addition, the Tazewell County Board, 87th District Rep. Bill Hauter, and members of the DAR, SAR, Tazewell County Historical and Genealogical Society and Greater Peoria Honor Flight were also on hand to honor the group.  

Including those who were onstage for the Memorial Day Veterans Appreciation Event in Morton,

A Color Guard was part of the ceremony. (Photo by Tim Alexander/for Chronicle Media)

Tazewell County’s surviving WWII veterans include: 

Robert Hacker, 95, Pekin 

Carl Harris, 95, Pekin * 

Louis Steger, 95, Pekin * 

Ray Bianchi, 96, Pekin * 

Allen Gale, 96, Pekin 

Robert Lake, 96, Morton * 

Wendell Polson, 96, Hopedale * 

Walter McCabe, 97, Pekin * 

Ben Maurer, 99, Hopedale * 

Stuart Ruch, 99, Hopedale * 

William Waddell, 99, Pekin * 

Max Tessier, 100, Washington * 

William Elliot, 101, Tremont * 

James Johnson, 101, Pekin * 

Arthur Reynolds, 101, Washington * 

Richard Lohnes, 106, Green Valley * 

Dean Smith, East Peoria  

(*Present onstage)