Legacies of the Silver State

From lowering the ramps of landing ships at Normandy on June 6, 1944, to crawling on the snow on their bellies and enduring extremely harsh weather at the Battle of the Bulge, our veterans showed great intrepidness and bravery when facing the enemy. We may never see a generation of men and women like the ones who served during World War II to ensure the world was a safer place — free from the tyranny of leaders and nations. Slowly, the number of World War II veterans diminishes with each passing day, month and year. Newspapermen Steve Ranson, Kenneth Beaton and David C. Henley have interviewed scores of World War II veterans and learned more about them and how they helped the war effort. Additional reporters have also written about our World War II heroes — including Kaleb Roedel's in-depth stories on two Native American veterans. Interviews included POWs, survivors of the Nazi concentration camps and veterans who remember in detail where they were and what they did. On several occasions, veterans flew Honor Flight Nevada trips to Washington, D.C., and most recently to Pearl Harbor in early 2020, and their stories have been documented. It was at that point we felt it was necessary to preserve our past newspaper articles and present them to our current and future generations so they will know of the heroism of the men and women we interviewed. Too many times as authors, we discovered veterans from the World War II era have been very reluctant to tell their stories, but we have also discovered many of them are now more willing to talk about their service to their country. So, too, are the Holocaust survivors because they never want the world to forget the atrocities committed by their Nazi captors.

From lowering the ramps of landing ships at Normandy on June 6, 1944, to crawling on the snow on their bellies and enduring extremely harsh weather at the Battle of the Bulge, our veterans showed great intrepidness and bravery when facing the enemy. We may never see a generation of men and women like the ones who served during World War II to ensure the world was a safer place — free from the tyranny of leaders and nations. Slowly, the number of World War II veterans diminishes with each passing day, month and year. Newspapermen Steve Ranson, Kenneth Beaton and David C. Henley have interviewed scores of World War II veterans and learned more about them and how they helped the war effort. Additional reporters have also written about our World War II heroes — including Kaleb Roedel's in-depth stories on two Native American veterans. Interviews included POWs, survivors of the Nazi concentration camps and veterans who remember in detail where they were and what they did. On several occasions, veterans flew Honor Flight Nevada trips to Washington, D.C., and most recently to Pearl Harbor in early 2020, and their stories have been documented. It was at that point we felt it was necessary to preserve our past newspaper articles and present them to our current and future generations so they will know of the heroism of the men and women we interviewed. Too many times as authors, we discovered veterans from the World War II era have been very reluctant to tell their stories, but we have also discovered many of them are now more willing to talk about their service to their country. So, too, are the Holocaust survivors because they never want the world to forget the atrocities committed by their Nazi captors. Ken has contributed his military articles for many years to the Nevada Appeal, and David's expertise in writing about the USS Nevada and its role during the bombing of Pearl Harbor and at D-Day show the determination of Americans ready to defeat a formidable enemy. We salute our fighting men and women who, at one time in their lives, have called this great state of Nevada their home and to those sailors who served on the USS Nevada and other ships with Nevada-related names. They are all Legacies of the Silver State.

Steven R. Ranson is a retired editor and general manager of a Nevada newspaper, but he still writes articles as military editor for the Nevada News Group and a consortium of Nevada newspapers. During the past 15 years, Steve has written a number of World War II veteran profiles and continues to be active within the veteran community. As a civilian journalist, Steve also traveled to the Arabian Sea in November 2011 to document the training done at Naval Air Station Fallon and how it relates to the operations with a carrier air wing aboard an aircraft carrier. He covers both Naval Air Station Fallon and the National Guard. Steve embedded with Nevada Army National Guard units in Afghanistan twice — in November 2011 and November 2012. In 2011, he stayed with Nevada Army National Guard soldiers at Kandahar and then used Bagram Air Field as a central location. The following year, he travelled to Forward Operating Base Shank and then to Camp Phoenix near Kabul. He received two Military Reporters and Editors awards in 2011 and 2012 for his reporting from Afghanistan in addition to numerous awards from the National Newspaper Association and Nevada Press Association. Steve spent the majority of his 28 years in the Nevada Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve-Panama in public affairs, command information, visual information, commander of state headquarters and battalion adjutant. He is past president of both the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors and Nevada Press Association's board of directors. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism and Masters of Education degrees from the University of Nevada, Reno.