By Joe Shipton, Jr.

STAUNTON - We've all had the experience of sharing time with a grandparent or older relative who sit us down and tell us a story. If we're lucky, those stories are glimpses into times in history where things were much different.

A time when jumping out of an airplane was a much more risky proposition, or a time when you'd have to spend your 21 birthday in a bamboo hut overseas.

These memories and recollections of our WWII veterans are important enough to be preserved for all time.

KETC Channel 9, in conjunction with other media stations, was in town at the local VFW 1241 Post, here, Monday to try to preserve some of the stories local WWII veterans were willing to share.

Local veterans turned out to be interviewed and to show off some of the memorabilia they had collected during their time in the service.

Medals, photographs, and even old silk maps were on display as the veterans related their own unique experiences during WWII.

Wilbert Sies, of Staunton, was the first to be interviewed. Sies served as a radio man aboard a C-47 dropping supplies alone the China/Burma border during WWII. Sies, who had never seen a plane before in his life until joining the military, was also responsible for relaying the plane's position periodically in case it was shot down.

Sies' plane and others were also responsible for dropping in guerillas to fight the Japanese; and in one case, parachuting five donkeys into China. Sies logged more than 350 combat missions and more than 900 combat hours ferrying supplies to allied forces.

Sies also had the unique experience to fly over the Taj Mahal in India during the war.

"It shined like a mirror" said Sies.

It is experiences such as these that KETC wants to preserve, as part of a large media effort spurred by Ken Burn's WWII documentary.

The individuals who can relate these experiences to us are becoming scarce, and it is important that we as a nation take time to hear these personal accounts while we still can.

The interviews conducted here will be available for viewing online at www.ketc.org by clicking "your stories St. Louis Remembers WWII" and then clicking "search stories."