HENRICO COUNTY, Va. β Eighty years ago this week marked the formal end to World War II when Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allies aboard a US battleship in Tokyo Bay.
Surviving veterans of that war are close to 100 years old or older.
One such veteran is Henrico's Bill Reeves, who told our Bill Fitzgerald that he served on the USS Arlington, a transport ship based out of San Francisco.
Originally from Chattanooga, the 98-year-old Reeves says his family realized that when he turned 18 he would be drafted in 1944. He wanted to defend his country on a ship.
"My mother and dad let me join early because they knew I didn't want to go in the Army when I was 18 years old," said Reeves. "That's what would have happened. That's the reason I joined the Navy at 17."
The war ended about a year after he signed up and Reeves says he remembers vividly the joy on board while bringing troops back from Tokyo when a familiar landmark came into view.
"When we hit the Golden Gate Bridge, we began to hear horns blowing," Reeves said. "And water. When we got through that bridge, you never saw as many boats as ever were there. And every one squirting water up."
The longtime corporate manager with Sears Roebuck department stores and father of four daughters was transferred to Richmond in 1970.
In his free time, Reeves studied painting at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and became an accomplished artist in retirement.
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