How the Bay Area’s last WWII veterans and their families are keeping history alive

Time is running out for the last living U S veterans of World War II At years old next month he declared with a grin Robert Heiss spends his afternoons playing cribbage and devouring murder mysteries at the Veterans Home of California in Yountville where he s lived since At first glance he s a cheerful centenarian enjoying the quiet routines of retirement But as one of the last World War II veterans in the Bay Area Heiss carries memories that still weigh heavily eight decades later Before he was drafted into the war Heiss was just another young boy growing up in San Francisco biking through the city catching a new movie for a dime and invariably making it back by p m for dinner just as his mother reported him Then he grew up a little Related Articles Leadership funding shortfalls put Bay Area senior services at hazard In the City of Souls the living don t fear the dead Retirement in the Bay Area Poll finds various seniors face bare-bones budgets mounting debts Redwood City considers -story tower to serve older residents Women and older adults are driving sales of creatine higher On his th birthday on Dec Heiss s dad woke him up with the news that Pearl Harbor had been bombed The United States would declare war on Japan the next day marking the country s entrance into World War II His life changed in an instant Heiss tearfully recalled On the West Coast we were all scared we could be next he mentioned between sobs How could they get this far without our knowing Capturing the memories of these viewers to war has taken on a new urgency even as they are remembered annually on Veteran s Day The National WWII Museum in New Orleans Louisiana estimates that about U S veterans of World War II are still alive all now in their s or older In California there are an estimated survivors the most of of any state By the national total is expected to fall to just over and by researchers predict there will be no remaining veterans of a war that reshaped the global balance of power The impending loss of those who served during the conflict has led Bay Area organizations to create initiatives to honor the remaining veterans of World War II from dream flights for aging veterans to commemorations at Richmond s Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park which celebrates the Rosies the women who filled factory and shipyard jobs while men fought overseas For the institutions seeking to preserve the narratives of the war various Bay Area veterans have much to share Heiss who joined the Air Force after the Pearl Harbor bombing was sent to England as an aircraft technician serving from June until February After the war he married raised three children and began to think about his legacy His wife Betty who had served in the Navy helped him write a book chronicling their wartime experiences but when she died in Heiss discovered himself finishing the project alone The book became a distraction for me as I was grieving he stated The self-published book The Wonderful Life of Bob and Betty Heiss spans more than spiral-bound pages tracing the couple s story from their preschool days to Heiss s life in current times at the veterans home in Napa County Heiss printed about copies distributing them to his three children extended family and a limited close friends Now he stated his stories can live on long after he s gone A photograph of Robert Heiss and his wife Elizabeth Heiss both veterans of World War II is displayed his room at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville on Monday Nov in Yountville Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group It makes me feel proud to be a part of the Greatest Generation Heiss disclosed tearing up again Steve James a retired financial analyst and Vietnam War veteran has made it his mission to preserve the history of his father Ernest E James who served in World War II Now the treasurer of the Contra Costa Historical Society James recalled sitting around the campfire as a child listening to his father s vivid and sometimes gruesome stories from the front lines Decades later those memories took on new meaning During the COVID- pandemic with quarantine keeping him at home the El Sobrante native turned his attention to a large shoebox-sized container filled with his father s wartime memorabilia Inside were uniform badges handwritten letters maps annotated prayer books and yellowed clippings from a long-defunct newspaper The Contra Costa Independent In the margins of one of his books Ernest James described the moment he killed a German soldier writing that he shot him as he looked out of a window Steve James looks through a collection of World War II memorabilia gathered by his father Ernest James at the Contra Costa County Historical Society on Wednesday Nov in Martinez Calif Steve James a veteran of the Army supporters at the historical society and has donated items from his father Ernest James who served during World War II Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group Steve James holds a military book with notes written by his father Ernest James at the Contra Costa County Historical Society on Wednesday Nov in Martinez Calif Steve James a veteran of the Army participants at the historical society and has donated items from his father Ernest James who served during World War II Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group LeighAnn Davis the executive director of the Contra Costa County Historical Society on Wednesday Nov in Martinez Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group Items from the World War II collection of Ernest James at Contra Costa County Historical Society on Wednesday Nov in Martinez Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group Volunteer Steve James left and Executive Director LeighAnn Davis center in an archive room of the Contra Costa County Historical Society on Wednesday Nov in Martinez Calif James a veteran of the Army supporters at the historical society and has donated items from his father Ernest James who served during World War II Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group Items from the World War II collection of Ernest James at Contra Costa County Historical Society on Wednesday Nov in Martinez Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group LeighAnn Davis the executive director of the Contra Costa County Historical Society on Wednesday Nov in Martinez Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group Memorabilia hangs in the room of Robert Heiss a veteran of World War II at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville on Monday Nov in Yountville Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group Show Caption of Steve James looks through a collection of World War II memorabilia gathered by his father Ernest James at the Contra Costa County Historical Society on Wednesday Nov in Martinez Calif Steve James a veteran of the Army assistants at the historical society and has donated items from his father Ernest James who served during World War II Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group Expand I was looking through the box at his stuff and explained this has to be preserved James disclosed James brought the container to the Contra Costa Historical Society in Martinez which houses millions of historical documents and records from as early as the s When he brought it the memories of his father who died in James reported Executive Director Leigh Ann Davis was ecstatic I geek out on this stuff Davis noted As a historian it feels like a dream come true to be able to create a space where these documents can live forever The urgency of losing firsthand bystanders to history inspired her to start the Archive Yourself undertaking which encourages county residents to preserve their families crucial documents and memories using the organization s advanced digitization services James Scott a veteran of World War II in his room at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville on Monday Nov in Yountville Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group While Heiss kept planes flying fellow San Francisco native James A Scott carried his paints into the Pacific A former art attendee who enlisted in the year-old former corporal sketched portraits of fellow Marines from his foxhole images that several families would later treasure as the last glimpse of their loved ones Although the U S remembers its military veterans each Nov Scott who also lives at the veteran s home in Yountville notes changes in the intervening years It was an major time in our history because everyone felt patriotic at that time and that s something people don t know about anymore he declared In a previous interview with the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia Scott recalled his wartime creativity It wasn t uncommon for complete strangers from other outfits to come to my barracks foxhole or tent and ask for a drawing of themselves Scott explained The sketches that did not make it to families of veterans are now preserved at the Library of Congress A photograph and certificate hang on the wall of James Scott s room at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville on Monday Nov in Yountville Calif Aric Crabb Bay Area News Group