CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Near the end of his career, famed World War II and Korean War Gen. Douglas MacArthur said, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."
Then he faded away.
Among veterans currently in their own twilight years are those with a historical perspective on our annual Memorial Day salute to Americans who died in military service.
Many will join in the holiday's parade, picnic and party traditions. And some may recall a time when -- but for the grace of fate or luck -- they could have been among the day's honorees.
Their number includes about half of the 13 residents of the Amelia Grace Assisted Living facility in Chester Township.
Richard Clark, 90, served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, training to be a navigator on B-17 bombers for missions in Europe.
Germany surrendered before he could be shipped overseas, so Clark started training on B-29 bombers for duty in the Pacific theater. Again, the shooting stopped with Japan's surrender before he could get into combat.
When asked whether he felt good or bad about missing the action, Clark smiled and said, "My parents certainly felt good. I did my thing for two years. I was available. No, don't feel bad about that."
He knew what price could have been paid. A classmate who served in the Merchant Marine during the war never came home. So on this holiday, he doesn't forget.
"To me, just remembering the guys and gals who had to die during that conflict. That's the biggest thing," Clark said.
Joseph Jayne, 91, said that when he was drafted during World War II, the potential consequences of going to war didn't worry him. "Oh no, we was young, it didn't bother us," he said, speaking for a generation of combatants.
Jayne became a cook with an antiaircraft unit that followed the Allied offensive across Europe. He remembered that at one point his outfit encountered the newly developed German missiles dubbed "buzz bombs" for their distinctive sound.
"You could hear 'em coming," he remembered. "They were hard to hit. They were fast. When they hit the cities, people would scream. They killed a lot of people."
Later, Jayne traded his ladle for a rifle when every able-bodied soldier was pressed into service to stop a German offensive during the Battle of the Bulge. "Everybody went in it," he said. Fortunately, "the Germans, they run out of gas. Otherwise they'd have killed us all."
Jayne said he used to go to Memorial Day parades. His son would play Taps. His daughter would plant her annuals. Now, he'll enjoy the burgers, hot dogs and a residents' favorite treat, root beer floats, during the holiday at Amelia Grace where they've crafted Popsicle-stick American flags for the occasion.
The most senior veteran among Amelia Grace residents is 100-year-old Bob Lukes, who grew up in Cleveland and served with the U.S. Army Air Forces in England during World War II.
Lukes was an ordnance officer who supervised the loading of bombs on B-17s that were sent to attack German submarines and munitions factories. At times, his airfield just outside London was targeted by enemy bombers and buzz bombs.
"We would see them come across the (English) channel and they were headed in our direction, and we'd all run to the protection area," he recalled. "One evening we had, I think, a British fighter plane chasing one of these bombs. He went right over the area where I was located."
His son, Ken Lukes, 68, of Lyndhurst, said during a recent visit to Amelia Grace that his father would take the family to the Memorial Day parade every year when they lived in Cleveland Heights.
Ken Lukes also served in the Air Force, during the war in Vietnam, and said his father had one piece of advice: "You're serving your country. Do the best you can."
Come Memorial Day, his father noted that the holiday's basic message remains unchanged: "It's the memory of the service, the men serving country during the war."
Every Memorial Day since World War II, Amelia Grace resident Lois Stevens, 92, has had an uncle to remember. He died while serving in the Navy. Her two brothers also served in the Navy in that conflict. That's why she enlisted in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).
Stevens wound up doing top-secret office work at a Navy post outside Washington, D.C., and loved it. "I treasure those days," she said. "It was exciting to me because there was a lot of work to be done.
"We were so busy all the time, I didn't have time to even think about, 'What am I doing in the Navy?' " she added. "But it worked out all right. I mean I worked hard, and everybody worked hard, and we finally got it done."
Other veterans at Amelia Grace include Anthony Pace, 89, who was a clarinetist stateside with the Coast Guard band during World War II, and Antoinette (Nettie) Ruppe, 90, who served in the Marine Reserves in the 1960s after getting a phone call from a recruiter who asked if she wanted to see the shores of Tripoli (a line from the Corps' "Marine's Hymn").
She did.
Ray Pugel, 88, joined the Navy during World War II because he figured he'd be safer at sea than on land fighting in the Army or Marines. Nowadays, with a voice hoarse and hard to understand, he relies on people like his grandson, Franklin Popek, 20, of Hinckley Township, to speak for him.
During a recent visit to Amelia Grace, Popek -- repeating his grandfather's words -- said the Navy veteran spent most of the war on the East Coast, but did travel to England on duty.
Popek remembered that on past Memorial Days, "we used to go to the parades and stuff. I was a drum major in my high school band, and Grandpa would always come to that, so that was always fun. For us, now, our traditions have shifted a little."
When the old sailor was asked what Memorial Day means to him, he huddled with his grandson, and replied, through Popek: "It's a chance to remember all your family and friends and peers that served with you, and served since you, and it's an opportunity to remind everyone to make freedom fly forever.
"It should be a constant reminder," he added, "but at least one day out of the year it seems like everyone should take a moment to remember the true heroes."