By Alfonso Aguilar
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the issue of 5/27/04)

Sloan Knecht is one of nearly 4 million surviving World War II veterans. He was based on Tinian Island when the Enola Gay took off to drop the first atomic bomb on Japan. He remained there more than two years as a member of the Army Air Corps.

At 95, Knecht is certainly one of the oldest among those who are being honored by a new memorial on the National Mall in Washington. The dedication of the World War II Memorial will take place this weekend.

Although he has hearing problems and other illnesses related to his age, he looks attentive and ready to celebrate another birthday on July 2.

"How do you feel these days," I asked Knecht after he and his wife Cecilia welcomed the HERALD into their house in Falls Church, "a house he built himself, little by little upon returning from the war," said his wife proudly.

"He wants to know, how do you feel today Sloan," repeated Cecilia

"I have some pain in my head," said Knecht, indicating with his hand an area behind his right ear.

"Did you already visit the new memorial in Washington?"

"Yes, he has visited the memorial twice. He liked it, he was happy," replied his wife.

Knecht puts on his jacket for a photo. He, who picks up the mail every day, agrees that it is a sunny day, probably too hot for a bow tie and a traditional blue jacket, but he knows that some formalities always apply forever and everywhere. He walks slowly with the help of his wife and a cane. He chose the background — his huge garden, just in front of an old American flag. Not far away there is a small altar with the image of the Virgin Mary, which reveals two key elements in his long life — patriotism and faith.

"Thanks, thanks, thanks," said Knecht with a smile. Then asked his wife to help him to take off the jacket.

"He’s not strong now, but he has a strong will. He picks up the mail every day, takes a walk around the garden, looks over his collection of albums and sometimes plays the piano," said his wife.

"Sloan, please play the piano, and I’ll sing," she said suddenly. And he began playing beautifully, easily, without reading the music.

"He now plays by memory, by heart, but not very often, not very often now. I do not remember the name of the song. It is a very old song," she said smiling.

In one of his many albums with pictures of soldiers and airplanes from that era, almost 60 years ago, Knecht wrote: "I took these pictures the morning after the bombing of Hiroshima." On another one he wrote: "And now six pages of our artist’s work on the planes that visited Tokyo."

Knecht joined the Army Air Corps when he was 24, but neither he nor his wife remember the day he retired. "Actually, he never retired," said Cecilia. "He is always ready to work for any church around —St. James and St. Philip in Falls Church or Our Lady of Good Counsel in Vienna. He is very charitable. He is brilliant."