By Jack Brammer

Kentucky Lantern

The lean, bespectacled veteran from Kentucky sat silently in the early evening of Aug. 14 on a stage in the cavernous U.S. Freedom Pavilion in the National WWII Museum.

With vintage war planes hanging overhead from the ceiling, Sanford L. Jones Sr. of Richmond peered out at an audience of about 300, mostly tourists. With him were Emily Drake of Pennsylvania and Lewis Harned of Wisconsin, ready for a discussion to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

The deadliest conflict in history — causing the deaths of 70 million to 85 million people, more than half of them civilians — officially came to an end on Sept. 2, 1945. Terms of surrender were signed by Japanese officials aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay and accepted by

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