After serving as a gunnery officer in World War II, Jacob Morgan decided to see the wife of a buddy who had been killed in the war.

While visiting, he took a liking to her. In fact, he fell in love. They were married for 40 years.

Such were the bittersweet stories shared Sunday at the “Spirit of ’45 — A Celebration of the End of WWII” at the Liberty Station Conference Center. It was hosted by Honor Fight San Diego.

A nationally recognized celebration, the congressionally mandated event is held the second Sunday of August, known as V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, when President Truman announced the war ended 78 years ago.

The event also marked the 70th anniversary of the end of Korean War fighting, and the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

More than 200 local veterans from each of the eras attended, having lunch, listening to music and a program and swapping war stories.

“This is an event that our veterans look forward to each year, and being able to do this for them is our honor,” said Julie Brightwell, chairman of Honor Flight San Diego. “Our volunteers contacted over 1,000 veterans in our database, and we are excited to have 50 WWII veterans at this event.”
 
The Moonlight Serenade Orchestra Quartet donated services, playing live music before and after the program.

Morgan, who became a captain in the Navy and a colonel during a short stint in the Marines, is one of the veterans who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Meeting his future wife was something good that resulted from the war, he said, but also came out of the hardest part.

For him, Korea was the hardest war to serve in because “I lost my best friend and a lot of other friends.” Some were killed in an explosion. Others went on a mission and didn’t return.

Jacob Morgan, 98, calls himself “just a kid” — reasonable given about a dozen veterans 100 or older attended.

A physician in Vietnam, Morgan went on to serve as a cardiologist at the San Diego Naval Hospital. He later had a practice in Oceanside.

Morgan joined the Navy in 1943, and said he made about 40 discoveries that helped prolong the lives of millions of children. His work was featured in medical journals.

Times of San Diego heard more amazing stories from World War II veterans.

Three-War Survivor

Ed Seffens also endured through World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

For him, World War II was the most difficult because of all that the troops were asked to do. Seffens served on a destroyer.

How did he physically and emotionally survive one war, let alone three?

“I ran fast and I ducked low,” he joked.

On a serious note, Seffens said, “Well, I had a job to do — I was in regular army. That that’s what I was signed up to do — protect our country as best I could. And so I tried to do my best. … And it worked out just fine.”

His father served in the Army during World War I, but he died when Seffens was only 2 years old.

“I never got a chance to meet him,” he said.

Seffens entered the military in 1943 when he was 17.

He appreciates the friendships he made with fellow sailors and soldiers. But he has some misgivings about Vietnam, saying: “We should never gone in there in the first place.”

“We lost 58,000 Americans in Vietnam — very uncalled for. I’m sorry for the dependents and everybody else for those Americans that we lost,” added Seffens, who lives in Warner Springs.

Seffens was part of “the big picture” of the war, he said. “I’m glad I went and I’m glad I made it through them to be back here.”

After the wars, he worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency in Los Angeles.

He married, had four children and now has an amazing number of grandchildren — 49, all of whom he is very proud.

His Uniform Still Fits

Jim Piburn and his wife decided to downsize their belongings because, as he puts it, they are in their 90s and “We’re about to pass from this Earth.”

While cleaning in the attic, he found a box. To his delight the box contained his dress blue Air Force uniform and also a khaki uniform.

“Oh, hell, I was very happy about the whole thing because I thought it was long lost,” he said. Piburn surmised that it had gone to Goodwill or was thrown out with the trash.

On Sunday, he wore his immaculate blue uniform — issued to him in December 1950. It still fit perfectly.

The recruit in front of him in the uniform line that day received a khaki Army Air Corps (precursor to the Air Force) uniform and suggests that he was first in his unit to receive one of the new Air Force ones at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

The most memorable part of his Korean War service was a flight he took as a fire control gunner. He is now the only survivor of that flight.

Piburn’s job was to clear the bomb bay, watch the bombs drop away and call the impact. That would signal the process to photograph the hit.

The day he called the impact, all of the lights in North Korea and Manchuria went out.

“Oh my God, like a switch had been thrown, and we were over 28,000 feet and so we can see like 40 miles, you know, all the way around and all the lights went out, he recalled.

The 2,000-pound, armor-piercing bomb went down the smoke stack of a key hydroelectric power plant during the “attack on the Sui-ho Dam.”

He was with the 98th Operations Group bomber wing out of Yokota Air Force Base. “We took the power away from them on the 12th day of September in 1952, and they agreed to come to the bargaining table as I recall,” he said.

Most of the veterans who shared stories had previously been on their Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.

About his trip to the monuments, Seffens said: “That was one of the nicest things that ever happened to me in my lifetime.

“I’m 97 years old, and if I live another 97, nothing could have been as nice as that Honor Flight. The people on the Honor Flight was so nice. … They are outstanding people, every one of them.”