Vet: Remember the USS Colorado

Veterans Day comes around once a year, but veterans like Vic Markley live with their memories year-round. Markley, 87, lives alone in a small apartment in Mitchell where he is surrounded by relics of World War II. Wartime pictures adorn the walls and the bureau and are scattered loosely about. Dixie-cup sailor hats are perched on a curtain rod. On a small globe, a line drawn with a black marker across the Pacific Ocean shows the route of the USS Colorado, BB-45. On the front of Markley’s belt buckle is a likeness of the ship and the words “USS Colorado Alumni Association.” On the back, always in contact with him, is a list of the Colorado’s World War II combat areas: Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Guam, Tinian, Leyte, Mindoro, Luzon and Okinawa.

By: Seth Tupper, The Daily Republic