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By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer

The Camp Fannin Association dedicated eight memorial benches at noon Saturday to soldiers of World War II, some of whom trained at the camp before shipping off to Europe and the South Pacific.

Association member John Anderson said the memorial serves as a reminder of the camp's place in history and in honor of armed service men and women of the war. The memorial is on the grounds of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, where the camp was during the war.

Camp Fannin served as a training facility for more than 200,000 U.S. Army Infantry replacements trained between May 1943 and December 1945. After 13 weeks of basic training the soldiers were sent to their posts to fight.

Dave Wendt, of Tyler, took part in one of the last training cycles held at the camp. Atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as he and his fellow soon-to-be-soldiers headed toward the camp. The war ended before it began for Wendt. Wendt said the men on the train were disappointed that they would not fight for their country, but he went through the hard days of training just the same. He left the camp to be part of an occupation force in Germany, serving there for a year. During the ceremony, 61 years later, Wendt was honored with a bench bearing his name, as one of the soldiers who trained at the camp.

Anderson said the majority of those memorialized have been involved with the preservation of Camp Fannin's history and the organization of the association that honors it. The association was formed in 1990 by D.M. Edwards, the son of a WWII veteran. His father was honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Corps at the camp after serving in the Southwest Pacific campaign aboard a B-25 bomber and as an air traffic controller. His father was honored with a bench, dedicated to him by his son.

Benches honoring Disabled American Veterans and veterans of the Battle of the Bulge were also unveiled during the ceremony.

Leon St. Pierre, of Tyler, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and trained at the camp, said the day's ceremony was an honor to those who fought and all who trained at the camp.

"The number of members are getting fewer all the time," he said. "It's good to have this memorial here so the history isn't lost."

The ability to immortalize her husband's passage through the camp with a bench brought Evelyn Axtell and her daughter to the event. Her husband Lester came from California to train. He proposed to his future wife the first time they met at a United Service Organizations' event. He soon shipped out to serve under Gen. Douglas McArthur, hopping from island to island in the Pacific theater of the war. Their two-year courtship consisted of writing letters and on his return they married. He took his family on numerous trips to the camp and shared the stories of his time there. Mrs. Axtell said her husband would be proud of having his name on the camp's memorial.

"It's a very rewarding thing to honor him with this bench," she said. "He gave a lot of himself to Camp Fannin and the association. We are blessed that the memory of Camp Fannin will not disappear into history."