'These people gave everything.' Louisville man works to tell stories of nation's WWII dead

How close World War II soldiers William Blaine and Albert Ross Jr. were in life is unknown, but they've been intertwined since their deaths in 1944.

Though neither is from Kentucky, they share a headstone in Louisville's Zachary Taylor National Cemetery — their resting place selected based off its proximity to both of their hometowns, according to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs' policy then.

Until recently, little was known about the men beyond the circumstances of their deaths. But thanks to Don Milne of Louisville and the hundreds of volunteers he's enlisted, the individual stories of each of the more than 400,000 Americans who died in the war will be attached to their graves online.

So far, Milne and his volunteers have uncovered 16,000 such stories — which includes Blaine's, but not yet Ross' — as part of the Stories Behind the Stars project.

“I’m really appreciative of the sacrifices these people made," Milne said while walking near Ross and Blaine's grave days ahead of Memorial Day. "These people gave everything for this country."

Pointing to the holiday, Milne wants each individual soldier's story to be told because, "The freedoms we have, like enjoying a BBQ this weekend, came at a cost.

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A massive endeavor

Milne's initial goal when he started the Stories Behind the Stars project wasn't quite so lofty. He didn't plan to uncover the stories of all Americans who died in World War II – America's deadliest foreign conflict – he was just hoping to pass some time writing one mini-biography a day.

A self-proclaimed history buff, the war's time period (1941-45) marked somewhat of a bittersweet spot for him — not too far back that information couldn't still be gathered but far enough that the research hadn't been comprehensively recorded.

He remembered hearing on the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor in 2016 that the real heroes were the people who didn't make it back. So he wanted to put more emphasis on their sacrifice.

Almost six years later, the stories of all the soldiers and sailors who died on D-Day and Pearl Harbor have been documented, an app to compile all of the stories has been created, and 20 volunteers have become directors in charge of getting their states' stories done.

While the overall goal is to get through all of the dead's stories, Milne's current focus is getting through those buried at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia.

The app that holds all of the stories, called "Find a Grave," allows people to look up each soldiers' story using their name and date of death.

Milne's hope is that with the technology, cemeteries can be explored more like a museum. He'd love to see teachers organize field trips for students, who can use their smart phones to learn more about those who didn't make it home.

The first and only state to complete the stories for all of their World War II dead is Utah — but Milne expects more to reach that achievement.

It'd just take 2,000 volunteers to do one story per week to finish all of the more than 400,000 remaining names by the 80th anniversary of the end of the war in September 2025, Milne explained.

"Instead of watching 'Saving Private Ryan' for the third time, let's save someone’s name," he often says.

Heather Ritts is one of those volunteers that has dedicated herself to telling the soldiers' stories. She's from the same small town in Pennsylvania as Blaine, who was a second lieutenant. She grew up miles from a memorial that bears his name and those of 57 others from the area who died in that war.

Hearing about Milne's initiative couldn't have come along at a better time.

"It was really a blessing that I found it because at the time, my son was just deployed and I was just kind of a nervous wreck," she said.

The research helped pass the time, and she felt she was making a contribution to the military. She decided she wanted to give the 58 men memorialized in the town square a story.

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Who was William Blaine?

According to Ritts' research, Blaine was 19 when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force. About a year later he was promoted to second lieutenant, and less than a year after that he was killed during his fifth mission of the war. He was a co-pilot on that flight.

He was one of three sons that Bessie Bowman Blane had and was awarded the Air Medal and Purple Heart after dying near Mostar, Yugoslavia, alongside Ross.

Little is known about Ross because his story has yet to be told through the project.

Find a Grave shows Ross was from Indiana and died at age 28 as a second lieutenant. But without looking at Blaine's completed story, one wouldn't know that Ross was serving as the plane's pilot when they were attacked.

The pair share a grave because at the time of their deaths, when military personnel were killed in close proximity and they could not be identified separately, their remains were interred together.

Their resting place is one of several shared graves in Zachary Taylor and hundreds across the country. Group burials were common in the war, particularly for crews of severely damaged planes, ships and tanks, according to the VA's National Cemetery Administration.

'I have to stick with it until it's done'

Ritts' initial plan was to tell Blaine's and the other locals' stories, but once she was finished with those her town's memorial took on a new meaning.

"I look at the whole Memorial Point different now," she said. "It's more than just a place with a bunch of markers there. To me, there’s people there now."

Now, she's Pennsylvania's project director and in charge of onboarding new volunteers.

"I’m addicted — I have to stick with it until its done," Ritts said.

Her hope is that more people will decide to contribute.

"I am just in awe at how Don took something he wanted to do and made it become so big," she said. "It’s impressive. The amount of work he puts into it is amazing. I think it’s a great project and I would love to see other people take interest."

After all, "it’s a huge effort."

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Contact reporter Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Stories Behind the Stars compiles stories of Americans killed in WWII