Ken Newton/St. Joseph News-Press

Charles Baird, whose father was a World War II veteran, stands beside a 1954 Chevrolet, a reminder of the car dealership his family ran for three generations in Hiawatha, Kan.

Charles Baird hears the clock ticking. That seems impossible when he looks at the photographs.

The pictures show young men — no, boys — in military attire and ready to defend a way of life.

One face, his father, Jim Baird. Another, Richard Gaston, Jim’s boyhood chum. In Hiawatha, Kan., they went to school together, played sports together.

War broke out, and their nation needed them both.

“Coming from a small, rural area, you were really protected from the evils of the world,” Charles says. “All of a sudden, you’re trained and thrown into combat ... as a boy.”

Jim became a tank commander, working toward Hitler’s defeat through the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany. Richard went into the Air Corps, serving as a tail gunner in a B-17.

Germany’s defeat allowed Jim a return to Hiawatha, where he started a National Guard unit and went into his father’s car business. Richard died on a bomb run in July 1943.

In 1950, Jim would name his son Charles Richard Baird.

Charles looks at old pictures today and sees kids who saved the world. And a clock ticks.

Numbers vary on how many American World War II veterans die each day. Some estimates have it at 1,100. Others have it at 1,500.

Charles Baird, whose father died in 1985, wants to do something for the survivors. Since December, he and others with Hiawatha roots have been raising money to provide Brown County veterans a chance to see the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

It honors the 16 million men and women who served in the U.S. armed forces during that war, and particularly the 400,000 who died.

The trip happens this month. “Time’s of the essence,” he says.

Charles never served in the military but feels a duty to honor these veterans. He got an early grounding in the dedication of those who served.

Mr. Baird left Hiawatha High School in 1968 and headed to college while other classmates served in Vietnam. In the early 1970s, he went with his family to Europe, following the trail that Jim Baird’s tanks traveled to the Battle of the Bulge and beyond.

Charles marveled at his father’s recall of the places and events, almost needing no map to navigate the foreign soil. But the elder Mr. Baird failed in his attempt to find the grave of Mr. Gaston in American military cemeteries. Still, Charles recalls, “I can really remember the feeling of him in spirit there.”

The young man became the third generation in the car business, staying involved in the family enterprise for 20 years but never really having the passion. So he started an ornamental iron business with his wife, Caicey, whom he married in 1975.

A high school classmate, Connie Parker, called him late last year. Living in the nation’s capital, she got off a plane one day and saw a group of older veterans in the airport. They were on their way to the World War II Memorial, and the excitement was evident.

Her message that day: We have to do this for the men we’ve known all our lives.

So the effort started, first putting together a list of surviving local veterans, then inquiring about their interest and finally raising funds. About two dozen are lined up for the one-day visit to Washington.

After word got out for the project, a donation arrived from Overland Park, Kan. It came from Richard Gaston’s sister.

She became a source of information about his father’s friend, bringing to Hiawatha a tub of old letters, pictures and mementos. The woman also supplied news that Mr. Gaston’s remains had been recovered and placed in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.

“Out of the blue, because I get involved in this, I find out the whole history of the man I’m named after,” Charles says.

Every veteran to whom Charles Baird speaks has a story to tell. Every story is interesting, he says.

For the World War II veterans, he hopes a trip to see the memorial honoring their service adds to their remembrance.

Ken Newton can be reached at kenn@npgco.com.