Video: Ackerman Veteran: Witness to the End of World War Two

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ACKERMAN, Miss. (WCBI) -September 2, 2015 marks the 70th Anniversary of the end of World War Two. As the Japanese signed surrender documents aboard the U-S-S-Missouri, an Ackerman native got a front row seat to History.

R-H Brown has more.

We’ve told you about this 92 year-old harmonica playing veteran who served our country in Viet Nam, without even getting a scratch.

However, while SFC William Brelan Jackson was on duty fighting in Korea, there were some close calls while he and his men came under fire.

“Soon we had a lull in the shelling. I think they must have had somebody looking at me or they wouldn’t have known exactly where to put them shells.”

Only 17 years old at the time and assigned to the USS Nevada during World War Two, Jackson was later transferred to the USS Missouri.

“Nevada had 14 inch guns, Missouri had 16 inch guns and they could throw a shell. And when it landed you got a headache. If you were anywhere around, and survived.”

“I try to imagine what they were feeling through those days and its really hard to imagine that. We know it happened but its really hard to imagine it.”

It was on board the USS Missouri, better known as the “Mighty Mo”, that Japan surrendered.

“I always like to make that distinction of surrender and unconditional surrender. Unconditional means they didn’t have nothing to say about it. They had to surrender whether they wanted to or not and they didn’t want to but they had to.”

“Glad to see them sign it because that meant the war was over with. And I could come home which I did shortly there after.”

Sergeant Jackson received a legislative resolution in the Mississippi House of Representatives, commending him for his brave military service.