Washington ? Five Kansas brothers — U.S. Navy veterans all — came together over the weekend for the first time in 17 years. The occasion was the dedication of the National World War II Memorial.

The brothers were raised on a Reno County farm, and after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor they all joined the Navy. They all ended up in the Pacific theater of war.

Obie Banz, then 24, was the first to enlist and was assigned to a 14-inch gun on the battleship USS New Mexico.

Ray followed Obie, leaving classes at Pittsburg State to enlist and eventually become a naval secretary.

Ray’s twin, Leonard, enlisted soon after and became a radioman.

At one point, Ray was able to get together with another brother, Weldon, who was assigned to a landing craft.

Don, only 17 when he enlisted in 1945, was assigned to a ship that was loaded with troops preparing for the assault on Japan that was expected to end the war.

After the war, their lives took different paths.

Before reuniting at the dedication of the World War II memorial, they had last been together at their father’s funeral in 1987.

“I guess I don’t care so much about seeing the monument as I do about reuniting with my brothers and visiting with them,” said Obie, who lives in Chula Vista, Calif., and is a retired president of a utility.

Ray, 82, returned to Kansas, where he became a school administrator.

His twin, Leonard, returned to the family farm and was a rural mail carrier.

Weldon, 80, became an insurance agent in Texas, and Don, 77, worked in the food industry in California.

The crowd at the national memorial waited patiently as the brothers posed together for photographs in front of the Kansas state pillar.