Saturday was mostly a day to relax and tell stories with old friends for the World War II Army Rangers and their families who met for a reunion this week in Lawrence.

“Just sitting around and talking about old times with the guys – telling lies,” said Ben Temkin, a sergeant who moved through Europe from Italy during the war with Company D, the 4th Ranger Battalion.

“Telling lies and telling the same stories over again,” quipped Jane Van Cott, of Long Island, N.Y.

“It was fun,” Temkin, of Queens, N.Y., said with a laugh.

Van Cott made the trip to Lawrence with her husband of 59 years, John, a Ranger of the Company D, 5th Battalion, that helped storm Omaha Beach during the D-Day Invasion.

Saturday was special for John Van Cott because he celebrated his 82nd birthday, but he said he was more thankful that six other Rangers in his platoon made the trip to Lawrence.

“To have seven of us here together in the same place is really kind of a miracle,” Van Cott said.

Lawrence area resident Marsha Goff, daughter of a Ranger, helped organize the reunion at the Lawrence Holidome.

“We’ve had wonderful cooperation from the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, Kansas University and others,” she said.

The 60 to 70 Rangers in attendance swapped war stories, caught up on old times and visited several places around Lawrence this week. On Friday, they participated in a memorial service for fallen soldiers at the Dole Institute of Politics.

About 120 family members also made the trip, and the members of the Sons & Daughters of World War II Army Rangers conducted a meeting Saturday afternoon.

Before the evening banquet, many of the Rangers mingled around the Holidome’s lobby. Hollis Stabler, a Ranger who spent part of his childhood in Lawrence, signed his book “No One Ever Asked Me.” Others reflected on the reunion.

“Getting together is the second best thing. The first thing is being alive to get together,” Temkin said.

He and Van Cott praised the people of Lawrence and the reunion’s organizers.

The reunion also presented time to think about lessons from their Ranger days.

“It taught you how to cope with everything and just taught you how insignificant adversity really is,” Temkin said.

He made the trip to Lawrence with his wife, Doris. They planned to fly home today. The Van Cotts said they would head back on Monday.

Ranger profiles

J.T. Westmoreland

Last year when the movie “The Great Raid” was released, J.T. Westmoreland was unprepared for the attention it brought him.

In January 1945, Westmoreland and more than 100 other members of the Ranger’s 6th Battalion volunteered to go behind the lines and free 512 prisoners being held by the Japanese. The movie told the story of the raid on Cabanatuan prison camp.

Westmoreland, 84, of Lexington, Mo., attended a first showing of the movie and was showered with attention afterward.

J.T. Westmoreland, Lexington, Mo., served as a Ranger in the 6th Battalion.

“They took me down to the front of the theater and gave me a standing ovation,” he said. “They were hugging and kissing me. I thought, damn, that was 60 years ago, what’s the big deal about?”

Westmoreland started receiving requests to speak at schools. He still receives envelopes in the mail that contain blank cards. Admirers want his autograph.

“I sign them; I don’t care,” he said.

Westmoreland, a staff sergeant at the time, was “just one of the peons” on the mission, and no star actor portrayed him. The mission was led by Capt. Robert Prince, who also survived and is attending the Lawrence reunion, and Col. Henry Mucci.

“We were lucky. We only lost two men, although a lot were injured,” Westmoreland said.

The movie was fairly accurate, he said.

“They dressed it up some for Hollywood,” he said. “There was more noise (in the movie); more things blowing up.”

After the war, Westmoreland worked for 31 years at the General Motors plant in Kansas City, Kan. The war memories, however, are still strong.

“It all seems like so long ago. It was a long time ago,” he said.

Hollis Stabler

When someone asks Hollis Stabler what he did during World War II, he has a quick answer.

Hollis Stabler, Winnebago, Neb., was a Ranger and served in other Army units.

“Read the book,” the 88-year-old Winnebago, Neb., man says with a smile.

Stabler, who served as an Army Ranger and in other Army units, wrote his memoirs in a book called “No One Ever Asked Me: The World War II Memoirs of an Omaha Indian Soldier.”

Included in his book are experiences in North Africa, Italy and Sicily, and during the “second D-Day” invasion of southern France.

But years before he became a soldier, Stabler lived for a period in Lawrence, attending Quincy School, which was then near the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Mass. His father helped build the memorial stadiums at Haskell Indian Nations University and Kansas University.

Stabler said he enjoyed living in Lawrence.

“It was just a small town then,” he said.

Stabler was seriously wounded when a cannon aboard a German half-track fired on him and another soldier as they attempted to repair telephone lines.

After the war, he was a teacher, coach and administrator at schools in Wichita. He also worked for the Boeing Co. building the B-47 and B-52 bombers.

Stabler will sign copies of his book today from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Ranger Store at the Lawrence Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive.

– Staff writer Mike Belt.