70 Years after Service, World War II Veteran Receives Purple Heart

More than 70 years after being wounded in one of the deadliest battles of World War II, Cecil Stephens was honored Friday with the Purple Heart.

The 90-year-old Merced man's service was recognized by the Merced Veterans of Foreign Wars, the county Board of Supervisors, and representatives from the offices of Assemblyman Adam Gray and Rep. Jim Costa, among others, while he was surrounded by family and friends at the Hampshire retirement community.

It was an honor long overdue.

Cecil Stephens was injured in the Battle of Okinawa during WWII on May 14, 1945

Born in Manchester, Tenn., in 1925, Stephens moved to Merced in the 1930s.

He was just 19 when he joined the 1st Marine Division in Japan as a private first class in 1944. The next year, he found himself in the Battle of Okinawa in the Ryukyu Islands, where the young Stephens manned a Browning automatic rifle and, on May 14, 1945, was wounded. "I was the one they were after all the time," he joked.

Even now, he said, the shrapnel remains in his leg.

The three-month Battle of Okinawa was one of the fiercest of the war. Of the 180,000 U.S. servicemen sent to Okinawa, more than 12,500 were killed, and about 38,000 were missing or wounded, according to the Marine Corps Association and Foundation. The Japanese military lost at least 70,000, and anywhere from 40,000 to 150,000 Okinawans are believed to have perished during the battle.

After the war, Stephens returned to Merced and worked as a county mechanic for 36 years before taking various part-time jobs in local eateries.

Stephens didn't talk much about his time at war, according to his family. He saw a lot of people die, and his memories were the sort of thing people try to forget.