Hundreds Kiss In NYC In Honor Of The End Of WWII

NEW YORK -- Hundreds of couples donned sailor hats and nurse's caps and smooched in Times Square on Saturday to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II.

The couples were re-enacting the famous Life magazine photograph of a nurse being passionately kissed by a sailor at the end of the war. A 26-foot statue replicating the original photo was also erected for the celebration.

World War II veterans and their children on hand for the kiss said they want today's generation to remember the sacrifices of those who fought in the war.

"I want to keep that day alive," said Rocco Moretto, 86, a retired infantry staff sergeant now living in Queens.

Moretto, who stormed Omaha Beach on D-Day and arrived in Times Square in his uniform, kissed his friend Margie Zwick, who served in the Women's Army Corps.

"It was terrific," he said of the kiss. "It's been a long time coming."

The Keep the Spirit of '45 Alive! grass roots campaign was holding a series of events around the country marking the day.

Edith Shain, who said she was the nurse in the original photo, died in June at the age of 91.

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Missing WWII Airman From Virginia Identified

WASHINGTON (WAVY) - The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced Friday that the remains of seven Army airmen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Pfc. Richard M. Dawson, of Haynesville, Va., along with Capt. Joseph M. Olbinski, of Chicago; 1st Lt. Joseph J. Auld, of Floral Park, N.Y.; 1st Lt. Robert M. Anderson, of Millen, Ga.; Tech. Sgt. Clarence E. Frantz, of Tyrone, Penn.; Pvt. Robert L. Crane, of Sacramento, Calif.; and Pvt. Fred G. Fagan, of Piedmont, Ala., were identified and all are to be interred July 15 in Arlington National Cemetery.

According to the military, on May 23, 1944, the men were aboard a C-47A Skytrain that departed Dinjan, India, on an airdrop mission to resupply Allied forces near Myitkyina, Burma. When the crew failed to return, air and ground searches were initiated, but found no evidence of the aircraft along the intended flight path.

In late 2002, a missionary provided U.S. officials a data plate from a C-47 crash site approximately 31 miles northwest of Myitkyina. In 2003, a Burmese citizen turned over human remains and identification tags for three of the crew members.

A Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) team excavated the crash site in 2003 and 2004, recovering additional remains and crew-related equipment—including an identification tag for Dawson.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of some of the crewmembers' families – as well as dental comparisons in the identification of the remains.

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Nurse In Times Square Photo Dies

The woman depicted in an iconic photograph kissing a zealous American sailor in a 1945 Times Square photo died Sunday at age 91.

Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured the shot, which was first published in Life Magazine a week later. The nurse's identity was unknown until the 1970s, when Shain wrote to Eisenstaedt that she was the woman in the photograph.

In his autobiography "The Eye of Eisenstaedt," the photographer writes: "I was walking through the crowds on V-J Day, looking for pictures. I noticed a sailor coming my way. He was grabbing every female he could find and kissing them all young girls and old ladies alike. Then I noticed the nurse, standing in that enormous crowd. I focused on her, and just as I'd hoped, the sailor came along, grabbed the nurse, and bent down to kiss her."

Life Magazine acknowledged Shain as the woman in the now famous picture, and since then she has become a WWII icon herself. Shain was frequently invited to memorials, wreath-layings and parades.

"My mom was always willing take on new challenges and caring for the World War II veterans energized her to take another chance to make a difference," her son Justin Decker said in a statement, MSNBC reports.

"Now if this girl hadn't been a nurse, if she'd been dressed in dark clothes, I wouldn't have had a picture," wrote Eisenstaedt. "The contrast between her white dress and the sailor's dark uniform gives the photograph its extra impact."

Shain died at her Los Angeles home on Sunday. She leaves behind three sons, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

www.msn.com