The guests of honor at this weekend’s Rails to Victory World War II reenactment and encampment in South Elgin are two men who experienced the war firsthand more than 80 years ago.

Duane Stevenson, 100, of St. Charles, and Bob Marshall, a 101-year-old Franklin Park resident, fought in the Pacific during the war and are scheduled to attend the first day of the two-day event being held Saturday and Sunday at the Fox River Trolley Museum.

“That generation is coming to an end,” museum member Ron Ruhl said. “We want those who are still around to know that their sacrifices will never be forgotten, and we were fortunate enough to be able to invite these men who served back then.”

The reenactment features actors playing out a variety of scenes along a series of trolley ride stops, capturing not only battle scenes but others involving incidents that would have taken place during the war. Because there will be theatrical gunfire and recreations of military fights, it may not be appropriate for younger children, organizers said.

Two trolley rides are offered on each day and take participants on a tour of the camp and to different scenes along the route over the course of two to three hours.

Ruhl said the museum was able to invite Marshall because he knows him from their involvement with American Legion Post 974 in Franklin Park, where they both live. Stevenson was a guest at Rails to Victory event in 2023.

With help from Colinette Marshall, his wife of 42 years, Bob Marshall provided an overview of his time in the service and life thereafter.

Marshall enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps shortly after graduating from Lane Tech High School in Chicago, serving from October 1943 until June 1946. He worked primarily as a radio operator and eventually attained the rank of staff sergeant.

His tour included time on the Philippine islands of Mindanao and Malingin. Once the war ended, Marshall remained in the military and while stationed in Beijing, took part in missions delivering supplies by cargo plane to bases across Asia and the Pacific, he said.

“I was lucky that I didn’t see combat,” Marshall said.

He returned to Chicago, attended Roosevelt University on the GI Bill, moved to Franklin Park, married and started a family, Collinette said. After his first wife died of cancer, he met Collinette when they both worked at Automatic Electric in Northlake.

Marshall was very involved in the community, serving as a Franklin Park police and fire commissioner for 15 years, a member of the local Kiwanis Club for 50 years and an AARP driving teacher for 25 years. He and Collinette were active with the Franklin Park American Legion Post and made frequent trips to the Hines VA Hospital near Maywood to visit veterans being cared for there, they said.

“It’s important to reach out to those who have served,” Colinette said.

When Marshall reached his centennial year, Franklin Park Mayor Barrett Pedersen declared May 7 to be Robert Marshall Day.

The attention has been “fabulous, but it’s made me exhausted,” Marshall said. That said, he and his wife are looking forward to the trolley museum event, he said.

Stevenson is an Elmhurst native who was drafted into the Army at age 19 and served from 1943 to 1946.

As part of a combat engineering corps, Stevenson said he fought in Guam, the Philippine island of Leyte and Okinawa, Japan. He “never goes into the details, just the highlights” of his time in the military, where he was never injured but saw many killed, he said.

“Okinawa was one of the worst battles of all,” Stevenson said.

After the war ended in the Pacific, he was stationed in Japan and was part of a unit that visited Hiroshima, destroyed by an atomic bomb dropped on Aug. 6, 1945. What he saw remains with him to this day, he said.

“It was devastating,” Stevenson said.

After being discharged, Stevenson returned to Elmhurst, first working as a truck driver and later as a real estate agent. He and his family lived in Lombard for a time before building a home along the Fox River in St. Charles more than 30 years ago.

Stevenson’s wife died of cancer in 2010, and one of his two daughters is also deceased. He lives independently, and he still drives, he said.

To mark his 100th birthday in 2023, St. Charles recognized Stevenson at the town’s Veterans Day ceremony. This past November, he was filmed for a YouTube video discussing his war experiences with students from Bell Graham Elementary School. He told them he was never afraid during combat because he believed death was inevitable.

That he survived to reach the age he has was not expected, Stevenson told The Courier-News. “Luck’s been on my side all these years,” he said.

The two veterans will be watching events and speaking with attendees as part of the event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, with trolley expeditions leaving at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Reenactments also will be held on Sunday, with rides starting at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Tickets cost $24.

For tickets and more information, go to foxtrolley.org/visit/special-events/rails-to-victory.

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.