CANFIELD — Soldiers and Sailors Museum historian Michael Kraus described the tale of John Pinder Jr.’s battle to establish radio communications on the beaches of Normandy as part of his recent presentation to the World War II Heritage Society.

He began with a brief explanation of D-Day and how his Pittsburgh museum looks for artifacts that can tell personal stories.

“With D-Day, you know all the planning and the execution and so forth. But I’m going to use the collection of soldiers and sailors to tell stories about people. That’s what we do at Soldiers and Sailors,” Klaus said. “We don’t really set out to be educational as far as a conflict. Who started it? How many came from this country, that country. But we look for artifacts in our collection to tell personal history stories because I think those are the most interesting. When you look at one person’s story and what they did, whether they were a cook, a ranger, whether they were a paratrooper, whatever — their stories are valuable and interesting.”

Klaus explained to the approximately 20 people in attendance that World War II veterans are dying, and his museum is often the recipient of their collections — brought to them by families clearing out their estates. He considered it unfortunate that some of the items he brought, such as the jacket with a Parachutist Badge attached, lacked a story.

“That jacket actually has no story. It’s from the 82nd Airborne and has ‘jump wings’ on it. We don’t know who it belonged to, so you know, it’s unfortunate if we can’t put a name on something, so we ask for names, pictures. We record everything,” Klaus said.

“I believe we’re building a collection now for people who are going to want to see these things in 20, 30, 40 years,” he added.

Klaus proceeded to tell the stories of several WWII veterans, showing relics from their service. Among those stories was that of former Youngstown resident Dr. Clara Raven.

Raven was one of the five doctors sworn into medical service. According to Klaus, she did a lot of work in France and was present at some of the biggest field hospitals.

Attendees of the event were excited to hear Klaus speak. Among them was Gary Borman of Canfield, who shared his enthusiasm with other members prior to the event and maintained it afterward.

He and his wife, Becky, have a collection of World War II items that could rival any military museum. Among the collection are guns, ammunition, training manuals, dog tags, old photos and letters.