Something caught Rick Burgos’ eye as he headed into Newport News Shipbuilding’s clinic for a recent physical.

He took a closer look and found it was a plaque – affixed to the clinic near its entrance – that pays tribute to 129 NNS employees who were killed during World War II. Burgos, vice chair of the Veterans Employee Resource Group (VERG), wanted to bring more attention to the memorial and the people it honors by cleaning it.

“I’ve been here for over 30 years, and I had never noticed it,” he said. “Hundreds of people pass by here every day without noticing it, and I think it deserves more attention. We thought maybe if it were cleaner and shinier people might notice it.”

Burgos and fellow VERG members Janice Boone and Patrick Hooper spent last Thursday afternoon working to clean and polish the plaque, which dates back to the 1940s when the clinic was built and dedicated to the shipbuilders who lost their lives in the war.

Coincidentally, the group gathered to clean the plaque on the 80th anniversary of D-Day – the invasion of Normandy, France, by the U.S. and other Allied forces that set the stage for victory in World War II. Burgos said his wife’s late grandfather was a World War II veteran who survived D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and helped liberate a number of concentration camps.

“We need to do more to honor our World War II veterans because we’re losing that whole generation,” Burgos said. “They’re disappearing.”