With the help of local students, a book and video will help make sure veterans' courage isn't forgotten.
By MONIQUE FIELDS
Published November 11, 2004
[Times photos: Willie J. Allen Jr.
From left, sixth-graders Lauren Campbell, 11, Logan Sargent, 11, and Kayla Coker, 11, talk about their interviews with military veterans. The former North Shore Elementary students, who now attend Riviera Middle School, helped write "Preserving Our Nation's Memories."
Mary-Jane Stokes, 83, listens to fellow veterans during a ceremony at Sunshine Senior Center in St. Petersburg. Stokes served in the WAVES hospital corps during World War II.
ST. PETERSBURG - Logan Sargent sat down with history when he interviewed Bill Golden, a man old enough to be his great-grandfather.
"Which war did you serve in?" the student-turned-journalist asked.
"I volunteered for service in World War II," said Golden, 81. "I joined because most of my buddies were already gone to war, and I wanted to do something for my country."
Logan, 11, still talks about that meeting 10 months after it happened. He was one of 23 North Shore Elementary School students who interviewed U.S. veterans from every military action since World War II while compiling a video and book titled Preserving Our Nation's Memories.
He and the other students will present both today in a Veterans Day ceremony at Sunshine Senior Center.
Logan said he can't wait to see his friend Golden again.
"It's like seeing (a relative) who lives in a different state," said the student, now a sixth-grader at Riviera Middle School.
Their relationship is a welcome product of the interviews, which were inspired by the Veterans History Project, a national program started by the Library of Congress and the American Folklife Center.
Nan Colton, a performing artist-in-residence at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, ran with the idea locally. She dashed off a grant proposal to the Florida Humanities Council and received an $8,000 grant to create a similar program.
To stretch the learning possibilities, she dreamed up a plan that put seniors on the other side of the microphone from children who had only read about America's wars. She helped arm the students with questions.
"To have the skills to ask the right question is the beginning of an inquiring mind," Colton said.
From there, a series of lessons unfolded.
Lauren Campbell, 11, interviewed Felix Lazar, a Holocaust survivor.
"I can tell you about the constant humiliation," Lazar, who died in October, told Lauren as she recorded his words. "I can tell you about the horrible names they shouted at the prisoners. I can tell you about rifle butts, in your, ah, kidneys, at any time . . . they felt like doing so."
Lauren, now a sixth-grader at Riviera Middle School, recoiled from the images.
"I couldn't believe they would do that to him just because he was Jewish," she said. "I wanted to tell how he survived."
The veterans were stunned to learn how little the children interviewing them knew about past wars.
"The school year ends before they get to the Civil War," said Mary-Jane Stokes, 83, who served in the Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service, or WAVES, during World War II.
Veterans of that war especially want to tell their stories, because soon there will be few left to carry on the oral tradition. Each year, the nation loses about 300,000 World War II veterans. By the year 2020, there will only be a few hundred thousand left, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
David Rose is one of the survivors of the "greatest generation."
He signed up for service on Aug. 8, 1944, but didn't weigh enough to be inducted, settling instead for the Navy Reserve. Then he gained enough weight to reach 110 pounds, which allowed him to transfer to the Navy.
He still lives with the scars earned while serving there.
Rose was a prisoner of war in Korea. Enemy soldiers pulled off his fingernails with pliers, sliced one of his fingers with a knife and broke a third by twisting it into an awkward position.
"I have suffered with my hands for 50 something years, so I haven't gotten over it yet," said Rose, 77. "I still have flashbacks. I can see (them). I can hear (them). I can smell (them)."
The students said the veterans took them back to their time, a time they can only read about in textbooks.
"They had pictures," said Kayla Coker, who interviewed David Hal Fischer, who was in the Navy Air Corps during World War II. "You got to see what they looked like and know a whole bunch more."
"I was really grateful," she said. "If they hadn't fought for our country, our country might not be like it is today."
IF YOU GO
The premier of "Preserving Our Nation's Memories," a project about 23 veterans and others involved in U.S. wars, begins at 6 p.m. today at the Sunshine Senior Center, 330 5th St. N. For more information, call 893-7101.
