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Recording

April 22nd, 2008

I post this response from The Newark Advocate knowing full well that I risk at the risk of patting ourselves on the back too much. But this letter is too good to ignore. It was written by Douglas E. Sassen, law director of the city of Newark, in response to this web site’s mission to record Ohio war stories. Mostly I want to re-emphasize that the site is open to anyone. You are free to record your own video, dig through family photo albums, or just listen to a veteran’s story and find a way to post it here.

An article appeared in the Advocate on April 4 that discussed the Ohio War Stories Project, a part of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project and a collaboration of WOSU Public Media and the Longaberger Foundation.

This project involved students from the Newark High School Advanced Video Production class and from C-TEC who conducted interviews of local World War II veterans to preserve as a part of this project. These stories will be available to view at

I would like to say thank you to the students and staff of Newark High School and C-TEC who participated in this project and to the Longaberger Foundation for providing the necessary support.

As a lifelong student of history, I can explain almost any battle from World War II, some superficially and some in great detail. But ask me what it was like for the millions of men and women involved in this great struggle and I could not possibly begin to tell their story.The article quoted Joe Kurzawa, who said, “It’s pretty amazing. You see these normal looking guys who lived extraordinary lives. We live in such simple times compared to these people.”

Thanks, Joe. No one could have said it any better. The accompanying photograph of Corey Hiegel interviewing Ruth Gutridge about her service in the Coast Guard is a powerful image of what Joe was trying to say.

My dad was one of those “normal looking guys” when he graduated from high school in June 1942. By November 1942, he found himself in North Africa and, before it was done, he had fought his way through Sicily, Italy, France and Germany as a forward observer with the First Field Artillery Observation Battalion.

Along the way, he earned a Purple Heart, four Bronze Stars, the Croix de Guerre and various Theatre and Good Conduct Medals. His personal memorabilia and records were destroyed during the years and his official records were destroyed in a fire in St. Louis in 1974, along with those of millions of other G.I.s.

When he passed away in 1998 at the age of 74, he had never told his stories to anyone, including this rather persistent student of history. If he told my mother, which I doubt, we won’t know, as she passed away in 2001.

Would he be ready to tell his story now at the age of 84 if he was still with us? I don’t know. But I know that others are ready and I am extremely grateful to Joe Kurzawa, Corey Hiegel, and all the Newark High School and C-TEC students and staff who are helping to preserve those stories. Thank you.

Douglas E. Sassen is law director of the city of Newark.

Posted by Scott Gowans

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World

April 10th, 2008

Courtesy of the Newark Advocate. Written by Tiffany Edwards. Photo by Eric George.

NEWARK - Warren J. Poland, of Mount Vernon, was returning from a bombing mission in Strasbourg, France, when his B-24 plane was gripped by a snowstorm.

The windows froze over and the plane, punctured by antiartillary fire, was dangerously low on fuel.

“We were 80 miles out at sea and 300 miles north of our base,” the World War II Army Air Corps veteran recalled. “We flew right on until we ran out of fuel. When we hit the water, one wing hit a wave and the plane broke in two.”

Poland, an engineer stationed in the front of the plane, was one of four crewmen to survive. The five men in the tail of the plane, however, perished in the North Sea.Poland’s story was one of many accounts of WWII bravery and endurance that were collected Thursday for an online history project, Ohio War Stories. The project is a collaboration between WOSU Public Media and the Longaberger Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

The stories will be posted at ohiowarstories.org and included as part of the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project.

Tom Matthews, media spokesman for Longaberger, said 35 people scheduled interviews and additional participants walked in. Veterans, civilians and family members from Newark, Mount Vernon, Coshocton and other nearby towns came to share their experiences.

Students from Newark High School’s advanced video production class and the Career and Technology Centers of Licking County conducted the interviews and filmed the veterans. WOSU led a training session with the students earlier this week.

“We want to work with the local community,” said Marcelita Haskins, director of educational services for WOSU. “It is a learning experience you cannot re-create. How many of us have the experience of listening firsthand to someone who served in the war?”

The uniqueness of the opportunity was not overlooked by the students.

“It’s pretty amazing. You see these normal looking guys who’ve lived extraordinary lives,” said Joe Kurzawa, a senior. “We live in such simple times compared to these people.”

When Poland’s plane went down, his hips were crushed by the turret, he said. Fortunately, as the plane filled with 38-degree water, the turret shifted and let him loose to swim toward light. He escaped to a life raft, where three comrades awaited. He cut the raft free from the sinking wreckage.

“There were two guys calling out to us,” Poland said. “You could hear them, but you couldn’t find them.”

Using a mirror to signal for help, the survivors caught the attention of planes overhead and several hours later, a British rescue ship pulled them from the choppy sea. Poland spent three months in the hospital for injures to his pelvis and later received a Purple Heart.

The Mitchell family sent four brothers abroad to fight for the Allied cause. John, a Marine, and Jim, a Navy seaman, served in the South Pacific. Oliver (”Earl”) fought for the Army in Europe, and Hershel was sent to Turkey.

John, of Newark, shared his memories Thursday of trudging through swamps, battling malaria and tropical pneumonia, and preparing for an invasion of Japan. The Japanese attack, however, was abandoned in favor of using the atomic bomb.

“We learned later if we tried it would have been suicide,” he said. “I think (the bomb) saved a lot of lives. Not only American lives, but Japanese.”

Gary Mitchell, of Newark, came to tell stories on behalf of his father and John’s brother, Earl, who is 97. He brought Earl’s military jacket and a laminated postcard his father sent to his mother from the European theater.

Earl Mitchell fought in the Battle of the Bulge, the bloodiest battle of the war, and witnessed firsthand the atrocities of a concentration camp, he said.

“To this day, anytime he tries to talk about it, he cries,” Gary said of his father.

When Gary told Earl he’d seen a television program about the Holocaust, his father replied, “I bet it didn’t show the smell, the bodies of men and women and children lying around the whipping post.”

For many of former soldiers, the war and lost buddies still were difficult to talk about and they downplayed their own importance in it.

“It’s history and if it does anyone any good, I’d be glad to tell it,” John Mitchell said. “I’m no hero. I did what was required of me.”

Haskins said WOSU recognizes some urgency in completing the project because the stories will disappear with the aging WWII veterans. There were 16.1 million soldiers in the armed services between 1941 and 1946, she said. In 2000 5.7 million still were living.

After sharing his Army scrapbook, Thomas Bowman, 90, of Brinkhaven, said, “I got a letter from one of my buddies six to eight months ago that said there weren’t enough of us left to have reunions anymore.”

Posted by Scott Gowans

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When

October 29th, 2007

The first and most important thing I learned in my digital archiving class is that digital information is ephemeral. Just because you can read it, listen to it, share it, promote it, and experience it today doesn’t mean that you can tomorrow.

Through a series of unfortunate incidents, much of the content that makes up ohiowarstories.org is lost. It’s tragic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I counted on users to provide great WWII stories, and you did. Through human error and technological glitches, much of it is lost.

What we have left are images that were submitted, a few very early blog posts, and video, which are still on YouTube and Google Video.

In the next few weeks/months, I will re-build the site as best I can with pieces and parts.

If you submitted a letter, a remembrance, a piece from the past - Thanks very much. Your contributions made the site work. I’ve given you no reason to trust me, but I ask anyway: Please, please, please take the time to re-submit it. You will need to re-register, and you can post your material the way you did it before. We’re taking steps on the technical side to ensure that such a catastrophe never happens again.

With my deepest apologies,
Scott Gowans
web manager - WOSU

Posted by franriggins

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Ohio War Stories: Share Your Memories

Recording

April 22nd, 2008

World

April 10th, 2008

When

October 29th, 2007