The Interesting parts of an interview

I did something very interesting this week, which was to interview a veteran. He told us a lot about the war, and was very clear about it; he was only 92. We had to use it for some Social Studies project, but I really feel like I did not get to mention a lot of the interesting things that he told us during the interview. We had to look for more of facts about the war rather than the interesting things that happened. I felt like I could not get all of that out onto my paper because I really was more interested in this stuff than what was required for the assignment. So I wanted to mention a lot of interesting things that I did not think many people did at the time.


The first thing that piqued my attention was that he was not drafted into the war; he volunteered. He explained to us that the reason he did was because he knew that they were going into war, and thought that if he volunteered, he would be able to have as many options as he wanted. He made a good point that he did not want to become a ground soldier, and could go into any area that he so chose to. I thought this was worthy of note because from what I have learned and heard, most kids and parents were afraid of joining the military and would rather have been at risk being drafted in than volunteering. I mean, here's a terrible analogy: being in a plane is a sinecure job as to being a soldier on the ground. Also, it seemed to pay off for him, because he was able to finish his last year of college, something he said was very important to him and his family for his entire life. He was very smart because he knew that he might have to sleep with fear of not being alive next morning on the ground. You gotta remember that planes also subjugated wars, so he had a just as important job too. In the long run, the decision that he made to volunteer and become an officer was probably an excellent decision.


Another thing I noticed during the interview was that he always focused on the positive things that were happening on the Pacific Theatre. For example, when I asked him how he was able to keep his moral up despite terrible conditions, he only spoke about the advantages that he had compared to everyone else, and how he, “had it good,” despite the fact that they were mal-nutritional and were not sleeping in their beds at home at night. I mean, reconnoitering areas where you could get shot down with just one pellet hitting a plane seems a little more scary to me. It just seemed like he felt he was so lucky to be in a “great” condition instead of other people. He stayed in the officers’ tents, which they served beer and peanuts to them, as well as being able to stay far away from the fighting every night, so he did not have to worry about being bombed in the middle of the night as well. He said that his job was the best, because you had so show up in the island that they were bombing about for about half an hour, bomb what they could on the ground, and turn back and return home and their job was over. He even said that he was lucky to fly a B-24, because unlike other airplanes that could only land on carriers, he had the fortune of being able to land only on the ground and on islands. In my opinion, I could not even imagine being in his position during World War II. Apparently, however he considers himself lucky that he was in that condition.


Another thing that he told us that was very interesting was his first return home. Right after his first battle in war, he returned to his home in Missouri to visit. He saw old friends who cheated getting in the draft by doing this trick where you would smoke a cigarette prior to having an x-ray, and it would look like you had too much fluid in your lungs. While his friends at home laughed and were proud of what they did, he was furious. I thought that this was interesting because he was in the war, and could not believe that they were just taking complete advantage of the others who got drafted in. I mean he was trying to be resilient and become adjusted again to normal conditions, and then he finds out that he may have been able to cheat this the entire time. I never thought of this before he told me it; I knew there were people who did everything they could to get out, but I did now know what other soldiers who were in the army thought of it. It was very interesting to hear how rightfully angry he was that some people were fighting for the people who got out of it, and stayed at home and got married instead. Staying at home was like a mecca to these you teenagers who could be drafted in, and everybody wanted to stay here. This is really something that makes you think about what you would have done if you had a chance of being drafted in World War II.


The most interesting thing that he told us was his life after the war. Before returning home and becoming an FBI agent, he was asked on a special mission from the army for the next couple months. He could have returned if he wanted to, but he and his entire crew that was left (everybody but one person) stayed and joined him in this mission. So he was on hiatus from his family for about a year doing work for the government. Not only does it demonstrate the amount of trust and loyalty the entire crew had for each other, but it also demonstrates how much of a important task that they had. Jeez, I wish I had friends like that. He told us that even his wife and kids do not know what he did, and that no reporter has ever been given permission to talk about it. This was extremely captivating because none of us had a clue about what he did in his top-secret mission given to them by the government. All I knew was that he did something in China during the time.


So overall this was an awesome experience. I really found most of the stuff that I didn't need to know more interesting though and got a cool experience with being able to talk to him. I also just got an egg-drop project for Honors Physics due some time in March (I think), so don't be surprised to hear from me soon about how my egg dropped like a bomb and exploded everywhere.