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Oklahoman featured on “WWII in HD” Nov. 15-19 on History

 

  Enid native Charles Scheffel didn’t get to pick the actor to play him in “WWII in HD,” a 10-hour series airing from 8 to 10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, through Thursday, Nov. 19, on History Channel.
   Ron Livingston from “Defying Gravity” was the lucky one, though. He delivers Scheffel’s in-the-moment accounts of his World War II experiences, in which he trained with a British army unit before being sent to North Africa and Europe.
   Scheffel, a retired Army captain now living in San Antonio, also appears to recount his experiences firsthand.
  He is one of 12 Americans portrayed in the series, which features original color footage from World War II unearthed from archives and private collections across the globe. History preserved and restored the footage — some of which has not been seen since the 1940s — and converted it to HD for unprecedented clarity.
   Actors lending emotional impact to the stories of the other 11 Americans featured in “WWII in HD” are:
   Justin Bartha (“Teachers”), who gives voice to Army sergeant Jack Werner, a Jewish émigré who fled Austria, then joined the U.S. Army so he could fight Hitler’s “Jew-hating” regime.
   Rob Corddry (“The Winner”), who gives voice to Army infantryman Rockie Blunt, who came face to face with the horror of Nazi concentration camps.
   Tim DeKay (“White Collar”), who gives voice to War correspondent Richard Tregaskis, a reporter from New Jersey who jumped at the chance to report on the war from the front lines.
   Mark Hefti (“An American Vampire in America”), who gives voice to Army corporal Archie Sweeney, who was drafted in peacetime 1940 from a small town in upstate New York.
   James Kyson Lee (“Heroes”), who gives voice to Army medic Jimmie Kanaya, whose parents were in a Japanese internment camp while he treated wounded soldiers in Italy and France as an Army medic in the 442nd Regimental team.
   LL Cool J (“NCIS: Los Angeles”), who gives voice to Tuskegee fighter pilot Shelby Westbrook, who signed up for the nation’s first all-black air corps.
   Rob Lowe (“Brothers & Sisters”), who gives voice to Time magazine correspondent Robert Sherrod, who was stunned by the reality of the Japanese enemy he encountered in the Pacific.
   Josh Lucas (“Poseiden”), who gives voice to Air Force bomber and fighter pilot Bert Stiles, whose short stories had caught the attention of publishers before the war’s outbreak.
 Despite mixed feelings about war, he signed up to fight.
   Jason Ritter (“Joan of Arcadia”), who gives voice to Navy seaman Jack Yusen, whose ship sank off the coast off the Philippines, leaving him drifting for 72 hours in shark-infested water.
   Amy Smart (“Scrubs”), who gives voice to Army nurse June Wandrey, who battled Nazis as well as hunger, exhaustion, weather, sickness as she cared for the sick and dying.
   Steve Zahn (“Management”), who gives voice to Marine corporal Nolen Marbrey, brutally honest and graphic descriptions of his experience reveal the shocking bloody realities of the war.
   And Gary Sinise (“CSI: NY”) narrates “WWII in HD,” which lets viewers experience what the war looked and sounded like to those who were actually there.
–Penny TV

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