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“It was rather hazardous duty”
October 17th
Harry Furr wanted to be a pilot. With World War II expanding across the globe, the graduate of Central High School in Oklahoma City tried to join the Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was disappointed by the response – his eyesight was not good enough. He was told only those with 20-20 vision need apply, and Harry Furr could only see that well with glasses.
But, Harry Furr persevered, and in a rather ironic twist, he got his chance to fly thanks to Adolph Hitler. You see, Hitler created a glider program when the Nazis came to power in 1933, and used engineless aircraft for the German invasion of Belgium in 1940. Despite heavy casualties suffered by Nazi glider infantry and paratroopers during invasions of Greece and Crete in 1941, gliders had been established as an affordable means of delivering troops and supplies in a war zone. The United States countered the Nazis by establishing its own glider program, reaching out to volunteer aviators like Harry Furr.
The American glider program relaxed the usual vision requirements. Harry Furr eagerly applied, and was quickly accepted. “I was able to get in, and I was very happy about it,” he told me. “I had no idea what I was going to fly, or when or where, but I would be flying,” Furr proudly said.
Furr enlisted in July of 1942 and began two years of pilot training. He learned to fly at the old Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City on the corner of May Avenue and Britton Road. He trained on gliders in Vinita, Oklahoma and Spencer, Iowa and Louisville, Kentucky and Dalhart, Texas before heading to Europe in January, 1944.
The beauty of gliders was their low cost – less than $25,000 – and their ability to fly, quietly and undetected, into enemy territory. Made of plywood and canvas, American gliders were towed to altitude by a C-47. Once near the target the gliders cut free from their towing cable and let gravity and the pilot’s skill do the rest. Furr remembered, “they were clumsy, difficult to land, came down pretty fast. They were difficult to manage and weren’t a lot of fun to fly.” Many gliders, quite simply, crashed. The gliders, and their pilots, were important to the Allied war effort, but they clearly were expendable.
Gliders were usually cut free at around 5,000 feet, leaving the pilots little time to seek a landing spot. Pilots were not briefed in advance about where to land, or what they might encounter. Without an engine, lights, parachutes, radio communication or armaments, the gliders had one chance to land, in the dark. Once on the ground, the pilots used the glider’s brakes or skidded into something to stop and unloaded its cargo of men and supplies. The men aboard, and the pilots, then turned-infantry soldier, forced to fend for themselves behind enemy lines.
The first major American glider mission came during Operation Husky, the more than a month-long battle for Sicily in 1943. Harry Furr saw his first combat action in an even bigger invasion: Operation Overlord, at Normandy, on D-Day.
Early in the evening of June 6, 1944, Harry Furr flew a heavy British Horsa across the English Channel to Utah Beach. With 15 men, a Jeep, trailer, medical supplies and co-pilot on-board, Furr’s glider was cut loose at 500 feet. The Horsa brushed the tops of trees as it made its landing in a field. “I smashed the whole front end of that glider out, landing,” Furr said, “but no one was hurt, we got down safe, got the load out OK and we made it out OK. We had to go through maching gun nests to get out of the field. The Germans were throwing in mortars on this field, so it was very intense until we got out of that field.”
Harry Furr flew two more missions in the glider program – Operation Market Garden (Holland) and Operation Varsity (Rhine River Crossing). Market Garden was the single largest glider operation of the war; Varsity was the deadliest, with more than 70 paradrop and gliding towing planes shot down. Seventy glider pilots were killed during Varsity, and another 114 were wounded or injured, but Harry Furr escaped unscathed. “The Germans were expecting us, the enemy fire was horrific at Varsity,” Furr recalled.
(above) Harry Furr, center, and friends pose in front of a captured Nazi flag.
Late in the war, Furr returned to the United States to train for the impending invasion of Japan, when the war came to an abrupt, and welcome, end. Furr was not looking forward to invading Japan, but he wishes the war had ended in a different way than it did. He has reservations about the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Truman had a chance to take some of those officials out to an atoll in the Pacific and show them what we had, and see whether they wanted to continue,” Furr said. “But he didn’t do that. They could have dropped the bomb out in the Pacific and showed them what a horrific bomb it was and maybe the war would have ended then. I’m not proud of our doing that. We destroyed hundreds of thousands of people, which we might not have had to do, but that was the way to end it, so that’s what we did.”
Harry Furr thinks World War II was necessary because “we were tired of what the Germans were doing to the world – they did a lot of things they should not have done.” But, his experience in World War II leads Furr to provide sobering advice to future generations contemplating war. ”Think very carefully about what you are about to do, resolve every available issue before you go to war,” he warned. “Try everything before you pull the trigger. Something might just work.”
(above) Harry Furr with Dick Pryor at Furr’s Oklahoma City home on August 14, 2007.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Harry Furr was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on October 17, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.”)
“The Japanese had no mercy on us”
October 10th
Just meeting Alexander Mathews, you might not guess his “story.” Slight of build, soft-spoken, and unpretentious, it is only after listening to him talk for a few minutes that you begin to understand what makes his story so compelling. Listen carefully, and look into his eyes, as the words and emotions spill out, and you will begin to touch the horror, heartbreak and heroism of war.
Alexander Mathews was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma on May 11, 1919. A full-blood Pawnee, he graduated from high school in Glencoe, Oklahoma. After high school, Mathews attended the Haskell Institute in Kansas, and spent a year in the First Cavalry. In March of 1941 he entered the Army in Santa Fe, New Mexico. From there he went to Fort Bliss, Texas for basic and individual training in artillery. His unit left the United States on September 12, 1941 and arrived in the Phillipines nine days later.
Just a few hours after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Imperial war planes were heading toward Clark Field in the Phillipines. American planes were scrambled, then returned to refuel. While they were on the ground, the Japanese attacked, destroying more than 100 American planes and launching the Japanese offensive in the Phillipines.
Mathews had heard about the attack at Pearl Harbor, and remembers seeing the high-flying bombers coming toward Clark Field, but he says American officers thought the planes were American. It wasn’t until after they released their bombs and the strafers followed behind them that the reality was known: the United States was at war.
Soon, Mathews and other Americans were moved to Nichols Field to await the Japanese advance. Within three weeks, the Japanese invasion forces were nearing Manila. General Douglas MacArthur declared it an open city and pulled the American and Filipino troops back to Bataan, where, with dwindling supplies and aging guns and equipment, they would fight the Japanese as best they could. By March, MacArthur had gathered up his family and left for Australia. That left the Americans under the command of General Jonathan Wainwright, with Edward P. King serving as the Commanding General of the American and Phillipine forces in Bataan.
Mathews says the fighting became increasingly hopeless as medical and food supplies “became nonexistent” and it became obvious the remaining American and Filipino forces might have to surrender. “We didn’t know what we were going to do,” Mathews recalls, “until a little jeep came by with General King, with a white flag on it.” General King agreed to surrender on April 9, 1942, after receiving assurances from the Japanese command that the nearly 80,000 American and Filipino troops would be treated well. “I just said, well, I guess that’s it,” Mathews told me, “because we realized we didn’t have enough food supply, we didn’t have enough ammunition.”
Mathews says the soldiers were instructed to destroy their guns so the Japanese could not use them. “We began dismantling what we could of our rifles,” he said, “took the firing pins out and the bolt and buried them, until the Japanese came. They told us to form a column of fours. We didn’t know what it was, but it was the death march.”
And so began Sgt. Alexander Mathews’ journey into hell and history. During the Bataan Death March, American and Filipino prisoners were marched almost 80 miles to Camp O’Donnell. Starving soldiers were forced to march through the searing heat with little food, water or medical treatment. “Those that were too weak, if they fell by the wayside,” Mathews remembered, “were either bayonetted, clubbed to death or even shot.” Thousands died on the Bataan Death March, and many thousands more died at Camp O’Donnell. The Japanese viewed the prisoners as cowards, and showed them no mercy.
The Americans were used as slave labor, in violation of the rules of war. Mathews was placed on burial detail, digging graves for his fellow prisoners at Camp O’Donnell. He remembers going to the infamous prison camp at Cabanatuan, where he cut down tall grass so the Japanese guards could better watch their prisoners. It was there that Mathews received an indication of the treatment to follow. “We heard yelling in the back, behind the fence, and some shooting,” he said. “We heard singing as the Japanese came marching in with the head of this Filipino on a bamboo pole, marching down the middle where everyone could see it. As we began to get in formation they put us in groups of ten and said ‘if one escapes, the rest of you die.’ That was their way of telling us we were going to be there for a while.”
Mathews, and other American prisoners, were shuttled from camp to camp. They walked, or were herded onto railroad boxcars, or were stacked into the cargo hold on “Hell Ships” to reach their next destination. Life on those ships, he says, was the worst part. “That was the most gruesome experience,” he said. “You had to stay in that one position and wonder whether you were going to get any water.”
The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war, and Mathews was finally released in August, 1945. He had spent 42 months as a prisoner of war.
After the war, Sgt. Alexander Mathews completed college and worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 33 years. He later served as President of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. Today, he is 88 and lives in Cache, Oklahoma with his wife, Joyce.
(above) Alexander Mathews, former President of the Pawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.
(below) Alexander Mathews with OETA photojournalist Boots Kennedye.
One of the promises made by the men of Bataan and Corregidor to their families, communties and each other is “Always Remember Us, Never Forget Us.” Mr. Mathews is thankful to have survived, and he is now sharing his memories of World War II with school children in Oregon, Washington, and Oklahoma.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Alexander Mathews was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on October 10, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)
“I knew it was war”
October 3rd
The day started like any other Sunday morning in Hawaii – sunny and beautiful. All of the battleships in the U.S. Pacific fleet were moored on Battleship Row, near Ford Island. Sailors who had come in from liberty the night before were finishing their breakfasts, cleaning up the mess hall and getting their ship ready for inspection the next day. Much of the work had already been done – sailors were expecting a relaxed day in paradise.
(above) The USS Oklahoma.
But, December 7, 1941 was not like any other day at Pearl Harbor. Signalman 1st Class Paul Goodyear was preparing for the 8:00-12:00 watch, locating the ships in the harbor so he would know which way to use the signal lights or semaphores to address them. That is when Goodyear and some of his strikers looked up and saw a line of planes, a half-dozen or more, flying from the starboard to the port side of the USS Oklahoma. Goodyear remembers the first plane dropped a bomb and the second plane dropped a bomb, but that really wasn’t unusual.
“At that time, Ford Island was a naval base, a naval air station where the planes from the carriers would land while getting in some flying time with their ship in port,” Goodyear told me when we met in August. “If for some reason they had gone out for bombing practice and hadn’t expended the bombs they carried, rather than landing with weight under the wings or fuselage, they would just drop it on that little spit of land that stuck out there between west block and Pearl Harbor,” Goodyear said.
Goodyear’s interest intensified when a third plane dropped a bomb. “We knew something was going on,” Goodyear said. “I had a pair of 750 binoculars, and I put them to my eyes and that (Japanese) meatball hit me right in the eye. Right then we all knew it was the Japanese.”
Thus, began Paul Goodyear’s story of tragedy and survival. Goodyear jumped ship, swam to the USS Maryland and later made it to the safety of Ford Island, but 429 of his crew mates were not so fortunate. The “Okie” had the second-highest number of casualties of any battleship at Pearl Harbor, behind the USS Arizona.
Goodyear says the Oklahoma was being cleaned up for Admiral’s inspection on Monday morning, so it was not compartmentalized, and counter-flooding was not possible, like it was on the USS California and USS West Virginia. “By counter-flooding,” Goodyear said, “they were able to sink the ship straight down and that saved hundreds of lives on those ships. Our kids were trapped on that revolving ship (the USS Oklahoma) and they didn’t even know where they were.”
It took 11 and a half minutes for the Oklahoma to roll over into the water. It took a week for the survivors to get out of their wet, oily clothes; two weeks for the survivors to be allowed back in the mess hall. Goodyear says he and the other survivors had to make do the best they could until just before Christmas.
Paul Goodyear continued to serve in the Navy in the South Pacific until the war was over. He was preparing to be part of the U.S. force that would invade Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “I was happy when they dropped the atomic bomb,” he said, “because then I knew we could begin to live our lives as a normal human being again.”
The operation to right the USS Oklahoma began on March 8, 1943. It was completed more than three months later. Divers had to wear gas masks while removing the remains of those who died and other decomposed materials from the Oklahoma’s compartments. The ship came afloat in November and by late December it was in drydock. It was stripped of guns and sold for scrap (for $46,000) two years later. On May 10, 1947 two tug boats departed Pearl Harbor to take the Oklahoma to San Francisco. About 540 miles out, during a storm at sea, the Oklahoma started to list and broke the tow line, sinking to the bottom of the Pacific for the final time.
Paul Goodyear is one of the leading proponents of building a USS Oklahoma Memorial at Pearl Harbor. He is looking forward to attending the ceremonies dedicating Pearl Harbor’s newest memorial on December 7, 2007. More information about the USS Oklahoma Memorial can be found at www.ussoklahoma.com.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Paul Goodyear was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on October 3, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)
“You do what must be done”
October 2nd
Ministers cannot be drafted into the military, but Charles Richmond knew, when the United States entered World War II, that he was destined to serve. “You remember the picture of Uncle Sam pointing right at you – we want you? As a minister I looked at that picture,” Richmond said, “and looking over the shoulder of Uncle Sam was God himself, looking at me and saying,’I want you’.”
Richmond had been married about three years, but he decided he would rather pray with the the soldiers in the theater of war, rather than stay home and pray for them. “I just thought I needed to get in the Army,” Richmond told me, “because they needed chaplains and our men needed guidance during that time and I just felt that’s what God wanted me to do.”
Richmond went to Harvard University for a one-month orientation for chaplains and 30 days later received his military orders. He not only had to leave his wife, but the Baptist church in Oklahoma County, just west of Edmond, that he had pastored for two years. Richmond went to Rothschilds in Oklahoma City to buy a uniform, and reported to Will Rogers Field to get sworn in. He remembers that he avoided seeing any enlisted men because he did not know how to salute. 
Richmond boarded a ship in California and sailed across the Pacific, stopping in New Zealand and Australia before reaching his final destination, India. Richmond got to know his men on the long ship ride. He remembers that the ship was crowded and there was hardly any room for the men to sleep. With 7,000 on-board they could only get on deck for a couple of hours each day to get some fresh air. He stayed with those same men for two and a half years. “The men,” he said, ” may have gotten bored, but I was busy all the time, conducting church services. And, if the men had a problem, they took it to the chaplain.”
Richmond served in the China-Burma-India Theater, where American troops were busy helping supply their Chinese allies, either by flying “over the hump” (the Himalaya Mountains) or by constructing and using the Burma Road. He recalls that many casualties in Burma were from health hazards. In fact, the first casualty was from malaria, caused by a mosquito bite. 
The chaplain had many duties: delivering death messages from home, Dear John letters, helping the troops deal with loss and the anxiety of war. Richmond drove to the frontlines every two weeks to minister to his troops and conduct funerals and memorial services (he received permission to drive to the front day or night, but was prohibited from carrying a weapon) . He also had the solemn task of writing to the parents of the soldiers who had been killed and explaining the kind of service he performed for their child.
Two of the death messages were delivered to Richmond himself. Both of Richmond’s parents died while he was in Asia. It was a tough time, but his faith got him through. He dealt with his loss through prayer. “Somebody would say,” Richmond said, “everybody takes their problems to the chaplain. Who does the chaplain take his problems to? And, invariably they would say, he takes his problems to God.”
After the war, Richmond received a doctorate in education and became a professor of education and Dean of Students at Central State University (now the University of Central Oklahoma). He also pastored a church and returned to combat duty during the Korean War. Dr. Richmond served in the National Guard for more than twenty years and rose to the rank of Colonel. Even now, in retirement, at the age of 89, Dr. Richmond stays active by holding worship services once a month. 
He says the war was bound to have changed him, perhaps by instilling “a deeper faith, a deeper love, a deeper confidence.” Richmond adds, “there’s not much good about war, but it brings out the best, sometimes the worst, but mostly the best in a man. When you’re in a position that we were in, you just stand tall, throw your shoulders back, depend on the Lord and do what must be done.”
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Charles Richmond was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on October 2, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’s Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)
By late 1944, the end was nearing for the Nazi army. The best Luftwaffe pilots were mostly gone; men and equipment were diminishing as Hitler and the Axis fought on the eastern and western fronts. The Battle of the Bulge, in the winter of 1944-45, was the turning point in Europe.
During those final months, Stanley F.H. Newman was a fighter pilot, patrolling the skies over western Europe. By the time he finished his sophomore year at the University of Illniois, the Army Air Corps dropped its requirement of two years of college, so Newman signed up in November, 1942. After two years of intensive training, he was off to Europe.
Newman flew the P-51 Mustang, doing reconnaisance, visual intelligence, flying support for bombers like the P-47′s and leading them to their targets. Newman flew 57 missions in Europe, sometimes two in one day, piloting a plane he said was truly “a wild horse.” Newman said, “you had to treat it with respect.”
Newman’s plane was equipped with a camera, yet the pilot could not see very well. “The P-51 had these long noses,” Newman said, “and in landing or taking off, when you taxied, it was hard to see out. In the air, you couldn’t see under anything. You did have that blind spot directly underneath the wing and, of course, behind you. That’s why we always flew in pairs…each to protect the others.”
Newman and other pilots were prohibited by the rules of engagement from shooting on German planes except in self-defense. So, the American saying was, “to go out and get attacked,” he said. “We wanted to get attacked, so we could shoot back.”
On the final day of the war in Europe, Newman forced down two German planes and fired on another one, forcing it into a crash landing. His actions achieved great notoriety, including front page treatment in the Chicago newspapers. He was grateful for the press coverage, because that is how his parents learned he was still alive. It was not until many years later that Newman learned that two more German planes were shot down around sundown that same day.
Newman’s flying career was far from over. He received his degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois, but returned to the skies as a fighter pilot during the Korean War. He flew more than 100 missions. Newman also flew cargo missions into Southeast Asia during the war in Vietnam. Stanley Newman worked for NASA and rose to Major General in the Oklahoma Air National Guard. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame in 2003.
Newman admits the war had a generally positive impact on him. “I grew up a lot,” he told me. “I went in as a 19-year old student and came out as a 22-year old. After the war I knew exactly what I wanted to do. The G.I. Bill enabled us to build our first home. I was always patriotic, from cub scouts on up, but the war made you even more appreciative of what we have in this country. I’ve gotten to see my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and that’s more than my friends got to do,” he said.
(above) Major General Stanley F.H. Newman looks over his scrapbook from World War II.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Stanley F.H. Newman was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on October 1, 2007. To see the story, click on “Videos” on this website and go to “OETA’S Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.)
“We wanted to see how the devil lived”
September 28th
Emmett Steeds entered the National Guard in 1936, served for a year, and got out. He was working for a hardware store and remembers he was eating lunch when he heard that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt had declared war.
I recently visited with Steeds at the 45th Infantry Division Museum in Oklahoma City. He told me, “We had no choice. They jumped on us without provacation, so when they bombed Pearl Harbor there was no question about going into war.”
Steeds’ unit was still in Abilene, Texas, so he went home, told his wife, packed up his things and got on the bus to Fort Barkley, Texas to rejoin his outfit. “Within a few days,” he said, “practically everybody that had gotten out had come back to the unit.”
So began World War II for U.S. Army Platoon Sergeant Emmett Steeds. Steeds spent more than a year in training before sailing out of New York, across the North Atlantic, to North Africa, which was already under American control. After landing at Oran, Steeds and the others in the 45th Division, 179th Infantry headed to Sicily, then Italy, where they landed at Salerno. He received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant from General George S. Patton for his service in the Italian campaign.
The 45th marched across western Europe and Steeds reached the Dachau concentration camp within hours after it had been liberated. He remembers the dead he found there, bodies stacked in boxcars, and finding a lot of people barely alive. It was an experience that haunted him for months.
The 45th continued on to Munich, to become part of the occupation force. The regiment’s headquarters was set up in a rather unlikely place: an apartment where Adolph Hitler had lived. Steeds remembers it was a big house in Munich, and some of the officers from the U.S. Headquarters of the 179th stayed in the building. A famous picture at the 45th Infantry Division Museum shows another Oklahoma soldier from the 45th, Sgt. Arthur E. Peters, reclining on Hitler’s bed, reading a copy of Mein Kampf. The picture made it onto the cover of the May 14, 1945 edition of Life magazine, with the caption, “Get your feet off my bed.”
Steeds stayed in the military after World War II and served in Korea, where he rose to the rank of Captain. The Blair, Oklahoma native worked for the postal service in Oklahoma City for 30 years. He’s long since retired, but at the age of 90, still volunteers at the 45th Infantry Division Museum on weekends.
You can see two of his prized possessions at the museum: a Nazi medallion and personal stationery of Adolph Hitler that Steeds “liberated” from the Fuehrer’s Munich Apartment.
If you have a chance to visit the museum, I encourage you to go – but plan to spend some time. There is a lot to take in, and you might get to visit with Emmett Steeds. If you see him, tell him, “Thanks.”
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(Emmett Steeds was profiled on the Oklahoma News Report on September 29, 2007. To see the story, click on the “Videos” link on this website and go to “OETA’S Dick Pryor interviews Oklahoma WWII veterans.”)
Rave Reviews for “The War”
September 20th
“A riveting experience.” “Outstanding.” “Well-done.” “Strong.” “The war as I remembered it.” “I can’t wait to see the entire documentary.”
Those were some of the comments heard Wednesday night at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art after the screening of an hour-long preview of the Ken Burns documentary, “The War.”
Several veterans were in attendance to watch excerpts from the 7-part, 15-hour television event that begins on OETA Sunday night at 7:00. Following the screening Dr. Robert Griswold, Chair of the History Department at the University of Oklahoma, WWII Veteran Paul Wilson of the 17th Airborne Division and Roger Harris, oral historian at the Oklahoma History Center, answered questions about the film, the war, and its impact.
Wilson emphasized the sense of duty that Americans felt during the war, and how young men everywhere wanted to get involved to serve the country and their families. He, like so many soldiers who fought in the bleak winter conditions during the Battle of the Bulge, suffered from the effects of the bitterly cold temperatures. “Medics,” Wilson said, “were the real heroes of the war. And, I wouldn’t be here today without help from the man above.”
Harris said many veterans are now coming forward to talk about their experiences, ending years of trauma-induced silence. Griswold said such stories are important to help future generations understand the scope and gravity of the war. He teaches about World War II at the University of Oklahoma. Griswold is hopeful that programs such as “The War” will help students of today better appreciate the sacrifices involved in World War II and its impact on history.
SEEN and HEARD: Among those at the event on Wednesday night were OETA Station Manager Bill Thrash, Scott Horton and Paige Lessly of NewsOK (Scott designed the fabulous Oklahoma World War II Stories website), and World War II veteran Zee Howell, who will be featured on Friday night in the Oklahoma News Report. For more on the event, be sure to read the September 20th front page story in The Oklahoman.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(above) Moderator Dick Pryor with Don Wright of Oklahoma City, a veteran of Guadalcanal who attended the screening event at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
(below) Panel member Paul Wilson, a paratrooper in the 17th Airborne Division, visits with members of the audience about his experiences in World War II following the screening event at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
(below) A crowd of more than 235 people watched the pre-screening of The War and the panel discussion at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Our thanks to Film Curator Brian Hearn and our friends at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art for their support of “The War”!
(below) Dr. Robert Griswold discusses the impact of World War II. Oral Historian Roger Harris of the Oklahoma History Center is on his right.
Tulsans Pack Circle Cinema for “The War” Preview Screening
September 19th
A standing room crowd watched the first hour-long preview of Ken Burns’ important, new documentary, “The War,” Tuesday at the Circle Cinema Theatre in Tulsa. Several veterans attended the pre-screening event and they seemed to appreciate the approach used by Burns to tell the story of the “greatest generation” at home and in the theaters of war. The film presents the horrors and heartbreak of war in the riveting and personal style that has made Burns America’s most prominent producer of historical documentaries.
Following the screening, OETA’s Dick Pryor moderated a panel discussion with WWII veteran Kenneth Renberg, a German who trained American troops and fought with the 45th Infantry Division; Dr. Brad Agnew, Professor of History at Northeastern State University and an expert on military history; and Eva Unterman, a survivor of the holocaust who spent most of the war in Nazi concentration camps. OETA’s Lori Holliday showed the dynamic, new Oklahoma World War II Stories website (including this blog) and encouraged everyone attending to participate in the story collection project using the website’s “Share a Story” module. To-date, more than 700 people have shared a story - an overwhelming response!
Special thanks to Clark Wiens and Amberla Tepe of the Circle Cinema Theatre for hosting such a great event to begin the march toward “The War.” Ken Burns’ 15-hour epic, “The War,” debuts Sunday night at 7:00 on OETA.
(above) Several veterans attended the screening of “The War” at the Circle Cinema in Tulsa. (below) War memorabilia decorated the Circle Cinema. 
(above) Holocaust survivor Eva Unterman of Tulsa, one of the panel members at the Circle Cinema screening, with Moderator Dick Pryor.
Recording History
September 12th
What should future generations know about war and what your generation did in World War II? That’s a question photojournalist Boots Kennedye and I have asked each of our veterans in interviews for the Oklahoma World War II Stories series. The answers have varied, but a common thread is clear – they saw America attacked and the world threatened, and did what had to be done.
Interviewing these everyday heroes has been an enriching experience for Boots and me. Meeting them, and producing their stories, is a real privilege. Some WWII veterans have a difficult time discussing their experiences of more than half a century ago, but the ones we talked to were eager to give their thoughts about war, World War II, and their participation in it. To be sure, it was a defining time in the history of our nation, and for many veterans, it was a defining moment in their lives.
Each interview lasted more than an hour. In that amount of time you can learn a lot about someone and make a personal connection. They are grandparents and great-grandparents now, yet for most the images and details are as fresh as they were more than 60 years ago. Looking into their eyes was like looking into a window to the past – to a time that seems so far away, yet is still important and relevant. We were struck by their sincerity, willingness to share (and sacrifice), and their perspective on our world. As much as anything, I think they want the lessons they learned to endure for the benefit of future generations.
Our pieces will run less than five minutes, but we are providing the entire interviews to the Oklahoma Historical Society, for archiving at the Oklahoma History Center. Some of the interviews may also wind up at the Library of Congress. We are grateful to have the chance to honor our veterans this way – it’s the least we can do for what they have done for the rest of us.
I encourage you to watch our Oklahoma World War II stories on the Oklahoma News Report beginning on Friday, September 21st at 6:30 p.m. I also encourage you to get involved in our story collection project and see for yourself how meaningful a discussion with a veteran can be. Each one has a story; each one should be remembered.
Until next time, Dick Pryor
(above: Dick Pryor with Ned Hockman, Lt. Colonel, Air Force Reserves)
(below: Boots Kennedye with Sergeant Alexander Mathews)
Oklahoma Veterans Tell About WWII
September 12th
Beginning on Friday, September 21st, be sure to watch OETA’s Oklahoma News Report as we begin a 14-part series – Oklahoma World War II Stories. This is one of the most ambitious efforts ever for OETA News – an effort worthy of its inspiration, Ken Burns’ documentary, The War.
Although he admits he got started about ten years too late, America’s pre-eminent documentary filmmaker decided he needed to tell the story of World War II, much as he had done in his ground-breaking documentary, The Civil War. OETA, The Oklahoman, the Oklahoma History Center, the 45th Infantry Division Museum, and our other partners recognized the importance of the project and launched a statewide story collection project, inviting participation from members of the public. We also decided that OETA should produce a series of first-hand accounts for distribution over-the-air and on-line.
Our “War Team” started spreading the word about our story collection project. We made phone calls, sent e-mails, networked with friends, and used on-air and on-line promotion to collect the names of veterans and volunteers willing to tell their stories. Photojournalist Charles “Boots” Kennedye and I hit the road on August 3rd, taping interviews with veterans in High Definition. We’ve also been furiously gathering video, music and still photos to bring the stories to life.
We completed our first round of fifteen interviews on August 24th and began logging tape, researching and writing. Charles is currently in the editing phase – working his magic in our new state-of-the-art High Definition edit suite. I’ll tell you more about our travels, the people we’ve met and the production process later. But right now, I’ve go to get back to viewing videotape.
Be sure to mark your calendar for September 21st, when the first of our Oklahoma World War II stories airs statewide at 6:30 p.m. on the Oklahoma News Report.
Until next time, Dick Pryor