thedrifter
02-26-07, 10:59 AM
Workshop helps vets put experience on paper
By Shane Farver - Standard-Examiner
Posted : Monday Feb 26, 2007 9:06:58 EST
ROY, Utah — Veterans from World War II to the Iraq conflict share a common ground — stories of heartache, humor and heroism.
A writing workshop held at Hill Aerospace Museum on Hill Air Force Base is helping veterans who span generations tell those tales.
Samantha Lawrence, a senior at Christian Heritage School in Layton, said she got the idea for the workshop while volunteering at the museum and listening to veterans’ experiences.
“You’ll sit here on a slow day and you can hear stories from all sorts of people,” she said.
Weber State University, Christian Heritage School and Hill Air Force Base teamed up to offer the workshop. It is held Mondays, with the exception of holidays, through March 12. This is the workshop’s second semester.
WSU Professor Gary Dohrer, a facilitator for the workshop, shared his goals for the group.
“For me, personally, it’s to hear the stories and get them down and get these people to writing in a way that they feel they want to,” he said. “For me, that’s just fun.”
Veterans sit around a large table, sharing their stories and gathering feedback from their peers and academics.
During one workshop session, Iraq war veteran Tammy Steen shared the terror of hearing shells whistle overhead.
“When you hear them come out of the tube,” she read from her story, “your heart jumps and then you pray, ‘Please, God, don’t let that hit me.”’
John Kelly, 85, came to the writing workshop at the behest of his daughter, WSU professor Shannon Butler.
The Salt Lake City World War II veteran spent his war days in the belly of a B-17 Flying Fortress firing two .50-caliber guns from a ball turret.
“You had to lay down in the ball turret for six to seven hours on all flights.”
Now, Kelly wants to record those days in a memoir.
“It’s all for my family,” he said.
David Reid, 64, has a more lucrative goal for his writings about his Vietnam experiences.
“I would love to make some money writing screenplays,” he said. “Strictly materialistic, I don’t have anything to push except the big paycheck I want when they make a feature film out of my story.”
The South Ogden resident had his fair share of nasty experiences in Vietnam.
“I had a lot of those. I paid for a lot of them, and now I want them to pay me.”
But he doesn’t have difficulty writing about his time in Vietnam.
“I saw a lot of guys get whacked,” he said. “I buried them. I killed a few of them. You end up going ... ‘It’s something that happened, no big deal.’”
Al Giles, 85, wants to record his World War II memories on tape rather than paper.
“This is way out of my league,” he said. “I’m not a writer. I’m a poor speller. I was a poor student.”
But that’s not to say Giles doesn’t have stories to share. He participated in D-Day, as well as the Battle of the Bulge.
“It’s just been the last year or two that I’ve even tried to remember,” he said.
Lawrence said others stand to learn important lessons from veterans’ experiences.
“I think my generation doesn’t hear it enough, and we need to,” he said.
Ellie
By Shane Farver - Standard-Examiner
Posted : Monday Feb 26, 2007 9:06:58 EST
ROY, Utah — Veterans from World War II to the Iraq conflict share a common ground — stories of heartache, humor and heroism.
A writing workshop held at Hill Aerospace Museum on Hill Air Force Base is helping veterans who span generations tell those tales.
Samantha Lawrence, a senior at Christian Heritage School in Layton, said she got the idea for the workshop while volunteering at the museum and listening to veterans’ experiences.
“You’ll sit here on a slow day and you can hear stories from all sorts of people,” she said.
Weber State University, Christian Heritage School and Hill Air Force Base teamed up to offer the workshop. It is held Mondays, with the exception of holidays, through March 12. This is the workshop’s second semester.
WSU Professor Gary Dohrer, a facilitator for the workshop, shared his goals for the group.
“For me, personally, it’s to hear the stories and get them down and get these people to writing in a way that they feel they want to,” he said. “For me, that’s just fun.”
Veterans sit around a large table, sharing their stories and gathering feedback from their peers and academics.
During one workshop session, Iraq war veteran Tammy Steen shared the terror of hearing shells whistle overhead.
“When you hear them come out of the tube,” she read from her story, “your heart jumps and then you pray, ‘Please, God, don’t let that hit me.”’
John Kelly, 85, came to the writing workshop at the behest of his daughter, WSU professor Shannon Butler.
The Salt Lake City World War II veteran spent his war days in the belly of a B-17 Flying Fortress firing two .50-caliber guns from a ball turret.
“You had to lay down in the ball turret for six to seven hours on all flights.”
Now, Kelly wants to record those days in a memoir.
“It’s all for my family,” he said.
David Reid, 64, has a more lucrative goal for his writings about his Vietnam experiences.
“I would love to make some money writing screenplays,” he said. “Strictly materialistic, I don’t have anything to push except the big paycheck I want when they make a feature film out of my story.”
The South Ogden resident had his fair share of nasty experiences in Vietnam.
“I had a lot of those. I paid for a lot of them, and now I want them to pay me.”
But he doesn’t have difficulty writing about his time in Vietnam.
“I saw a lot of guys get whacked,” he said. “I buried them. I killed a few of them. You end up going ... ‘It’s something that happened, no big deal.’”
Al Giles, 85, wants to record his World War II memories on tape rather than paper.
“This is way out of my league,” he said. “I’m not a writer. I’m a poor speller. I was a poor student.”
But that’s not to say Giles doesn’t have stories to share. He participated in D-Day, as well as the Battle of the Bulge.
“It’s just been the last year or two that I’ve even tried to remember,” he said.
Lawrence said others stand to learn important lessons from veterans’ experiences.
“I think my generation doesn’t hear it enough, and we need to,” he said.
Ellie