The Whole Story

Project will document WWII memories

What I did to get this story: I interviewed Barbara Warren, lecturer of English, and two of her students, Courtney Catterton and Miriam Watkins. Warren gave me all the details about the grant and project and the two students told me about their personal experiences of working on this project.

Staff Writer

VSU students Miriam Watkins and Courtney Catterson work on "Before They're Gone: WWII Veterans Vioces from South Georgia" after class last Thursdat / Photo by Danna Littmann

mehiggs@valdosta.edu

The war is over but not forgotten.

On Jan 1 Barbara Warren, VSU lecturer received a 12-month state grant, funded by the Georgia Humanities Council, to conduct a project recording the stories of World War II veterans from South Georgia.

Warren is not only teaching her English composition classes the required course criteria, she is also teaching them about the importance of oral history. Warren’s four English 1102 sections are working on a project titled “Before They’re Gone: WW II Veteran Voices from South Georgia.”

According to Warren, the youngest veteran is almost 80, and it is necessary to conduct these interviews now before these first hand accounts of history are lost.

The grant only requires 50 interviews to be conducted, but Warren is using a manifest, which contains around 400 names of veterans.

At first, Warren did not think that she would be able to conduct all of these interviews. However, Dr. Donna Sewell, Professor of English 1102 Honors class is also helping with the project. Together, Warren said there are about 126 students working on the project this semester. Warren has also received a 6-month extension on the grant.

Courtney Catterton, a freshman business major, is in one of Warren’s class and is involved with this project. Catteron said that she is not only learning the mandatory 1102 criteria, but that she is also learning how to record oral history.

“We won’t get the chance to do this next year or the year after that, all these veterans will be gone and it really is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We are all learning a lot,” Catterton said.

Miriam Watkins, a freshman special education major also is one of Warren’s students. She says that being involved with this project has shown her how much history is lost when it is not recorded. She said that this project has also inspired her to record her own family history so that her children and grandchildren will have access to their family history for years to come.

According to Warren, her classes will begin their interviews next week. Catterton will be interviewing her grandfather and great-grandmother who are both veterans of World War II. She said that before being involved with this project she never thought about talking to her grandparents about their experiences. She is excited, not only about talking to them about the war, but also about their lives in general.

Watkins will pick a veteran from the manifest to interview. She said that her grandfather and great-uncle, both veterans of the war, have since passed away. She wishes that she could interview someone in her family, but she said that she is sure that whomever she picks from the manifest will be interesting.

Warren said that the Georgia Humanities Council was very gracious with their funding. The grant is helping to pay for recording devices, mileage for travel and basic supplies such as stationary and postage.

Each interview will be video recorded and put onto a DVD. The interview will also be documented in a field kit. The DVD and the field kit will be sent to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.,where it will be archived.

Catterton said that this project has taught her about history and how important learning about our nation’s history first hand is. She hopes that this project will spread and will inspire other students to get involved and to learn as much as she has.

“I feel like I have grown up a lot doing this, just because you learn so much from doing something this way, it is so much different then looking at a book,” Catterton said.

Any student interested in becoming involved with this project should contact Warren in the English Department.