The Last Hurrah
You'd be amazed at how many World War 2 veterans are still with us, and still spry in their early nineties. Don Knapp, a veteran of the 712th Tank Battalion who you may have seen on "Patton 360," recently scored a hole-in-one on his 94th birthday. You'd also be amazed at how many of their stories still haven't been preserved. I've been interviewing World War 2 veterans for 25 years. I still have many to interview, and could use some help before it's too late.
I first attended a reunion of the 712th in 1987 looking for veterans who remembered my dad, who died of a heart attack seven years earlier. I found three, and all the stories he told when I was young came back to life. At the same time, I realized that the stories I heard in the hospitality room, the hotel lobby, the parking lot, were an important part of history that needed to be preserved. Since then I've recorded 600 hours of interviews, written six books, launched a popular web site, and produced a series of oral history audiobooks. In 2008 I became a part of history myself, joining more than 600,000 Americans who were laid off from their jobs that month in the early stages of the Great Recession.
I defied the odds and found a job after two years and five months, but now I've voluntarily cut back to part time work so I can continue my passion for oral history. Your donation, however small, will not only help record and preserve the stories of more members of the fading Greatest Generation, but will assist in putting those stories in front of the public as I exhibit at air shows and other military and history-related events.
"These are the stories of our fathers and grandfathers." A reviewer wrote that at Amazon for my first book. "These guys are a hoot!" This was the reaction of a listener who left eBay feedback for one of my audiobooks.
So please check out my perks. I think you'll find them attractive, while at the same time helping to preserve a small but important piece of American history.
Reality
The veterans I've interviewed, the stories they've told, these are real people and real events. I once posted a story on my web site that was sent to me by a woman who helped her father-in-law write down his experiences. I then received an e-mail from a person in Tennessee who was named after an officer mentioned in the story. This officer was going from foxhole to foxhole checking on his men. The woman's father-in-law said he was cold. The officer removed his trenchcoat and gave it to the two men to keep them warm. The officer was later killed. I thought what an amazing thing it must be to learn that you were named after so compassionate a person. This is just one of many stories that have been generated by my work.
No Retweet, No Surrender
There are many ways to help without donating money. You can share my campaign with your Facebook friends or tweet about the campaign. Every push of a button increases the campaign's visibility and just could be the spark that puts it over the top. You can also help by suggesting veterans for me to interview as time and travel permit. And you can help by joining the campaign's "team" and increasing its visibility in a heavily crowded crowdfunding field.
