I was recently given a photography assignment to a VFW Post in Gouldsboro, PA to take some pictures of a party for veterans from the Wilkes-Barre and Scranton veterans’ homes. What I didn’t anticipate was the age of these veterans, most were in their 70’s and 80’s, and their physical and mental condition. They were lively, most of them ambulatory and seemed to be enjoying the activities arranged for them, including an accordion player who relished playing old standards from the 40’s and 50’s.

To the background music of “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy From Company C,” I circulated among them and asked permission to take their picture. Each one wanted to spend some time telling me who they were, where they were from, what outfit they were with, where they served and in what war. I happily spent the moments with them and in the process discovered that right here in this room was the history of America for the past 60 years. I thought to myself that Tom Brokaw, who has written three books about the experiences of both those on the front line and home front in WWII, would have a field day if he were here.

One of the first veterans that I encountered told me that he had fought on Gaudalcanal. Guadalcanal! You could have blown me over with a feather. This was the first major land battle that America fought against the Japanese. Japanese resistance was so strong that it took the Marines and Army several months to secure the island and its airfield. I still get chills when I watch my video of “Guadalcanal Diary,” and now I was talking to a man who was actually there. For me, this was “living history” in the flesh.

Another veteran was wearing a cap indicating that he was the recipient of the Purple Heart. I asked him about it and he told me that he was wounded by mortar fire in the Hurtgen Forest. The Hurtgen Forest was a major American fiasco and it occurred before the Battle of the Bulge when there was an all out push into Germany—in this case American troops from the Pennsylvania 28th Infantry Division were ordered into an impenetrable forest on the German border, where the Germans were well dug in. Some how or other, they persevered due to the sacrifices of men such as the man I was talking to.

At another table, I talked to a man who was a Marine Corps veteran of the 1st Division at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea. Unbelievable to a Marine Corps veteran like myself to actually be talking to one of Chesty Puller’s Marines, who when asked if they were retreating from the Chosin replied, “Hell no, we’re just fighting in another direction.”

All of this was grist for my memory mill and turned out to be a wonderful assignment. However much I admired these men, I couldn’t help sympathizing with the efforts of former U. S. Senator and WWII veteran Bob Dole, who is the national chairman of the World War II Memorial Committee Campaign. He has been leading the charge for several years to acquire the millions of dollars necessary to build a memorial to the men and women who Tom Brokaw calls “The Greatest Generation.” Now several members of the committee want to change the rules as well as the design of the proposed memorial, which was scheduled to be constructed on the Mall between the Capitol and Lincoln Memorial.

Bob Dole contends that its wrong to change things now and that the existing WWII veterans are leaving us at the rate of 1,200 per day. He says, “It’s taken longer to get this done than it did to win the war.” We have memorials to the Korean War and Viet Nam War veterans but none to those from WWII.

If you believe that it’s time we honored those men and women of WWII, write a letter of support to: The National Capital Planning Commission, 340l 9th St., NW, North Lobby, Suite 500, Washington, D.C., 20576.