{"id":29508,"date":"2014-04-15T09:40:15","date_gmt":"2014-04-15T13:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=29508"},"modified":"2022-09-28T10:40:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T14:40:04","slug":"oral-history-class-connects-veteran-students-with-older-vets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/04\/15\/oral-history-class-connects-veteran-students-with-older-vets\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans voices: Oral history class connects veteran students with older vets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Veterans<\/a>

The Veterans Voices class connects students veterans with older veterans like Charles Davis, who recounted to the class stories from the Battle of the Bulge. He’s pictured with, from left, Veteran and Military Center Director Seth Gordon and students Tyler Thompson, Adrian Hill, Eric Wiete, Jeremy Dobbins, Anthony Hinojosa and Christopher Karwoski.<\/p><\/div>\n

A new oral history class is using storytelling to connect Wright State student veterans with others who have served in the military, while helping older veterans relive decades-old experiences.<\/p>\n

Through Veterans Voices: Veterans Oral History Project, students are interviewing older veterans about their time in the military and will submit those interviews to the Veterans History Project<\/a>, sponsored by the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center.<\/p>\n

The interviews, along with edited six-minute versions produced by the students, will also be made available in the Wright State Archives through Core Scholar.<\/p>\n

Offered for the first time during the Spring Semester, the course is organized by Seth Gordon, Ph.D., director of Wright State University\u2019s Veteran and Military Center, and Bridget Federspiel, adjunct professor of history. Carol Herringer, Ph.D., chair of the Department of History, approved the creation of the class.<\/p>\n

They designed the course to encourage veteran students to talk to older veterans while also promoting relationships across different generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a strategic element here in terms of training veterans to talk to veterans because you get better stories,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cThere\u2019s more of a sense of trust. You know what it\u2019s like, even if you weren\u2019t in combat, you know what boot camp is like, you knew people who were there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craig This, a data analyst in Wright State\u2019s Office of Institutional Research, experienced that connection when he was interviewed for the class about his time as a combat engineer in the U.S. Army in the 1980s. He said it helped to tell his story to another veteran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m typically a pretty private person,\u201d This said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot that I share with people. So to sit down almost 30 years removed from serving to talk about stuff that I never really ever talked about to anybody else, I think it was cathartic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyler Thompson, a junior majoring in rehabilitation services who served as a tank commander in the U.S. Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan, said students in the class have also bonded with one another during the semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really brings the veterans together, which I think is one of the most important things,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of an excuse to get veterans together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students have met with veterans who served in World War II, Vietnam and during peacetime, and have developed relationships with local VFW and American Legion posts thanks to connections Federspiel has.<\/p>\n

Federspiel, who has an M.A. in history from Wright State, also teaches a veterans oral history class at Stivers School of the Arts, where she teaches social studies. Her students at Stivers have recorded more than 360 interviews since 2005.<\/p>\n

The interviews can be a healing process, Federspiel said, for both the veterans who are willing to talk finally about their military experiences and the student veterans who get to talk to an older veteran.<\/p>\n

Thompson said he was moved by a class visit from a Marine who discussed what he went through during Vietnam. \u201cI see him and he\u2019s still standing there and he\u2019s still strong. He\u2019s still doing things with his life. That inspires me,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

Meeting older veterans has also reinforced that Thompson can be successful \u201cno matter how bad things get.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been a great example and have definitely motivated me and inspired me to continue pursuing my passions,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

Students have studied history and learned how to conduct interviews, record and edit audio and video footage, and give presentations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very engaged, pragmatic approach to history,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cBut a lot of it is about them learning how to do oral history and learning to record and talk to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon and Federspiel hope the students are also getting much more out of the course. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about a veterans voices oral history class,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n

Students have also learned skills they can use as students and later in their careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cLearning how to talk to people in a structured way, to get their stories, to listen to them, these are all really important skills,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about writing papers. They have to do that in so many other venues. This is about learning other skills that I actually think are more 21st-century focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students\u2019 first assignment was to create a short vox pop, or person-on-the-street, interview by talking to people around campus.<\/p>\n

Anthony Hinojosa, who served as a combat yeoman in the U.S. Navy and is now the director of academics for Student Government at Wright State, has taken the vox pop method beyond the class, using it to gauge students\u2019 opinions of various campus issues.<\/p>\n

Hinojosa, a junior international studies major, said gathering stories is an effective way not only to learn about history but also to understand what veterans experienced when they served.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was going in your head while you were there?\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019d you do for fun? What were your feelings pulling watch in the pouring rain for 12, 15 hours? Remarkable things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes you a part of it,\u201d Hinojosa said. \u201cIt takes you on the ground, what was actually happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though he has served in two wars, Thompson said, he was struck with how different older veterans\u2019 stories are from his own experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a completely different perspective and you learn so much. You learn how things change so quickly,\u201d he said. \u201cI love hearing the firsthand accounts of what people experienced over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, who received a bachelor\u2019s degree in history, was impressed that his interview focused on his personal experiences and how his community responded to his service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was more about the day-to-day life of the soldier, sailor and Marine,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really got down to the motivations of why you served and why you did what you did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students in the Veterans Voices course will submit their interviews with older veterans about their time in the military to the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center.
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