Muscatine man wants to hear veterans' stories, and he wants others to hear them too

From Muscatine Journal: Muscatine man wants to hear veterans' stories, and he wants others to hear them too

MUSCATINE, Iowa — When he was a student at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Todd Poci took a World War II history class that included listening once each week to a firsthand account from a member of  what has since been called “The Greatest Generation” — the veterans who defeated Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito.
“We studied the war, of course, but once a week a veteran would share the humanity behind the data,” Poci said. “I especially remember the man who survived the Bataan Death March and was a POW and slave laborer in Japan.
“When he told his story, it was as if it had happened yesterday. Our professor wanted to preserve what their sacrifice meant.”
Now that he runs Muscatine’s Senior Resources, Poci finds himself in a good position to carry on his professor’s work.
Poci, 41, said Senior Resources’ Veterans Oral History Project, set to kick off after the nation’s  Sept. 11 observance next week, will allow veterans of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars to record their experiences for all of posterity.
“They believed in freedom, and they took action,” he said.
Poci plans to do the interviews himself in a question-and-answer format. He’ll videotape and edit each interview, removing dead time or segments that the veteran would, on second thought, rather not share, then post each interview on the Senior Resources’ website, www.muscatineseniorresources.com.
“I imagine it will be painful for some veterans,” said Poci, who himself never served in the military but whose father was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps. “But their stories will make their service more meaningful to a lot of
people, and put the humanity to their sacrifice.
“I’m sure we’ll see people who even after all those years still have emotions” while telling their personal accounts.
Typical questions Poci plans to ask include:
n What led you to enlist?
n Share your experiences of fighting/combat
n What were your experiences after the war? How did society receive you?
“World War II veterans returned home to ticker tape parades, and Vietnam veterans were met with protest. Korean veterans were largely forgotten,” Poci said. “I find that reintegration (process) interesting.”
Poci said the three wars were selected because they include the population Senior Resources serves.
The Veterans Oral History Project dovetails with Senior Resources’ mission of decreasing feelings of isolation among Muscatine County residents age 60 and above, Poci said. While veterans usually get their physical needs met as they age, often their psychological needs go unmet.
“Everything around us, they contributed to,” he said. “They helped build all this.”
The Veterans Oral History Project will give people a fresh way to learn more about history, he predicted.
“You can read about the Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s last stand, or the Battle of Midway, which drove a nail into Japan’s coffin. But these interviews will help put us right in the story and relate to it better.”