News

Oral history project to interview WWII veterans

By Bill Moss, Published: August 12, 2012

Researchers are seeking interviews with World War II veterans in Henderson County as part of a history project to collect and preserve the first-hand stories of veterans.

The HonorAir Committee of Hendersonville is cooperating with Florida State University and the Reichelt Oral History Program to invite local veterans to tell their story to the researchers. The interviews are being collected for the project to archive in the Library of Congress the memories and recollections of veterans' World War II experiences.
As with HonorAir, the program is not only for World War II combat veterans but for all members of the "Greatest Generation" who served, whatever their theater or assignment.
The program will involve a telephone interview with a representative from Florida State University. The Reichelt Oral History Program, started in 1969 to collect and preserve Florida history, was expanded in 1995 to include the stories of veterans from World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
The Henderson County interviews will begin in September.

The program locally was organized by Henderson County Veterans Affairs officer Mike Murdock, a retired Marine Corps master sergeant and Vietnam War veteran, and HonorAir, led by Jeff Miller. Murdock estimates that there are 500 living WWII veterans in Henderson County. To handle the prospective number of callers, organizers divided the pool by last name.

"A year or so ago I said to Mike Murdock, you are the most overworked person in Henderson County. I'm going to volunteer to help you however I can," said Carolyn Justus, a former state legislator from Dana. "He emailed me and said Jeff Miller and I are working on this history project and would I be in charge of the volunteers."

Justus called four of her friends and had the team needed to take calls. The team will take the veteran's phone number and address and send them a brochure and a form that the veteran must send back to the history program office in Tallahassee, Fla. After that, someone will call to conduct the interview.
"If you are the family of one of our heroes please encourage your veteran to participate," organizers said in a news release.
Here are the phone numbers to call to set up an interview:
• Last name ending in A through D - 692 2480.
• Last name ending in E through H - 685 7433.
• Last name ending in J through M - 693 9639.
• Last name ending in N through S - 693 7005.
• Last name ending in T through Z - 692 8463.