Pearl Harbor Veterans

This semester, one of the classes that Luke is taking at the commonwealth is Hero Project. It is a class that teaches about World War II.  One of the assignments that he had was to interview a veteran from WWII.  I knew that my grandpa was a veteran (he passed away in 2007), but other then that I didn't know any.

From left to right: Linda our host, Garth Sawyers (WWII vet), John Spirey (Vietnam Vet and Linda's husband), Lee Waren (WWII vet), Wardell Jenkins (WWII vet).

Wardel Jenkins shot down a plane with his rifle! He also told an amazing story of the Fijian people and finding Christianity while he was there. Plus he has had 32 holes in one on the gold course!!

Quiet Garth.

Then, one day at the glorious Deseret Industries, I noticed a mini van with the bumper sticker on it that read "Pearl Harbor Survivor." Luke wasn't with me, so I prayed for forgiveness (since it was Luke's project not mine and he clearly wanted to do it)  as we placed a note on the van reading that we were in search of WWII vets to interview for a school project. And thank goodness she called Luke!! She turned out to be a gem! --this helped Luke not be upset at me as well.

After Pearl Harbor, the soldiers were only allowed one telegram that said that they were ok. No other information was allowed to be given.

It turned out that Linda was the organizer for the Pearl Harbor Survivor reunions. She said that there were only 5 left in Utah and that 3 of them were currently in the area for the winter. She arranged everything. She had all three of them come, brought all of her photographs, provided lunch, and was the most gracious host for more then 3 hours as Luke learned from these great men.

I then taught Luke how to use the movie making program and he whittled the 3 hours into 15 minutes. He talks about making more of the stories into viedos as well. There were some amazing stories. They all survived Pearl Harbor and then they all survived  the Bougainville campaign. 

 It was an amazing addition to my education as I am only familiar with the bullet points of WWII. --especially the Pacific battles.

Here is the video that Luke made.  I can't wait to see what we learn next!



My only regret is that I didn't get a picture with Luke and these amazing men. Hopefully we will see them again!