In the summer of 2014, the Archives and Special Collections department of McConnell Library teamed up with the Glencoe Museum to work on a project they had accepted from the Radford Heritage Foundation. According to Glencoe Museum Director, Scott Gardner, the City of Radford approached the Radford Heritage Foundation about creating a project to record the histories of Radford Veterans. That conversation became the beginning of the Radford Veterans Living History Project. The idea of the project is to interview, film, and preserve the veterans’ stories and memories about life in Radford both before and after the war (whichever war they participated in), and their wartime experiences.
The project is under the direction of Scott Gardner (Glencoe Museum) with assistance from Ron Kolenbrander (retired RU professor) who does the actual interviewing, Gary Harris (Vietnam veteran) who schedules veterans to be interviewed, John Hildreth (CITL faculty) who is in charge of filming and Bud Bennett (McConnell Library Archives) who helps with filming and does the editing and production of the interviews.
War does not only affect those fighting, it also affects those back home and so in this project, we are also interviewing people who did not serve in wars but were living in Radford during the wars. Stories of rationing, of shortages, of attitudes and opinions and about daily life are being collected as well. At the moment we have only one such interview in that category, Bette Wright but more are coming.
The veterans participating in this project served in World War 2 and Vietnam. The roles they played varied from man to man but all came willing to speak about their service, their thoughts on the past and their hopes for the future. All were frank and open and each man gave us a glimpse into their experiences that most of us would not have otherwise seen. This is an important collection.
These interviews are filmed and archived in the Archives and Special Collections area of McConnell Library, and then posted on our Vimeo account for free and public viewing. These interviews are especially timely at this time because of an event called The Big Read. There are many details about this event found on the website, but in a nutshell, this is a grant-driven project in which runs from October 3, 2015 through November 21, 2015. Partners in the program are Radford University, Glencoe Museum, Radford Public Library, Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library, New River Community College, Pulaski County Library and Virginia Tech’s Center for the Study of Rhetoric in Society.
One event I would like to single out though is a symposium being held at Radford University- “The Things They Carried” Storytelling and The Art of Building Community. Several of the veterans in these interviews will be speaking at a roundtable discussion at the event. It will surely be worth seeing and hearing these men talk about their time serving in the war years.
Vietnam
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James Everhart- Mr. Everhart was a helicopter mechanic in Vietnam. In this interview he talks about daily life in his camp, how he became a helicopter mechanic, and life after Vietnam. He shares many of his personal photographs in this video as well.
Gary Harris- Mr. Harris is the person who finds veterans for us to interview. He was an MP in Vietnam and in this interview he speaks frankly about his experiences there and how he has dealt with his memories since. He talks of life in Radford immediately after the war, specifically about watching the war protesters and wondering why they were protesting.
Don Cunningham- Mr. Cunningham was a Hospital Corpsman in Vietnam and he tells many stories about his experiences there. He also speaks frankly about Agent Orange and the cancer that he had at the time of the interview. Sadly, Mr. Cunningham has passed away since doing this interview, so it is especially important to us that he spent his time with us for this project.
Sam Lewis- Mr. Lewis was a security guard in Vietnam and he told us about some of his experiences with that and explained the reasons behind his current participation in various organizations concerned with veteran rights and care.
Michael Ross- Mr. Ross was a dog handler in Vietnam and after, and he talks about his experiences guarding camps, going on patrols and his stateside life after the war. He also explains the reasons behind his 50% hearing loss due to his war time service.
Michael Conklin- Mr. Conklin worked in electronics in the Vietnam war and after. During the war he worked on many aircraft including the U2 Spyplane.
World War 2
Joel Weddle- Mr. Weddle was an amphibious tank driver in World War 2. His experiences there are still very vivid and fresh in his mind and he talks about several D-Day invasions he was a part of in this emotional interview.
Bunk Austin- Mr. Austin spent a lot of time in Tinian Island during World War 2 and was there at the same time as the atomic bomb. In this interview, among other things, he talks about the bomb and the flight of the Enola Gay.
Tommy Tate- Mr. Tate was a gunner on a B-29 during World War 2. He tells some fascinating stories including one about a time a string of active bombs got stuck in the bomb bay and did not release and how he had to pick them up and drop them by hand out the plane. He also tells about life in Radford before the war and in Blacksburg after the war.
Robert Atkinson- Mr. Atkinson worked in a stateside POW camp for German prisoners and was also part of a railroad battalion in Iran that delivered supplies to US troops in Europe.
Bette Wright- Ms. Wright was not involved in World War 2 in any sort of active duty, she was however a resident of Radford and provides a personal insight to life before, during, and after the war. Among other things, she talks of rationing and the sudden growth of Radford due to the Radford Arsenal.
More interviews coming soon-
Robert Nicholson- Mr. Nicholson was attached to Gen. George S. Patton’s unit in World War 2. He tells many stories about his time in Europe and about his returning to visit some of the places and people he knew there many years after the war was over.
Bud Jeffries- Mr. Jeffries talked about his involvement in the Tet Offensive and gave us many details and descriptions of a 28 day battle in which he was responsible for calling in air strikes, getting badly needed ammunition delivered to an active battlefield and in removing wounded soldiers.
The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
hello, my grandfather is Nick. I read above that you have footage from an interview he did and I was wondering if there is any place I can go to find that footage to watch it.. thanks
Hello Richie,
Your grandfather’s interview was very enjoyable. He laughed a lot, and told fascinating stories. His interview in particular is here-
https://vimeo.com/174708321
and the entire collection (which will hopefully be growing this summer) is here- https://vimeo.com/channels/829406
Feel free to watch that, share it, and if you would like to post it somewhere let me know and I’ll make sure you can do that. Thanks for reaching out-
Bud Bennett
Archives & Special Collections
McConnell Library
Radford University