UF oral history program to commemorate Veterans Day in Starke

November 9, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The University of Florida’s Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, known as SPOHP, will commemorate Veterans Day in Starke on Friday.

Program staff will participate in the Veterans Day Parade and USO activities, and students will conduct oral history interviews with military veterans during the course of the day.

Through a special research collaboration, the program contributes oral histories of wartime veterans to the Library of Congress’ Veterans’ History Project. Digital copies of the interviews conducted in Starke will be deposited in both the University of Florida Digital Library Center and the Library of Congress for public educational use.

SPOHP’s booth will be located on the north side of the Starke Woman’s Club at 201 S. Walnut St. Veterans from any time period can register to be interviewed. The booth will open at approximately 12:30 PM. To register to be interviewed by SPOHP, stop by the booth on Friday or call 352-392-7168. For information about the parade, call 904-964-6603.

The booth will feature a memorial plaque created shortly after World War II in honor of U.S. Navy Lt. William L. Dickinson. Dickinson died during a naval engagement when his ship was sunk by German U-boats. The tablet was donated to the university by the Panama Canal Museum in Seminole, Fla., and will be on display in Pugh Hall after Veterans’ Day.

SPOHP has more than 300 oral history interviews with American war veterans. The collection includes interviews with survivors of the Bataan Death March, soldiers who liberated Nazi concentration camps, as well as World War I, and American Civil War veterans.

In addition to audio interviews, SPOHP has a collection of written transcripts of its veterans interviews in the UF Digital Library Center. One such transcript is an interview with Capt. Albert Wilder, a survivor of the doomed PQ 17 merchant convoy that lost 24 of its 35 vessels to German submarine attacks in July 1942. Wilder recalled watching his brother’s ship sink while his own vessel was fatally struck by German torpedoes.

SPOHP is using YouTube video podcasts as a vehicle to promote the narratives of American military veterans. These podcasts feature highlights of full-length interviews that are accompanied by a visual slide show. One of the slide shows features the narrative of George Sternfels, a World War II veteran who recounts his experience of being wounded on D-Day during the Allied invasion of France.

SPOHP’s audio podcast series is also available through iTunes and features an interview with Pauline Pepper, a nurse who treated wounded soldiers, sailors, and airmen aboard troop ships in the European Theater in World War II.

SPOHP has used its oral histories with Bataan Death March survivors to create a documentary film titled “I Just Wanted to Live.” This documentary as well as the program’s audio podcasts and written transcripts are used by high school teachers, scholars and independent researchers, as well as veteran’s organizations to present first-hand stories of the experiences of Americans soldiers, sailors, marines, nurses, and others who have served the nation in war and in peace.

For more information about the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program please call 352- 392-7168 or visit www.history.ufl.edu/oral.