NEWS--

For immediate release

January 25, 2008

Oak Grove students localizing Brokaw's Greatest Generation

Classroom project included interviews with Bloomington WW II vets

Students in Adrien Everest's eighth grade language arts class at Oak Grove Middle School are writing a local version of The Greatest Generation, former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw's best selling novel that captures the stories of a generation who came of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War.

Everest's students are replicating Brokaw's work through a classroom project that has them researching local World War II veterans. Students recently met with nine veterans from the Bloomington VFW Post 1296 to interview them so they can write their own chapter to The Greatest Generation.

"Students (in pairs or small groups) had a chance to interview the veterans to ask them about their experiences then and now," said Everest. "Together the students will write their interviewee's story to become a sort of Bloomington's Greatest Generation."

Jim Lilledahl, 84, was among the first wave of American servicemen who landed on Okinawa on April 1, 1945. He said he was thrilled to be able to share stories of his generation and their experiences with the middle school students.

"I'm so proud to keep World War II alive. Not because I was in the service, but for all those who fought for our freedoms. Those who are living or died in service to their country," said Lilledahl, who is also the VFW Post Commander. "I tell the (students) that this project is a wonderful way to learn and to keep history alive."

Student Anders Paulson, 13, said interviewing veterans who were in combat or experienced life as a member of the military was important to learning more about an era they only know from books and movies.

"Knowing more about who they were is very beneficial to understanding history,"

said Paulson.

One of the highest honored vets in attendance was Dag Gerald, a Silver Star and Purple Heart award winner. Gerald told the students how he was shot in the shoulder during the D-Day invasion, an injury he told students was "a million dollar wound. I got to go home."

Clyde Undine, the VFW Post 1296 chaplain, was a tank commander during the famed Battle of the Bulge. He was one of several veterans who brought press clippings, maps of battle locations and troop movements, and pictures from the battlefield to help tell their stories. Undine offered a yearbook of sorts from his unit, which showed pictures from one of the German concentration camps. Undine had been injured falling off his tank in a battle and was not among the troops from his unit that liberated the camp in 1945.

"These were fascinating stories," one observer stated. "This was truly a snapshot of Bloomington's Greatest Generation."

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