INTRODUCTION

Greetings!  My name is Diane Yettick and I will be your guide through TRIBUTE.  On the Acknowledgment page I said I am Project Editor.  I am not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds pretty good.  At least it sounds pretty good until you start reading the stories of the people we interviewed for this book, people who did incredible things in terrible circumstances.  Be that as it may, I will be leading you through a journey that happened about sixty years ago, and along the way share a few things that happened as we put TRIBUTE  together.   I am probably the best one to do that, having read all these stories and keyed them into my computer.  I wish you could sit and listen to every one of these people yourself, but this is the best we can do, and actually, it's not too bad!

You may want to read this a little bit at a time.  First you could find people you know in the list of names of authors and people interviewed.  Click on Authors and Subjects at the top of the TRIBUTE home page, then scroll down the list and  click on a name you know and you can read his or her story.  Then return to the home page and click on Part One and just start through each Part.  Read a bit and think a bit as you go.  You may want to plan a few moments to shed a few tears.  You will find it  very compelling and thought provoking the way all these stories together present a picture of Whitman County people never before seen or heard.

 As I sorted through all the documents put together here, several themes emerged, kind of disassociated in a way, but interesting themes nonetheless.  I'd like to share them with you before we head out into this seven part volume.  Here are some themes you too may notice as you read through TRIBUTE.

©      Heroes.  These are stories about heroes.  The sound you just heard is every one of the people interviewed shouting in unison, "We are NOT heroes!"  Yes, yes, I know.  They all told either me or the person who interviewed them, "Don't call me a hero!"  I tried to edit out all those kinds of remarks, but I just couldn't do it.  The problem is, it's about sixty years too late to determine the hero quality of the people we are going to read about here.  It's been established.  It is the truth.  These people were all willing to lay down whatever kind of life they had or hoped for in order to defend all of us and our right to freedom.  So, you will be reading about heroes, and if there are any complaints about that from the heroes… the buck stops here.

©      Trains.  Lots of trains run through these stories.  A World War II veteran friend of mine once said he believed the main reason for the demise of passenger train service in this country had to do with the war.  He said he and every guy he knew got off the train in his home town and said, "I am NEVER getting on another train as long as I live!"  He was joking, kind of.  At the same time, I am convinced we could not have won the war without trains.  And imagine what it would be like now if we had to suddenly move people all over the country.  Everyone would want to drive his own car.  Picture the gridlock that would bring about near every military base in America!

©      Military bases.  That brings us to military bases, yet another pervasive theme.  It seemed to me as I read through or heard stories from different people each one had a list of new names of bases and towns where he or she received training.  It is amazing how quickly all the branches of military service were able to put together instructors, set up camps, and go to work training all kinds of productive people.  No two people in our stories followed exactly the same path.

©      Flying formation.  I began to notice as the book came together that a surprisingly high number of young men from Whitman County enlisted in the Army Air Corps, and came back.  I picked up a clue about that while reading a book Bryant Smick in St. John put together about his life and flying days, some parts of which you will read a little later in this book by his kind permission.  He mentioned the ease he had in learning to fly formation.  Fly formation means being in an airplane and flying close to one or more other airplanes and holding the position, without hitting the other planes.  Bryant thinks maybe he was able to do that because he had grown up driving wheat trucks next to a combine at the right speed, holding the pattern, then pulling away.  I really like the idea that farm life in Whitman County helped some of our young people survive the war.

©      Variety.  The people in TRIBUTE  filled an amazing variety of jobs and also served on various war fronts that have faded from public memory and certainly out of history text books.  Men and women rushed to fill the demands of the war machine, both in military positions and on the home front, some of them doing what they knew how to do, many more not.  And they served all over the earth.

©      Pearl Harbor.  Most everybody remembers where they were on December 7, 1941.  When we first were gearing up the students to do interviews, I was telling them, "If you don't know where to begin, ask 'Where were you when you heard about Pearl Harbor?' and that will get you started.  EVERYone has an answer to that question."  Well, the very first interview in this project was done by Rachel Morgan, from Colfax High School,  with Dorothy Matson in Pullman.  I went along with Rachel to meet Dorothy who is unable to get out easily.  Also, I wanted to be in on the first interview to see how it would go.  So Rachel asked her the question I told her would get an answer.  And Dorothy answered simply, "I don't remember."  So much for my good advice.  But really, most people DO remember and the responses to that question alone could fill a book.

©      Loyalty.  Bonds between men and women in the various branches of military service survive at least sixty years.  The week we conducted interviews at three high schools I heard all kinds of good natured ribbing between guys in different branches.  I had to be careful not to find myself in the line of fire on that one!

©      Only a few.  Someone told me there are about 2000 World War II veterans in Whitman County.  This book features only a small percentage of all those who enlisted, served at home and abroad, gave their lives, came home, or migrated somewhere else after the war.  The people in TRIBUTE were mostly found by word of mouth.  Some even live somewhere else and somehow showed up to be interviewed.  We didn't leave anyone out on purpose… I just ran out of space before I found all 2000 veterans!  Maybe TRIBUTE II  is in the making.

©      Just kids.  Finally, here is something I found strangely haunting.  World War II was fought and won by teenagers, men and women between the ages of seventeen and their early twenties.  Right after Pearl Harbor, it was young people, healthy, unmarried, just out of high school who mostly filled the ranks and went off for training and then to combat zones.  Just kids. 

Well, those are a few things I noticed while I was being instructed in the history of World War II by experts in the field.  Incidentally, if you have always said you hate history, you are in for a real surprise.  It is amazing what a difference it makes when you are thinking of history in terms of people from your county instead of dates and wars!  After reading this you just may think some better thoughts about the subject of history.

Before we take off through Part One, I'd like to tell you a bit about how this project started and developed.  If that doesn't interest you, just return to the TRIBUTE home page and click on  Part One and jump in.

In September of 2000 some of the staff from Council on Aging & Human Services, including me, went to Wenatchee for a Senior Services of Washington seminar.  One of the dinner speakers, Don Moos, talked about a book a local high school teacher, Allison Agnew, had published.  It was a book after the style of Tom Brokaw's greatest generation books.  She had her class do the writing, Moos being one those they interviewed.  I read the book and found it very intriguing.

Over the next few weeks we at Council on Aging discussed the possibility of producing such a volume in Whitman County and the task fell to me to see if we could do such a thing.  I asked a lot of people a lot of questions and was pretty sure the whole thing was insurmountable.  Then I began to think: there are nine high schools in Whitman County.  If I could get three, maybe four kids at each high school to interview one veteran or one home front person and write a one-page story about each person, we could run them off on a copy machine, staple them together, and hand them out on a street corner.

The first couple of schools I contacted were unable to find time or a friendly curriculum slot to include such a project.  Then I made an appointment with Craig McCormick at Pullman High School.  Craig was teaching a Sophomore Honors English class.  I had been thinking we would have Seniors do the writing, but already my stern list of demands was crumbling.  Craig caught the idea quickly and with studied enthusiasm he said, "Yes, we can do this."

I said, "Good.  How many kids do you think you can have work on the project?"  I was thinking four, maybe five.

He said, "Well, all of them."

I said, "How many is that?"

He said, "Twenty-seven."

Suddenly my neat and tidy concept took total flight.  I looked at him and tried to keep my voice even.  "Fine," I said.  "That will be fine."

I walked out of the building wondering where and how I would find that many people in all of the county, let alone Pullman.  But, things began to happen.  I visited the Pullman Senior Center where Council on Aging helps provide meals for up to one hundred senior citizens twice a week.  It is a lively group.  They start off each session with the flag salute, a prayer, announcements, and a few groaners, sometimes some entertainment.  I asked to use the microphone and told the folks about the project and said I needed people to be interviewed.  I asked them to come see me if they would be willing to talk to a high school student about what they were doing back in the 1940s.  The first person who approached me was Celia Fockler.  She told me she was a welder in the Oregon Shipyard in Portland and still had her welder's mask. 

We were off and running.

We scheduled an interview session only to have the school library catch fire early in the morning the day of our interviews, closing the school for the day.  Undaunted, we rescheduled a couple weeks later.  One of the volunteers, Roger Spencer, was unable to come on that second date, so I asked him if he would be willing to come in to the school the week before and let the student assigned to him interview him in front of the class.  I described it as kind of a training session to give the kids an idea of what to expect.  He graciously said yes.

He was to meet me at the school office at 9 am, but due to slow moving traffic coming into Pullman, I got there about 9:06.  No Roger.  Someone in the office told me there had been a man there for an interview, but one of the students had come to get him.  I went to the classroom only to find all of them sitting there waiting for me and Mr. Spencer, who at that moment was missing in action.  Craig McCormick took off looking for him while I held down the fort.  He returned about five minutes later with Roger in tow.  He had found Spencer lecturing a journalism class in the cafeteria. 

Seems that class was also expecting someone that morning and had gotten Mr. Spencer by mistake.  Roger said with a big grin, "I was well into my spiel before Craig showed up."

Again, undaunted, we pressed on.  David Kahn did indeed show the class how it should be done, and the next Monday the students had the opportunity to meet and interview people of their own, and to forge some friendships they had not anticipated.

The same week we held interview sessions at LaCrosse and Rosalia High Schools, both of which were equally productive.  Palouse High School, meanwhile, made a major contribution to our book by presenting stories written in a class on Whitman County History.  They also invited Gene Bridge, a local veteran, to their class.  Then all of them wrote papers about his presentation which are also in this volume. 

Some people were unable to make it to one of the interview sessions, but wanted to participate, so I volunteered to interview them and add their stories to our growing list.  Also, we were unable to arrange to have a Colfax or St. John High School class conduct interviews.  Since I lived in St. John and worked in Colfax, I set about contacting people in those towns and ended up including about thirty more names and creating two more Parts of the book.  I also received several interesting documents and papers which we converted into yet another Part, bringing my stapled ten-page idea up to over three hundred pages of bound text and photos. 

After the interviews, we collected the stories and sent them to each person who was interviewed for editing and approval.  Then we entered them into a computer, sorted them out into these several Parts, and presented them to Cougar Graphics for publication.

One other thing.  There were a few people we approached who, because of illness or other valid reasons, were not able to be involved in our project.  But they were all kind, generous, and helpful, some even referring me to other people we might interview.  A special thanks to all of them for that courtesy.

Pulling these stories together has been one of the most engaging, exciting, educational, and emotionally challenging things I have ever done.  I hope you find reading them equally engaging, exciting, educational, and emotionally challenging.  You should, because after all, this book is about people we live with, people who laid down their lives for us, people who are well deserving of our tribute.

One little clue that will help you wind your way through all these stories: When you see print that looks like this, not indented, in Lucinda Calligraphy font Size 11, that will be me, Diane, talking to you, introducing the material just ahead of you, maybe sharing something that will make the last story or the next thing you read more clear, interesting, or entertaining.

When you see print that looks like this, indented, in Lucinda Sans, font size 12, that will be the real stuff, stories written either by the students, the people themselves, or by me. 

If you didn't skip to Part One before, you are about there now and have a better understanding of how TRIBUTE  came into existence.  

Check the list of names for stories you may want to click on and read first, or if you are ready to jump in, let's GO!