May I suggest that if you know of someone who has seen service in a war, etc., or just an old family member, sit them down, get your video camera, and do an interview with them.
They will talk if you get them started, they just don't know the questions.
I did this after my mother died, with her 2 sisters and 4 brothers. Starting with the oldest, one at a time each gave their remembrences of their childhood. 3 of the brothers told of their service during WWI. All are dead now except 1 sister.
All the family now wants this video, hard to make a copy of a VCR tape, paid to have it put on a CD, but very poor quality.
I interviewed my mother in law before she died, also my son in laws father who was in the air force in WWII. I got him to talk, and the wife and kids could not believe it, they had never heard these stories he told. Priceless.
I often wish I thought of doing something like this before my Dad passed.
But this is an amazing story. Thanks for sharing.
My uncle was in WW2 he was in (new guinea) I think, or another of those god forsaken places and the story he told was marching down the road and seeing women nursing pigs instead of their babies. The pig could feed the whole family..didn’t have any love lost for the women that did that...
My Dad was an MP in Alamogordo, NM after WWII. As he was leaving due to cancer we sat him down with a mic and a pile of old family photos to narrate. Many years later the track and photos were edited and put to music. Not an easy task, but rewarding to be sure.