Posted on 11/12/2001 6:46:39 PM PST by freeplancer
At the end of this week, I will be arriving home in my hometown in Illinois. Believe it or not, there is a friend of the family who is a true veteran of WW1 and he still has all of his faculties. I am going to interview him for a documentary, but I would really like to hear what some other people would be curious about. If anyone has any "non-humorous" questions or ideas that would aid me in what could be my last chance to ever have a sit-down with a "Dough Boy" (infantry) from WW1, I would really appreciate it.
Also, I wonder how one could find out just how many of these crusty vets are left alive?
I will post a report when I return home.
Boon or bust for the country and the war?
Eaker
PS: Good luck and God-Speed. This man has seen us from horses to the moon!!
2) What 3-5 things about the U.S. in the last 5 years has made you feel least glad you made your WWI sacrifices?
3) What 3-5 things do you believe youth most need to be taught or taught better these days?
4) What are your 3-5 greatest concerns for the U.S. compared to the one you knew WWI era?
5) What would be the first 12 things you would do if you were President of the U.S. now?
6) What do you believe would be the 3-5 most effective ways to counter the most destructive forces in the U.S. currently?
7) What 3-5 characteristics, traits, habits do you feel are most different from soldier age adults nowadays compared to your colleagues in WWI?
8) What 3-5 most major changes do you most expect will occur in the U.S. in the next 5 years?
9) What 2-3 things about modern life most shock you or have most shocked you?
10) What 3-5 things about life in the U.S. have most renewed your hope?
11) What do you think of globalism?
12) What do you think of the Clintons?
A.Do you know Jesus?
B) How did ya keep 'em down on the farm after they'd seen Paree?
C) If a tank is leaving Ypres at 3 miles per hour and another tank is leaving Amiens at 4 miles per hour, and their both going in the same direction, which crew will die first?
D) Behind the laughter: Fatty Arbuckle, what went wrong?
E) Is this your good ear?
F) You don't still have that gas mask around somewhere?
G) That German prisoner you let live, they didn't tell you it was HITLER, did they?
How blithely you blather.
the war with bullets flying and bombs bursting...
or how often an engine just fell off an airplane during combat.
Ask him THAT.
As you can tell from my screen name, I'm Vietnam era too.
I interviewed my Mothers' Father, my Grandfather, James Clegg, in 1957, to get his recollections of WW-I on audiotape. He was the crustiest-old curmudgeon that I'd ever met, but I knew he loved me. When I asked him what it was like in WW-I, he teared-up, and choked-up, and remarked, and these are his words: "We were cannon-fodder, Barry! They sent us up to fight and die, and most died!"
I also had the honour of sitting with another WW-I veteran at a VFW hall in Little Rock in 1988. We talked for four hours, and my date left, and I never got laid, but the old-guy thanked me for listening.
I never missed getting laid that time....FRegards
Ask him to tell you about the mood of the time. Why did he go off to war? What did his friends and family think?
What was basic training like?
How did he get to Europe? Form where did he embark? Where did he disembark?
How did he get to the lines?
What was daily life like?
How did they amuse themselves?
What did he eat?
What was the weather like?
Did he see combat?
What did that look like?
Was he in the trenches?
What did they look like?
How far away were the Germans?
What did it sound like?
What did it smell like?
Ask him to tell you about his friends. Where they were from? What they did together?
How did the French people treat him and his comrades?
Let him paint a verbal picture and tape record everything if you can.
Considering the many new strategies and weapons introduced in the Great War, did the soldiers at the time, particularly any French soldiers he may have encountered, have any idea how radically the very nature of war was changing before their very eyes?
Also, the Great War was in many ways the pinnacle of the ushering in of 20th century ideas of nationalism, statism, progressivism and socialism. Does he think we've moved beyond that now, and have entered a new post-nationalist Golden Age, or are we just in a bit of a lull?
I, too, envy your opportunity to speak with a veteran of the "war to end all wars." I am sure I speak for practically everyone who would wish for you to also express our thanks for his service in that tragic time.
Have the bartender give him what he wants, then send me the tab.
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