History lessons go beyond text books for Cactus Shadows club

MARC BUCKHOUT ~ MANAGING EDITOR~ 9/21/2011

It started with a simple question asked by a student in the history class of
Cactus Shadows teacher Barbara Hatch following the viewing of the 1998 movie, “Saving Private Ryan.”
“The student wanted to know how accurate the scene is at the beginning, when they land on the beaches of Normandy,” Hatch said. “From what I had read I thought it was very accurate, but I figured there must be some World War II veterans in our area that could give us a more definitive answer so I wrote to a local VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and asked if there were any veterans that would be willing to talk to a high school class.”
Hatch was astounded by the response she received. The simple inquiry blossomed into a club on campus, the Arizona Heritage Project, in 2005, and then a non-profit, the Veterans Heritage Project in 2010 with aspirations to take the program to other school in Arizona and across the country.
Since 2005 the group has produced seven publications featuring the stories of some 450 veterans from around the state.
This year’s edition of the Veterans Heritage Project club has almost 50 members at Cactus Shadows, but the school’s efforts have been noticed to the point the program has expanded to six other schools around the state.
“We just can’t handle the demand on our own anymore,” Hatch said. “We drive everywhere from Sun Lakes out to Buckeye.”
The group spends the early part of the school year conducting filmed interviews with as many veterans as they can. After conducting the interviews students write a story on the veteran they’ve interviewed.
“You want to do them justice,” senior Brenna Leech, the group’s president said. “The whole point is to honor their sacrifice, but you also want people reading the piece to feel the emotion of the stories they tell us.”
The club then works on putting together a compilation  of the stories for a book called, Since You Asked, Arizona Veterans Share Their Memories, ordering them chronologically in terms of when the wars took place going back to World War II, forward through Korea, Vietnam and then all the way through active duty soldiers that have served in the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan. On April 22 at ASU West a ceremony will honor the featured veterans while also allowing the public to purchase the eighth edition of the book.
Nima Sadeghi, a member of the group, said it’s easy to draw inspiration from listening to veterans stories.
“It’s really amazing, that they could go through so much, and then come back and lead normal lives,” the sophomore said. “It makes stuff that you’re going through seem insignificant.”
Alec Griffith, a sophomore in the club, got the opportunity to interview Alex Towes, a 2007 Falcons graduate, who fought in Iraqi Freedom.
“He told me about losing two of his friends in battle, but even though you could tell it hurt him to talk about it he was able to recover and seemed really strong,” Towes said.
Some students said that initially they are somewhat intimidated by the prospect of interviewing veterans, but they find that their subjects are glad to tell their stories.
“Especially for the Vietnam Veterans, I think it’s a release,” Leech said. “It might seem strange that they would be willing to tell strangers their stories when they haven’t talked about their experiences even with their families, but we’re not looking to judge them. We’re young and we’re interested and we want them to feel comfortable.”
One emphasis of the group is to try and get to as many World War II veterans as they possibly can.
“Since our last book was published we’ve had I think 15 vets pass away,” Leech said. “That makes you understand that these people don’t have much time. We feel like we have to get these interviews done so future generations know the sacrifices made by those that came before them. I think there’s a sense of pride in getting their stories down. It almost feels as though you’ve given them a good send off.”
On Thursday Hatch and sophomore Lily Voitek traveled to Glendale to talk to Stanley Napiwoski who served in the Army during World War II.
Napiwoski, who turned 90 in June, spoke at length about his military experience from the very beginning, when he said he watched fellow soldiers pass out from the heat during basic training in Texas.
While the chronology of events was somewhat hazy, Napiwoski told stories with vivid details about landing on Utah Beach in Normandy and passing through concentration camps in Germany.
In his role in Field Artillery he detailed missions in which he used a compass and binoculars and then relayed coordinates for soldiers to shoot cannons at German targets.
“You should have seen the explosions when we hit their ammunition supplies,” he said.
Another harrowing adventure saw him drive a Colonel to get a view of a battle. Upon stopping the jeep on an elevated perch Napiwoski said he, “nearly passed out,” to discover he had stopped the jeep on top of a landmine.
Nearly 70 years after the fact Napiwoski told Hatch and Voitek how he fearfully
got back into the jeep.
“He told me to get back in the jeep and drive it off of it,” Napiwoski recalls. “He told me the jeep was too light and it wouldn’t trigger the land mine. They were made to take out tanks. Fortunately he was right.”
While text books offer the big picture story of what happened in World War II, Napiwoski offered details that could only be gleaned from a first person account. He talked about the trip across the Atlantic Ocean, travelling in a ship in which the soldiers couldn’t even stand up straight without hitting their heads.
For the lucky ones he said the two week trip was spent largely playing the dice game,
craps. For others the time wasn’t nearly as pleasant.
“You can’t imagine how many times a human being can heave,” he said shaking his head with a wry smile.
Napiwoski also brought historic figures to life offering insights on military
men he knew including General Omar Bradley.
“He was quiet, but spoke with authority,” Napiwoski said. “He got things done.”
The experience in the club has led Leech to want to pursue a career in the Air Force after
she graduates.
For Hatch it’s been a way to bring people together.
“I’ve learned so much about our history from this and I think the students have too,” she said. “The thing that makes our program different and the thing I’m proud of is that because of it I’ve been able to be a middle man to bring different generations together.”
For information on the club go to veteransheritage.org, call 602-571-1248 or email Barbara@veteransheritage.org.