The panel, put together by the Fenton History Center, consisted of Paul Arnone, Bill Graves, Winston Frankson, Roland Swanson and Arthur Hodges; In addition, Tom Tedesco and Doug Benson were added to the conversation after being recognized in the crowd by the moderator, Greg Peterson.

The panel had been held in March for high school students, but members of the public expressed interest in being able to attend a similar event themselves.

Peterson began the session by asking what the veterans remembered of December 7, 1941 — the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked.

Arnone said he was young at the time. “I was just a kid,” he said. “And, of course, I was frightened.”

Paul Arnone, World War II veteran, shows the crowd a model “LST” ship at Fenton History Center’s Local World War II Veteran Panel held at Scharmann Theatre. Arnone said they were sometimes called a “Long Slow Target.” P-J photo by Katrina Fuller

Arnone later went on to be a member of the Navy and was a signal specialist.

Graves said he was still in high school and did not pay much attention to it. However, he said he wanted to join the military as soon as possible.

“I tried to join but they wouldn’t take me because of my eyes,” Graves said. “So I had to wait it out for the draft.”

He got his draft notice later on and went before a panel of military leaders to be selected for a service such as the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines. He said each person passed his paperwork on to the next until finally it reached a representative of the Navy. The man picked up his stamp and marked Graves’ paperwork.

Graves said he was thrilled to be chosen for the Navy because his father was in the Navy at that time.

“So, you and your father were both in the Navy during World War II?” Peterson asked.

Graves nodded.

Winston Frankson, Air Force veteran, said he and his uncle were at the movies when he heard about the attack. When he left the movies, everyone was selling newspapers. Afterward, he went right from high school to the Air Force, which was called the Army Air Corp. at the time.

Roland Swanson, a Seabee, said when he heard about the attack, he asked “Where the heck is Pearl Harbor?”

“We thought ‘What in the world was all that’ because that was in another part of the world,” Swanson said.

In August 1943, he was drafted into the military. He went to Buffalo for induction, and told the man interviewing him he liked the Navy.

“He said, ‘Ah, we got something new. They’re called the Seabees,'” Swanson said. “I said ‘If it’s Navy, I like it,’ and he said, ‘You’re in.'”

Hodges, an Army Veteran, said he lived in Blockville when he heard of the news. He was 16 years old and worked at an apple farm.

“All I could think of was ‘I’m 16. I’ve got two more years, and then I’ll be on my way,'” he said.

Hodges, Graves, Swanson and Frankson were all involved in the South Pacific during the war. However, Arnone was present for D-Day in Europe. His ship, an LST which was lovingly called a “Long Slow Target,” pulled up to Gold Beach which was next to Omaha Beach during D-Day.

“I was on Normandy Beach during D-Day,” Arnone said. “We were stranded on the beach for five hours. It just overwhelmed me. We were a sitting duck.”

Because of the nature of the boat, they had to wait for the tide to come in in order to leave the beach. The ship was used to drop off equipment and other necessities, and would take on wounded soldiers, of which there were many, Arnone said.

Swanson said he was stationed in Los Negros and visited a cemetery there where the dead were buried. Being from Jamestown, he never expected to see a name he knew.

“There, on a white cross, was Van Dyke Underwood Jr,” he said. “(He) lived on Beechview Avenue when I did. He became a machine gunner, and he got killed when his machine gun jammed.”

Graves said it is possible if President Harry Truman hadn’t dropped the atomic bomb on the Japanese, he would’ve been one of the first wave to invade Japan.

“I said if I could’ve gotten a hold of Harry Truman, I would’ve kissed him right on the forehead,” he said.

He was docked near the ship that the surrender was signed on, and everyone grabbed all the binoculars they could find to watch the event. The battleship that first came in for the signing was called The Iowa, Graves said.

“Harry Truman was president at the time,” he said. “He wanted The Missouri.”

Benson, an Army veteran who saw combat in Europe, said he was originally slated to go to college and become an engineer in the military. However, the program was canceled and he was sent to serve in the 94th Infantry Division.

During his time there, two soldiers shot themselves because they couldn’t deal with combat; one shot himself in the foot while the other shot himself in the hip.

“On another occasion, we caught a couple Germans,” Benson said.

Two men were supposed to take the Germans back to headquarters, but returned from their ride in five minutes.

“We asked ‘What happened to the Germans?'” Benson said. “And they said, ‘Oh, we had to kill them, they tried to escape.'”

After the war, the men returned to life as usual. Some went back to jobs, others found careers, such as Frankson, who owned Peterson’s Candy, and Swanson was eventually called up to fight in the Korean War.

Swanson said when he came home from war on the train, he stood up when he was coming into Celoron due to his excitement.

“And the ticket taker said, ‘Sit down, sailor! You’re not in Jamestown yet,'” Swanson said.