More than 300 area WWII veterans were interviewed over the past several years by Greg Peterson for the “Defenders of Freedom” project at the center. They colorfully told their stories before most of them passed over. They have joined their comrades who were among the more than 400,000 Americans who gave their lives in defense of freedom in that war that reshaped the world.

The veterans’ recollections live on this Memorial Day, thanks to the center’s timely video recordings. Their memorable stories include those like Conrad King, who served aboard the USS South Dakota; Anthony Costanzo, who fought across North Africa and Sicily and later hit the Normandy beaches on D-Day; and Bill Pihl, who served aboard the “Fighting Essex” in the South Pacific.

Others had fraught recollections as well, like those of Vivian Taylor, a young Black soldier who served in an all-Black unit. He was assigned to defuse “Bouncing Betty” mines and other deadly devices left behind by the Germans to slow Allied advances. He worked diligently to protect white American forces, but he was not permitted to eat or bivouac with those troops during that segregated era.

The aging warriors often unabashedly teared up when they spoke about a friend who gave his life without hesitation to save his comrades more than seven decades ago. And Seabee Roland Swanson recalled his shock in coming across the burial site of boyhood friend Van Dyke Underwood on the rather remote island of Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands.

Stephan Lewy

“What are the chances of that?” Swanson asked as his eyes glanced upward and his voice trailed off.

When asked for one takeaway from his wartime experience, Seabee Swanson said on tape that was an easy question. “I can sum it up in one word: Respect. Respect for other people, respect for their ideas and desires are keys to lasting peace.”

Pihl was a fresh-faced 18-year-old sailor who served at the helm of the Essex, an 872-foot-long aircraft carrier. He escaped death several times, including when an oncoming Japanese plane laced a string of bullets across metal plates only 12 to 14 inches above his head. He was clearly shown in official U.S. Naval film footage participating in a “Viking Funeral” as a heavily damaged U.S. torpedo bomber containing the remains of a deceased Naval airman was pushed from the flight deck into the sea following a solemn ceremony. (His comments and the official footage are available on the center’s website.)

The Navy veteran also vividly recalled the clatter of rolling dice deep in the bowels of the aircraft carrier as young men gambled away their earnings, knowing that the next day they would again be gambling their very lives in battle against the fierce Japanese enemy.

Costanzo also recalled several remarkable experiences during the war. At one point the First Infantry Division soldier heard the distinctive sound of an oncoming German fighter plane. He quickly sought safety by running deep into an adjacent field, only to discover afterward that the field had been heavily mined. After the taking of Sicily, he managed to secure a three-day pass and made it to the mountainous home of his grandmother who tried unsuccessfully to convince him to remain safely with her rather than return to his unit. And return he did, only to later find himself once again dodging German bullets as his “Big Red 1” unit landed in France on D-Day as the Allies began reclaiming Western Europe.

Vivian Taylor

King also had more than a few close calls aboard the USS South Dakota. At one point a Japanese plane dropped a bomb that killed seven of the eight men in his gun emplacement on the large battleship. King was the sole survivor. He had been saying a prayer just prior to the explosion and he credits his survival to his religious upbringing. He and his surviving mates made it through the war and had front row seats to the treaty signing with his ship tied alongside the USS Missouri.

The young King also managed to commandeer a Japanese flag from a Japanese ship moored nearby during the treaty signing.

Bob Swift served as a specially-trained bombardier with the 485th Bomber Group. In March 1944 he was shot down over Holland and held as a POW until freed by the advancing Soviet Army. He later returned to Holland and retrieved a portion of his downed plane which he proudly displayed at his interview.

Dominic Spitale had one of the closest brushes with death. The young Marine was shot in the head by a Japanese sniper and was later discovered moving in a pile of dead American soldiers. He was evacuated stateside and treated at an Army hospital and later transferred to a Marine hospital for months of treatment and recovery.

“The doctor said that if I had any brains at all, I would have been dead,” laughed Spitale in retelling his story years later for the camera. He was blinded in the left eye and lost hearing in his left ear from this wartime injury but he moved on with his life nevertheless. He married, but like many veterans, he suffered from what today would be called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Another equally interesting story was told by Stephan Lewy, who was born in Berlin Germany to a Jewish father. He was raised in the Jewish faith and at age 14 he managed to get to France where he resumed his schooling. When Germany invaded France in 1940, Lewy made his way to North Africa and eventually to this country. A few years later he was drafted into the U.S. Army and trained at Camp Ritchie to interrogate German soldiers and analyze captured documents.

He and fellow “Ritchie Boys” performed their duties well, despite the realization that if captured they likely would have been identified as German Jews and executed as “traitors” by the Nazis. Two of the “Ritchie Boys,” in fact, died this way.

While the war left its mark on the psyche of these veterans, most returned home and resumed their lives. Many like Vivian Taylor and Stephan Lewy used the GI Bill to further their educations. Taylor earned a bachelor’s degree and became prominent in Jamestown politics while Lewy earned a degree in accounting and worked for two large hotel chains. King returned to the family heating and sheet metal business and Swanson worked with customers at Sears.

“We owe much to these and other veterans who put their lives on hold to stop the advance of the authoritarian, militaristic forces sweeping across the globe. The successful Allied effort continues to shape and influence the world,” concludes Greg Peterson who was assisted on the filming project by Rolland Kidder, Ed Tomassini, and Phil Zimmer among others.