Veterans tell stories of triumph, realities of war at Roundtable

Kellen Jenkins / The Bulletin

Raymond M. Brown talks about his experiences in the infantry during the fi nal years of the war at the annual World War II Roundtable on Thursday night in the Kanza Room. Brown and other veterans gave their accounts of the war to members of the Emporia community and family members.

Students, faculty and community members listened to veterans speak during the annual World War II Roundtable event on Thursday evening.

“I am very humbled,” said First Lieutenant Raymond M. Brown of the United States Army. “My kids out there have never heard this before.”

The main area of discussion was the final year of the war. The veterans, who are all residents of Emporia, not only spoke about their experiences during and after the war, but also about their feelings involving the War in Iraq.

“I came to the previous Roundtable they had in November 2007,” said Kevin Powers, professor of music. “I have a lot of interest in history and World War II, so any time I get a chance to see the vets talk, I can do what I do right now and we’re free because of what they did. They won the war. I believe very strongly in that.”

The first speaker of the night was Staff Sergeant William H. Snyder of the United States Army Air Corps. Snyder described his background as a Kansas farmer before the war.

“I’m just a Kansas farm boy who was called to service and did what I had to do,” Snyder said. “Personally, I was able to come home, and I’ve been very thankful for that.”

Snyder told the audience about how some members of his family recounted their experiences of the war that they fought together.

“Fifty years later, my brother and brother-in-law were talking and one of us was an artillery officer that was shooting up at the time and the other one was in a tank reaming to go and did, and then I was in the air,” Snyder said. “So we kind of had a family war going on there.”

Trained as a B-17 aerial gunner, Snyder entered the service in 1943. He was a member of the 15 Air Force based in Foggia, Italy, and flew 34 bombing missions over Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany. Because Snyder was one mission short of being able to go home at the end of the war, he stayed in Europe during the Allied Occupation.

Snyder also discussed his interactions with the Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American pilots who often escorted his group.

“You’d be flying along and they’d be crisscrossing over you in pairs, which was always comforting to see,” Snyder said. “When the Tuskegee Airmen were there, you knew they were there, which was always rewarding.”

Snyder’s group flew over their target more than 222 times and they lost 100 B-17 airplanes. One plane they flew, the “Austin Flyer”, was the only plane that ever lasted 100 missions in their area.

Due to physical infirmities, Private First Class Howard R. Goodwin of the United States Army was unable to attend the event. Goodwin volunteered to go overseas with his unit and was assigned to the 102

Adjunct professor of history Loren Pennington told Goodwin’s story in his stead. Although Goodwin was wounded twice, he returned to action during the war. Pennington described how Goodwin, who joined the military service in 1943, would have been killed had it not been for a young Dutchman who saved his life during the invasion of Germany. Goodwin received the Purple Heart for the injuries he sustained during the war.

The third speaker of the evening was First Lieutenant Raymond M. Brown of the United States Army. Brown’s unit landed at Omaha Beach with General Patton’s Third Army 100 days after D-Day. His division received a medal for the liberation of Northern France.

“We didn’t do much fighting there,” Brown said. “It was really just a holding place mostly for us. “

Brown went on to discuss more of the battles in which he was involved and explained to the audience the emotional brutalities of war.

“You just lose so many people you don’t know,” Brown said. “We had people in our platoon there in the morning and they weren’t there in the evening. We didn’t see them anymore. Some aren’t there long enough to even get acquainted with. Kids, they were just kids. It was such a waste.”

During their first day in battle, all of Brown’s superiors were killed or wounded, so he was left in command of his platoon. Brown received a battlefield commission because the casualties in his division were so high. Soldiers in World War II saw death nearly every day but never became completely used to it.

“I saw lots of dead soldiers-American Soldiers,” Brown said. “I don’t think I ever saw one without kind of a smile on his face. I’ve been thinking about this and I wonder if maybe, when the soul leaves the body and sees what’s on the other side, whether something wants to make the body feel good and puts a smile on its face. I do, I think about that a lot. ”

Brown never returned to Europe after coming home from the war. After discussing a particularly painful experience of seeing one of his men die, Brown spoke about his opinions of war.

“I hate war,” Brown said. “I’m anti-war all the way. It upsets me that we have to fight, that we have to have that kind of society.”

Brown also said that he feels that veterans today are not being treated the right way and that they are having a difficult time readjusting to living at home after going to war.

“I’m disturbed about the veterans who come back over here are neglected and the trouble they are having adjusting - the families that are torn up,” Brown said. “I started with the railroad and worked for six or eight months. So when I came home in November 1945, I went to work for the railroad, I went back. It was interesting to me. I think that helped me make an adjustment. That’s sort of what upsets me now is the trouble these kids are having adjusting.”

For those in the audience who did not live through the war, listening to the veterans gave insight into the time period.

“I got to hear Mr. Brown talk and he was riveting,” Powers said. “It seems like when you hear a lot of vets talk, they don’t really go into a lot of detail because it’s too painful to talk about. But he said some things that just really make you go ‘Wow, I have my life easy compared to what they lived through’.”