By Deborah Reed
deborah@wktv.org
Capturing information and details not officially recorded anywhere else is a job James Smither, Professor of History and Director of the GVSU Veterans History Project (VHP), has undertaken for 15 years.
With well over 1,000 military veteran interviews under his belt, Smither continues to seek out anyone who was in military service from World War II onward who are willing to share their experiences, whether they have seen combat or not.
“If you have been in the U.S. military, we want to talk to you,” said Smither.
All ages of veterans welcome
Smither said he has noticed a trend of veterans wanting to make sense of their military experiences approximately 40 years after the conflict.
“WWII veterans really began talking a lot about it in the 80s, Vietnam vets mostly in the past 20 years,” said Smither. “But a lot of the (veterans) who have been through Iraq or Afghanistan, for a lot of them it is probably still too soon.”
Many recent veterans also don’t consider their experiences as part of history, or consider what they did as important.
“They don’t think of what they did as being part of history, but when I get them, it’s great because they remember a lot of stuff,” said Smither. “And those who say they ‘didn’t really do anything,’ after a few questions, it quickly becomes apparent that a story is there.”
More than just fact-finding
But Smither views the VHP as more than just a fact-finding mission.
“We see our job as giving veterans a way of telling their story, and telling it in the way they want to tell it,” said Smither. “The whole story, or as much as they want to tell.”
Smither said that veterans are not required to talk about things they don’t want to talk about. They have full control over their own content.
“We do our best to make it as easy for them as possible, and to treat everybody and their stories with respect,” said Smither. “For a lot of them, they are working through their experience. Sometimes I am the first person they have told the whole story to.”
Interviews range from veterans who have previously held back from talking about their experiences, and some who have told bits and pieces but never tried to put their entire story together.
Smither said that veterans appreciate talking to someone who understands military language and with reasonable knowledge of wartime events because the veterans often remember things but don’t know why those things happened (the context of the situation) or how they wound up that particular situation.
Gaining background information from Smither, or having him bring a different perspective, has often helped veterans find clarity.
“People who haven’t talked about it, I can help them tell their story,” said Smither. “And even people who do talk about it sometimes, I can help them put it together and make sense.”
Smither has encountered veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who have said the interview process was helpful and that they found peace and healing by telling their stories.
“You help them get control over their stories, and [for] some of them, it helps them process the trauma,” said Smither.
A view rarely seen
Capturing veterans’ experiences yields multiple benefits.
“On a basic level, it’s a teaching tool,” said Smither. “You can imagine what warfare is like, but unless you are in it yourself, you tend to have a more abstract or sanitized view of the reality of how bad it is. It doesn’t ever really sink in.”
With the VHP interviews, viewers get a very different picture of a soldier’s experience than would be portrayed in journalistic reports and official records.
“There’s this whole layer of human experience that you get in these interviews that doesn’t have a place otherwise,” said Smither.
Another value to the VHP’s interviews is preservation of historical information.
“There is a huge amount of historical information out there that gets lost if you don’t [record it] that can help people get a better understanding of reality,” said Smither.
Fully invested in a career path he never saw coming
“I originally trained as a conventional European historian,” said Smither. “I was the Renaissance Reformation guy at Grand Valley when I got there in 1990. But I always had an interest in military history and developed a course in military history.”
In 2003, Smither was contacted by an oral historian working with a local group to establish a military museum. The intent was to record interviews with local veterans and post them online in conjunction with the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
The hope was to “catch up” with World War II veterans before they were all gone.
“I met [the oral historian] in the summer of 2003, and a couple of months later he had me onstage with four DDay veterans, helping them tell their stories in front of a live audience,” said Smither.
One of those veterans was Ralph Hauenstein, part of Eisenhower’s intelligence staff.
When the museum group folded in 2005, Smither – as chairman of the GVSU History Department – was tasked with continuing the interviews and archiving all completed interviews. Smither knew a lot of background facts about the veterans’ stories and realized he could apply that knowledge.
Things really began moving in 2007 when Smither was contacted by the Kentwood Historic Preservation Commission. They offered to help recruit veterans for interviews and recommended WKTV Community Television to help with the recording process.
Since 2008, Smither has completed over 100 veteran interviews at WKTV.
“I have been all over the place for interviews, but WKTV has been a regular home for the project and does good quality studio shoots,” said Smither.
WKTV General Manager Tom Norton said, “WKTV Community Media is pleased to have played a role with Dr. Smithers, GVSU, and the Library of Congress for all these years, and to be the resource for recording the oral history of our veterans.”
A life-changing experience
Being part of the Veterans History Project has had a profound effect on Smither.
“On a basic level, doing this transformed my own career,” said Smither. “When I was doing 16th French history, there was always something missing. I was never quite sure what it was. I didn’t have a really good feel for the significance of what I was doing.
“Then,” Smither continued, “when I started working with veterans, I realized that this is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Smither has also noticed he now has a form of PTSD.
“You absorb a lot of the trauma and psychological damage that these people suffer because you are listening to the telling of these harrowing stories,” said Smither. “You are living it while they are telling it to you.”
Smither admitted that some things he once found appealing, such as action/adventure movies and game simulation warfare, are no longer of interest to him.
“It does take its toll in a certain sort of way, and changes your perspective on certain things,” said Smither.
But Smither has no plans to back away from helping veterans tell their stories.
“If we don’t record these things and make them available, then all of that knowledge and all of that information is lost,” Smither said. “What (veterans) did, did matter.”
If you are a veteran and would be willing to share your experiences, please contact James Smither at: smitherj@gvsu.edu or 616-331-3422.
