Veterans Share Their Stories With Groton Students

A teacher at West Side Middle School asked George Swift, a 93-year-old World War II veteran speaking to students, if he saw any evidence of the Holocaust during his service.

“We did,” was all he said, at first.

Then he said he remembered a place with wooden benches stacked three high.

“They would gas those people, and burn them up outside their building,” he said, pausing for a moment. “They would dig a trench . . . And that trench was filled with blood.”

Alexxa McKnight, 13, said the story would stay with her.

“How he saw the trench of blood, that is something that will stick in my head,” she said.

West Side Middle School brought five veterans in Thursday morning to honor Veterans Day, teach students about history and bring them closer to what the holiday means. More than 30 veterans and their families, who have visited the school in the past, also stopped in that afternoon to have lunch and attend a school wide assembly.

William Hart, 79, served in the Korean War from 1950 until 1952. He brought his helmet, a pack soldiers carried to hold their canteens, bayonets and first aid kids, and a shovel used to dig fox holes. He showed the items to students and explained: the shovel, for example, could be partly folded and used as a weapon.

"I never did because I never got that close (to the enemy)," he said.

Hart took out his identification tag, explained what it was and said he got hurt a couple of times.  They didn’t have helicopters in those days, he said, so it took awhile to get you out.

One of the students asked what happened.

“I stepped on a land mine and I lost my left leg,” he said.  Hart said they brought him to a MASH hospital, then to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  Despite his injury, he went on to serve as a police officer in Groton for seven years.

Swift showed the students the medals he had so they'd recognize military decorations if they saw them.

He also brought other items he’d found during the war or after it: The ring of a German soldier in the Nazi SS; a German Iron Cross with a swastica on it; and a fourragere, a French military ornament given to units for exceptional combat work.

"I figure you won't see this stuff too much," he told the students.

Warren Wildes, who served on a submarine during WWII, said the students were  attentive and gracious.

“They’re so interested in what you’ve got to say,” he said.

Students said they’d remember the visit.

“One of the veterans said one of the scariest moments was going under a mine in a submarine under water,” said Devon Rose, 12. “I think I would be scared, too.”

"We're probably going to be the last in our generation that will have WWII veterans to come and talk to us," said Olivia Lyons, 13.