Daughters of the American Revolution celebrate Pearl Harbor Day in Atlanta
ATLANTA, Texas—The Trammel's Trace Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution had a very special way of commemorating Pearl Harbor Day, Thursday.
The Atlanta, Texas-based group held a special World War II Veterans Honorary Reception for both the veterans and their families as a way to commemorate the 76th Anniversary of America's entry in world's most fatal war to date.
During the reception, DAR Members Sue Berry and Frances Whatley presented a book of 75 local and area World War II veterans of who both ladies interviewed during the past four years. Copies of this book were presented to either the veterans themselves for to the families of those veterans.
The 341-page book titled “Treasured Memories of WWII Veterans” contains the complete recollections and stories of all 75 veterans focusing on their wartime experiences.
During the two-your reception each veteran or their family members received a prototype of the book as a token of appreciation and honor of their military service during the war.
“We just want to thank all the veterans for their interviews and for their service to our
country, “Frances Whatley said. “Many of the veterans we interviewed have since passed on.” Sue Berry agreed. “I think one of the most humbling experiences I've ever had in my life was getting to talk to these men about their experiences,” She said. “One of those veterans told me the name of his warplane was ‘Shakes All Over” because that was exactly what it did. We cried with some of the veterans when they told us about some of their buddies who got killed in combat and we also cried with others who told us about their conditions while surviving as prisoners of war.”
Both ladies went on to thank many others involved in with the four-year project ,as well as their own family members who helped out with the transcribing of taped interviews.
“We will continue to print copies of this book as long as there are people interested in getting one.” Whatley said.
Whatley said the effort to start the four-year interview project started when a fellow DAR member, Latricia Kennedy, came up with the idea and proposed it to both she and Berry. From there, both Berry and Whatley sought and received guidelines on how to proceed with the interview project, from the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
Besides conducting interviews with veterans in Cass County, Whatley and Berry also traveled throughout northeast Texas and some of southwest Arkansas to find veterans.
Of all the work that it took to bring the book together, both Whatley and Berry said transcribing the multiple interviews from recording tape to printed text, became the most challenging aspect, however both said the effort was very rewarding.
“Just getting to hear their stories was terrific and a lot of them told us that this was the first time they had ever talked about the war to anyone else,” Berry said.
Anyone interested in getting a copy of this book can call either Whatley at 903- 930-4904 or Berry at 903-826-9045.