Warren County History Museum looking for oral histories of WW II

Monmouth, Ill. — MONMOUTH — The Warren County History Museum honored World War II veterans with a presentation at their last open house.

Approximately 37 WW II veterans attended the event in the Grande Gallery of the museum.
Vicki Hennefent, a member of the WCHM board, thanked the soldiers for their sacrifice.

“In coming together today, we honor what has been called the greatest generation – those who gave the ultimate gift of life to preserve freedom for generations to come," she said.

She noted the war was the most widespread in human history with most nations of the world, including all the "great powers" involved and with over 100 million military personnel mobilized.

A medley of music from Max Howe's collection was played for an authentic musical touch of the era. The medley closed with "God Bless America" with the audience joining in.

“As you now reach the twilight of your adventurous and productive lives, you remain, for the most part exceptionally modest. You have so many stories to tell, stories that in many cases have never been told before, because in a deep sense you didn’t think that what you were doing was that special, because everyone else was doing it too," Susan Trevor quoted from Tom Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation."

Trevor thanked the veterans for their service.

Dixie Jenks concluded the program by sharing some individual veterans’ stories of their experiences during WW II, for example Charlie Kirkpatrick from Roseville, who served in the calvary in Kansas for three months before being assigned to a reconnaissance unit in Georgia and then overseas.

Jenks also said that as part of the Warren County History Museum’s obligation to preserve history for future generations. The museum is hoping, with the help of WW II veterans, to assemble as many oral histories as possible of “Our Greatest Generations." They are contributions not only Warren County but the entire world. These “oral histories” are meant to be human interest stories of experiences during WWII not “battle stories."

Members of the Warren County History Museum would like to set up visits to each veteran’s home of those willing to share some of their experiences along with gathering some of their wives or girlfriends (during the war) stories as to how they coped during this time. A sheet with sample questions to help share the veteran’s stories was distributed after the program.