Harry Gooch and Axel Girschner served on different sides during World War II, Gooch with the U.S. Marines and Girschner with the German Wehrmacht.
Now, both describe themselves the same way.
‘I was one of the lucky ones,? said Girschner, who was captured and held by the Soviet Red Army in Poland. ‘Out of 250 comrades in my unit, only about 15 to 20 made it out.?
‘I left a lot of good friends behind ? I’m not a hero, just one of the lucky ones,? said Gooch, a veteran of the Pacific island-hopping campaign.
The two joined about a dozen others who experienced World War II, military and civilian, to speak to Clarkston Junior High School students May 8.
CJHS history teacher Brian Zezula worked with Independence Township Senior Center Coordinator Margaret Bartos to organize the panel discussions.
‘It gives students some living examples and testimony of what we are studying in class,? Zezula said.
‘I think they’re amazing,? said ninth-grader Miranda Kock, who learned ‘that it actually happened, and people are alive today who were in the war.?
Speakers also included Catherine Reeve, survivor of the Battle of Britain; Vito Cangemi, child in Sicily during the war; Jean Ketter, Army nurse in France; pilots Bob Wills and Leigh Bonner; George Thompson, jungle fighter in the Philippines; John Thomas, Navy, North Africa; and Tom Lyman, Army occupation of Germany.
Ketter arrived in France on Utah Beach soon after the D-Day invasion.
‘There was no fighting by then,? she said. ‘But the water was rough ? the channel is always rough.?
During the Battle of the Bulge, her unit was so close enough to the fighting she had to organize an evacuation plan: women first, along with patients, doctors, and orderlies of Jewish descent.
Other first-hand accounts:
‘German prisoners, force marched for three weeks by the Soviets, dividing one piece of bread to feed 21 men ? Girschner;
‘Queen Mary of England meeting with British and American troops in their camps as they were preparing for D-Day ? Ketter;
‘An American observation plane destroyed in midair by naval gunfire called in by the pilot ? Gooch.
‘That’s what happens in wartime ? be thankful for what you have,? he said to the students.
School administrators, teachers, and parents helped host the event, which included lunch for their guests. This summer, Zezula plans to work with Bartos to interview veterans and survivors and record their first-hand accounts of World War II.