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VETS REMEMBERED:  Spread out on the table are maps, photos and information that Paul Zadoff, 90-year-old veteran of World War II, brought in for the event. From left are Mr. Zadoff; North Bellmore resident Kelly Soel, RN, community health nurse for the North Shore-LIJ Health System; and Alexander Perlin, Colin Hekimian and Troy Gerrity, Mepham students. photo by Lee Weissman, North Shore/LIJ Studios

Mepham High School students Alex Perlin, Colin Hekimian and Troy Gerrity listened intently as World War II veteran Paul Zadoff spoke about his years in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Mr. Zadoff served in the Pacific Theater during World War II and told the boys that “War...well it’s very gory stuff.”

Mr. Zadoff was one of seven veterans  interviewed by Mepham students enrolled in the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, an Advance Placement (AP) program that uses a wide range of resources to study American history.

The interviews were video recorded and will be filed with the Veterans’ History Project of the American Folklife Center, which collects personal narratives so that future generations may hear directly from veterans.

For the students, each veteran offered a distinct perspective of life and war during the second half of the 20th century.

Mel Breshin, a captain in the U.S. Army Dental Corps, served in South Korea in 1971-1972, and was part of the 45,000-soldier peacekeeping force. He said he admired the Korean culture and the people, and called his experience “Marvelous. I have never regretted my time there.”

Harold Koenig, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, also served in Korea  from 1951-1953, during the Korean War. “I was stationed in Okinawa to support the flight missions that bombed Korea on a daily basis,” he explained. Like Mr. Breshin, he has “no regrets. I returned home,” he said.   

These veterans are members of the Plainview Assisting Community Elders (PACE) program, sponsored by the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System. It was their community health nurse, Kelly Soel, a nurse from North Bellmore, who helped connect the veterans and students for these one-on-one interviews after hearing their stories.

“I listened to the story of one man’s journey from a young boy in Brooklyn to a prisoner of war in Germany and realized that I’d stumbled upon a reservoir of history on the verge of being lost,” said Ms. Soel, who did some research and found out about the Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center.

“My daughter Meaghan attends Mepham, and I knew about the Lehrman project and it seemed like a good fit. I think the students will be drawn to the storytelling part. These stories stay with you forever. It’s much more meaningful when you hear history from those who lived it,” she said.

Mepham Principal Michael Harrington agreed. “This is a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn history through firsthand accounts. History is more than just doing research.”

Mr. Zadoff provided a colorful aside about his time on Iwo Jima after the Americans took the island in 1944. “The [Japanese] had the island for 30 years and had prepared for this [attack by allied forces] for a long time,” said Mr. Zadoff.

“It was a two-by-four-mile piece of hell. They [the Japanese] called it Sulfur Island and there was no water there. We had to bring in our water, our food. I went from 200 pounds down to 157 pounds,” he explained.

“But in the end, we prevailed because we are a very unique people,” he concluded.

By Laura Schofer

Laura Schofer, staff writer for L&M Publications, has been recognized with several awards for many of her feature pieces published in Bellmore and Merrick Life, The Citizen and The Leader.