A local organization staffed by University students and other community volunteers held a ceremony Wednesday honoring local World War II veterans.
The organization, called ParadeRest, works to re-engage veterans in the community by providing tickets to nearby sporting and entertainment events as a way of expressing gratitude for their service.
The ceremony was the conclusion of ParadeRest’s “A Nickel for Your Story” project. The project began last fall, and was headed by Dr. Gregory Saathoff, ParadeRest Program Coordinator said Javier Badillo, a fourth-year College student.
Saathoff, a professor at the Medical School, was inspired by a screening of the movie “Patton,” which was attended by a number of World War II veterans, and by the work he did with World War I veterans during his residency, Badillo said.
“He mentioned to me…when he was doing his residency, he dealt with a lot of World War I veterans, and he never asked them their stories,” Badillo said.
After the last World War I veteran died, Badillo said Saathoff was inspired to begin the project with World War II veterans. The group began interviewing veterans after raising $8,000 through a Kickstarter campaign.
“In April [and] May, we started interviewing veterans…we interviewed about 53 veterans, so [it was] really exciting,” Badillo said.
The interviews were filmed as part of the Veterans History Project, which is an initiative of the Library of Congress. ParadeRest held the ceremony Wednesday to honor the veterans as well as to give their work to Sen. Mark Warner to take to the Library of Congress.
The event was held at the University hospital as a way of recognizing the University’s involvement in evacuation hospitals during World War II, Saathoff said.
“The University had a major role in World War II in that it formed and staffed [the 8th] evacuation hospital, which served northern Africa and Italy,” Saathoff said. “It was really unusual for a university to set up and staff an entire hospital...it’s really an extraordinary piece of history.”
The University students at ParadeRest were really the ones to take the lead on this project and to coordinate with volunteers and veterans in the community, Saathoff said.
“What’s great about this is that it was not at the request of the veterans, but rather a project that was managed and organized by the students,” Saathoff said.
The event was attended by World War II veterans Dr. Jim Kavanaugh and James Bingler, along with their families. Kavanaugh is a University undergraduate and graduate alumnus who also completed his residency at the University and taught in the Medical School.
Both veterans said they were surprised students were willing to talk to them about their experiences during the war.
“I didn’t believe that young people were actually interested in the nuts and bolts of what went on,” Kavanaugh said. “They are interested and my own children are so grateful that they have this that will outlast the people that make the recording.”
Warner said the work ParadeRest did in recording veterans’ stories is invaluable. It’s also personally important to him because his father is a World War II Marine veteran, he said.
“I’ve got a dad that’s 90 years old who’s a WWII Marine, and I’ve got to make sure that when he comes down for Thanksgiving I get his story recorded as well,” Warner said.
Correction: This article previously inaccurately quoted Saathoff as saying the University staffed eight evacuation hospitals.
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