Through veterans’ eyes

Oral history project aims to compile stories of war told by servicemen, their families

Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Sam Morris

John Ferrin, a second lieutenant in the Nevada National Guard, is interviewed for “Battle Born,” an oral history project documenting the experiences of recent veterans. He is a student at UNLV’s School of Dental Medicine.

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The tears came 30 minutes after the camera was rolling. John Ferrin blinked and bit his lip. A tall young man with piercing blue eyes, a second lieutenant in the Nevada National Guard, he kept his hands on his lap. He did not wipe away the tears.

“He was truly my hero. He still is,” Ferrin said, leaning into the microphone. He was talking about his brother, Army Staff Sgt. Clint D. Ferrin, killed in March 2004 in a roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad. “Even though he was in a danger zone, I never thought he would die. I always thought I would see him again.”

A student at the UNLV School of Dental Medicine, John Ferrin on Wednesday was interviewed as part of a new oral history project called “Battle Born” to preserve the stories of veterans and their families in the global war on terror. The effort was the brainchild of Caleb S. Cage, a senior policy adviser to Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian K. Krolicki.

Cage graduated from West Point soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and he served two tours in Iraq. Now he and Kathryn A. Besser, Krolicki’s chief of staff, are traveling the state to record stories of veterans and their families in the age of war and terrorism.

They hope to find 50 subjects and compile their stories on a DVD or post them on the Internet. But unlike other compilations that have profiled veterans from distant battlefields, such as the books that sprung up about the Greatest Generation or accounts from the beachhead 50 years after D-day, Besser and Cage are trying to get closer to the battle and bullets.

“We are going after veterans and their stories when they are still fresh in their minds and fresh in their souls,” Besser said.

It is that very freshness of war and the still disturbing recollections they hope to harvest. They are not waiting for the men to grow old, when it might be easier to get them to speak. They want the stories now. So, said Cage, “sometimes, we’re dragging the stories out of them.”

One has been in and out of a veterans hospital for substance abuse. He broke down and cried before the camera. “He said he had to get control of himself,” Cage recalled.

An ROTC commander told about losing one of his students, a 40-year-old lieutenant colonel killed when one of Osama bin Laden’s planes hit the Pentagon. A veteran of Afghanistan is tortured by the deaths of two comrades in a training accident after they returned home.

A member of the Air Force Reserve at Nellis described his work as an intelligence officer on the Predator, and how though he has never left Las Vegas to join his comrades in war he still feels he is “a part of the kill chain.”

Nevertheless, Besser said, “he has this tremendous guilt that he can go home every night and sleep in his own bed, of having laundry to pick up and his children to take care of, and not being 100 percent fixed on his deployment.”

In two weeks Besser and Cage are off to Winnemucca to interview parents whose son returned from Iraq only to die a year later in a car wreck. When his tire blew out, he intuitively, the way he was trained, dove to the floor of the car rather than steer it to safety. He must have thought a roadside bomb had gone off.

John Ferrin’s turn to unburden himself came Wednesday.

He talked about how he joined the Guard, and later set up a special program at the dental school for free treatment for veterans still struggling to get ahead. He said one was found living in his van, and “his teeth were all broken.”

But his greatest hero remains his older brother. He recalled how years ago Clint took him to an abandoned cemetery where they cleaned up the tombstones of veterans, then went to a Wal-Mart and bought small flags for the graves. That, he said, is the lesson of his brother’s life and the legacy of the war on terror. That is also why he agreed to speak to the camera.

“I do love veterans,” Ferrin said. “I do love this country.”

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By lcdrmandingonamvet

10/22/09 at 6:57 a.m.

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Rich American WASP: global pimps of oppression. Wealthy residents in Vail, Aspen, Avon, and other national rich neighborhoods, won't ever tell these type of stories. These Benedict Arnolds don't pay taxes, and they definitely won't fight to defend America either. On the other hand, they did hold great GOP Nazi fundraisers, where the senseless, useless, and illegal Iraq-NAM War was started. Its clear Boy George and his Nazi posse (Olmert, Sharon, Blair, Cheney, Lott, McConnell, Delay, Tenet, Hastert, Frist, etc.) should all be HUNG (war crimes and crimes against humanity), and its too bad we can't do the same for those who aided and abetted America's enemies. Luckily for these Nazis, OBUMBLER and Holder are totally lacking in the NADS dept. This duo of gutless wonders have busied themselves with very low-hanging prosecutorial fruit (TORTURE).
By mikegino

10/22/09 at 8:41 a.m.

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dingo: you left out Neil Bush again! Are you having memory problems?
By Noindex

10/22/09 at 9:21 a.m.

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Okay Dingo it's time to lay off the crack pipe for a while.
By thethinker

10/25/09 at 3:06 a.m.

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I am pleased to see that John Ferrin is striving to tell the individual stories that the current, and future, generations need to learn. I can only pray that the brave American Soldiers of the Iraq and Afghan theatres will not go the way of the heroes before them: the brave soldiers of WW I and WW II, Korea and Viet Nam, Being systematically removed from history text books and having their service maligned when running for office to further serve this country. I am a Viet Nam Combat Vet, a Disabled Vet, and a person proud to have served. I am at comfort in the fact that I have recovered my sanity (we all lose it in combat) and am able to see the unresolved anger in dingo. I hope you get help soon. The VA here has excellent programs for that purpose and all you have to do is produce your DD-214 to prove your service to this great country. Dingo, I appeal to you to join many of us in the living room, as we chose to get off the pity-pot with the roll of highly abrasive anger paper next to it. Life is better out here, and it is more fun to be part of the solution than a problematic, nay-saying antagonist.
By thethinker

10/25/09 at 3:09 a.m.

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Dingo and all: Please read this article http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID.... It is great news for all Vets.

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