In the following article, twelfth grade student Cyrus Kamkar offers a perspective based on his ongoing interest in World War II and the veterans who served. Kamkar organized a Veterans Panel held at Mount Madonna School on March 20.
The history of World War II has always been a strong interest of mine, ever since I could remember. In second grade when our class would go on hikes, my friends and I would pretend to be WWII soldiers. We would try to find sticks that looked like rifles and run around trying to find the other classmates or “Germans.” I thought of the soldiers as my superheroes. This interest only continued to grow, and still does.
When I was fourteen, I remember telling my mom “That’s it. I need to meet, and talk to a WWII veteran.” To me, it is like meeting a celebrity. The very next day, I saw an old man wearing a World War II combat veteran hat. I thanked him for his service and told him about my interest. He offered to set up a day to meet so he could further tell me his stories. His name was Joe, and he served in the navy on a destroyer ship in the Pacific. He passed away about a year after I interviewed him. Since then I have continued to interview WWII veterans.
My Science with Humanities teacher, Nicole Culbertson, gave us an assignment at the beginning of the year. Basically, the premise of the assignment was to pick something that you are passionate about, and create something social or interactive with it. I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and do the project on what I have already been doing. However, this year I have expanded it and made it more organized. I decided to branch out to veterans from other wars as well, such as Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq/Afghanistan. I also thought it would be a good idea to bring a panel of veterans up to the school to share their stories, which took a lot of work to organize. I had to make sure to interview all the veterans attending before the event so I could have individual questions for each veteran and their experience, rather than the same questions for every veteran.
I feel that respect for our veterans in today’s culture is lacking, unfortunately, especially amongst my age group. The panel discussion at Mount Madonna School on March 20 ended up going exactly as planned and was amazing! I wanted to make sure the students had the opportunity to listen to these veterans and their stories. The event went from 9:00am to 11:30am, the first three periods of class, and I was shocked to see that at the end, instead of going straight to lunch, all the students walked up and thanked the veterans for their service. Based on that, I am hoping the discussion made a real impact.
My goal with this project is to spread the awareness of the importance of the soldiers’ sacrifices. When people talk about how horrible Hitler was, they forget to mention that he could have won. If it weren’t for the United States and its brave soldiers, the world would be a very different place. What I am doing is not a message of pro war, if anything, it is anti-war. The further away we get from remembering these incidents in history, the closer we are to war and losing freedom. This can’t be thought of as something that happened a long time ago. War is relevant.
I am thankful to our faculty for allowing this panel discussion to happen. I am also very grateful for the veterans who participated: JP (navy, WWII), Al Hopson (air force, WWII), David Perez (army medic, WWII) Rick Noble (long-range reconnaissance patrol, Vietnam), Gary (army, Vietnam) Mike Baker (army, Vietnam), and Dean Kaufman (army, Gulf War).
I have a deep interest in our nation’s veterans, and feel that it is very important to remember their sacrifices. One of the WWII veterans I know sent me a list of veterans and their contacts, one of which is Bob Osborne. Bob Osborne is a Korean War combat veteran who served in the Army. He is 85 years old. I spoke with him on the phone and told him about my project and he was willing to do an interview.
Suddenly I remembered an event from last year. It was Memorial Day, and I was eating at Roger’s Diner in Watsonville. In walked an old man with a T-shirt with an American flag on it, and the shirt read, “Try to burn this flag.” Then he turned around, and I saw his Korean War veteran hat. The Korean War is referred to as the “forgotten war,” I thought he deserved some recognition. Because of this, his T-shirt and the fact that it was Memorial Day, I knew I had to shake his hand and thank him for his service, so I did. I also complimented him on his shirt. He told me, “I never get thanked by people your age, but it’s refreshing.”
I don’t know why, but that memory popped in my head while I was on the phone with Bobby, so I asked him, “Hey Bobby, you don’t happen to have a T-shirt that says, ‘try to burn this flag’ do you?” He said, “Yes, I do. You don’t happen to be the boy who shook my hand and thanked me for my service at Roger’s Diner about a year ago, are you?” I said “Yep, that was me.” The fact that he still remembered me, just like I remembered him, really impacted me a lot. It makes this project even more worth it. It makes me really happy that he remembered me, but also very sad. He should have so many people thanking him that he wouldn’t remember any of them.
Every step we take in a free society, every movement, every breath was fought for and made possible by our veterans. Every freedom we have has been fought, bled and died for. The will to protect and preserve the ideas that shape us as Americans must continue to live on and show as a shining example for the whole world to see. We are a unique country that was formed off of a reaction of oppressive government rule, and we have successfully been consistent with those values by being the strongest enemy of tyranny and biggest preserver of freedom around the world.
There is nothing that could sadden me more than to see our country become alienated from these unique and integral values. War must be avoided at all costs, but we should always be the first to sacrifice when it’s needed to ensure freedom. This is why it is important to not just respect our veterans, but to show them that you respect them. A WWII veteran once told me “We aren’t called the greatest generation because of what we did. We were the greatest generation because of who we were. We could not have done what we did if it weren’t for our values and patriotism. And always remember this Cyrus, we didn’t fight for us, we fought for you.” I will always remember that.
There is a quote that was found in a dead U.S. soldier’s diary on the battlefield from WWI that always gives me the chills: America must win this war. Therefore, I will work, I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.
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Nestled among the redwoods on 355 acres, Mount Madonna School (MMS) is a community of learners dedicated to creative, intellectual, and ethical growth. MMS supports its students in becoming caring, self-aware, discerning and articulate individuals; and believe a fulfilling life includes personal accomplishments, meaningful relationships and service to society. The CAIS and WASC accredited program emphasizes academic excellence, creative self-expression and positive character development. Located on Summit Road between Gilroy and Watsonville. Founded in 1979.
