Delores Hainer, a U.S. Army veteran during the Korean War who grew up in Brewer, was stationed at the Fort Sam base in San Antonio, Texas, between 1949 and 1950. That’s where she experienced segregation for the first time and still holds strong memories of local establishments refusing to serve her friend in the Army, who was black.
“It left a big impression. If you give respect, you deserve to have respect back,” she told Kristen Ackley and Christopher Brownell, students at the New England School of Communications at Husson University, this spring.
They were part of an oral history class created by journalism instructor Jeffrey Hope, who coordinates the journalism and sports journalism departments at the school in Bangor. His students interviewed veterans who volunteer at the Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor and participated in some way in the Korean War in the early 1950s.
Excerpts, and the full interviews, can be found on YouTube. The interviews will also be archived with the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
On this Memorial Day weekend, here are the voices and stories of five local people who have lessons to share about the military and war:
Delores Hainer
In a forgotten war there is one thing this vet will never forget, racism
By Kristen Ackley and Christopher Brownell
John Wedin
When basic training goes too far: A sad story from the past
By Izzy Bouchard and Dylan LeClair
William Dean
War is hard, and so is getting there
By David Furtado and Patrik Orcutt
Larry Payeur
He helped feed orphaned children in Korea, until a church found out
By Zachary Hewins
Al Gibson
Is war worth it? Veteran Al Gibson remembers hearing the answer
By Nathan Allgood and Keyon Butler
