Youngsters interview WWII veterans

BANGOR – Seventeen members of Washington County Children’s Chorus, a nonprofit organization, had the opportunity to interview nine WWII veterans at Cole Land Transportation Museum in Bangor on May 1. The chorus of more than 30 members, and some of their parents, will go to Luxembourg June 16-26 to participate in a concert tour, American Luxembourg Friendship week, and sightseeing.

The children and assorted parents were shown a brief film that was put together by museum owner Galen Cole, one that touches on the devastation in Luxembourg and some of Cole’s personal experiences during WWII. Some 30,000 children have seen the film in the 12 years it has been shown, Cole said.

The young people were asked to note two things: Cole’s best friend, Charlie Flanagan, who was killed in the war, and the promise that Cole made from a ditch just after five men in his squadron had been killed.

“I made a promise to my God,” Cole said after the film ended. He then asked the children what that promise was.

A young boy raised his hand and answered, “That you would do your best to help your fellow man and your community.”

“How many of you have a best friend?” Cole asked. Several hands went up. Cole then asked the children to name Cole’s best friend.

“Charlie Flanagan,” said a young girl.

Cole then talked about how many Americans were killed or wounded during WWII in terms the young people could relate to. The number of U.S. troops killed was 50 times the Bangor Auditorium filled to capacity. The number wounded was 300 times more.

The children came prepared with lists of questions. They sat in groups of two to four and talked with individual veterans at tables sporting medals, model airplanes and other WWII-related items.

Warren Burns of Bangor served as a technical sergeant and radio operator in the 15th Army Air Force in Foggia, Italy. On the table in front of him were three model airplanes that he built himself – one of them a replica of the Boeing B-17 “Flying Fortress” in which he operated a 50-caliber gun and a Morse code telegraph key. At the table with him sat two children, Nick and Anna, and Anna’s mother.

“I can differentiate sounds pretty well,” Burns said. He demonstrated how the telegraph key worked, showed Nick and Anna what their names would sound like in Morse code, and tapped out the SOS signal. He said he still translates code in his head when driving down the road listening to the radio.

“You never forget code,” he said.

“Do you see yourself as a hero?” Anna asked.

“Oh, no,” Burns said. “I was just another guy doing my job.”

Nick asked Burns if he had thought he would go into a war when he was their age.

Burns answered by acknowledging that humans have many different ways of resolving issues and that one of those ways is “to resort to violence.

“So human beings resort to war a lot,” he said.

The Spanish Civil War was in progress when Burns was a boy, and both of his parents participated in military-related occupations. He enjoyed building model airplanes, and said that being involved in a war was something he had thought of from time to time as a young person.

“You didn’t wish yourself in it. But it was always there,” he said.

At noon, lively conversations were still going on and had to be stopped to maintain the schedule. Cole challenged all the children who have relatives who have served in a war to ask them about it.

WWII veterans who participated in the event were Edgar Brown Jr., Norman Rossignol, Warren Burns and Erle Kingsbury, all of Bangor; and Ralph Dunbar of Brewer, William Horr of Dedham, Carroll Frye of Eddington, Frank Yager of Hancock and Walter LaPointe of Surry.

Cole Land Transportation Museum is located at 405 Perry Road in Bangor and just opened for the season. For information about the museum, call 990-3600.

The Washington County Children’s Chorus will perform during Memorial Day ceremonies at 12:30 p.m. Monday, May 31, at the Cole Land Transportation Museum. The Maine Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be dedicated during the second part of ceremonies that day.