Veterans share war experiences with students

Vietnam Veteran and Brookings resident Sam Vitale visits Azalea Middle School students Monday.

 Sixth, seventh and eighth grade Azalea Middle School       students gathered in Jason Fulton’s classroom Monday to meet local veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and to learn more about what they went through during their service.

“I never talked about my experiences during Vietnam until about four years ago,” Sam Vitale told the students.

But on Monday he found himself sharing many of his experiences with curious students.

Vitale was drafted into the Army in 1967.

“I went to Vietnam when I was 20 years old,” Vitale said.

“How much time did you spend in the jungle,” a student asked.

“All of it,” Vitale said.

He told the attentive students of malaria, jungle rot and of drinking warm river water.

And losing his friends.

“The worst part is when you make friends and then you lose them,” Vitale said. “I would ask about a friend who I hadn’t seen in a few days. They told me ‘He’s gone.’”

The students, many from other classrooms, listened intently as Vitale spoke. There was no whispering among friends or note passing. Instead there were questions. They wanted to know what boot camp was like, about what guns they carried, and what their best memories were.

Some students shared stories of their own families. One girl told the tale of her great uncles who were at Pearl Harbor.

World War II Navy veteran Charles Fuller, the second speaker in Fulton’s class,  had a much different tale to tell.

“I enlisted.” Fuller said. “I didn’t get my draft card until after I was discharged.

“I grew up in Army camps and vowed I would never go in the Army,” Fuller said.

Fuller served on patrol boats in the Mediterranean Sea, from North Africa to Southern France, and was involved in the invasions of Sicily, Italy and France.

“We were known as the rough riders,” Fuller said. “You’d know what that meant if you saw our little boats!”

Fuller impressed on the students the importance of mail call in the military.

“The worst thing was not getting mail,” Fuller said.

“We will be writing letters tomorrow (Tuesday),” Fulton said, addressing his students.

Though Fuller didn’t share as much of his battle experience as Vitale, he was clearly popular among the students, mostly for his more lighthearted accounts of war, such as a hospital ship passing in the night with pretty nurses hanging from the railings.

Vitale, on the other hand was, wanted to leave students with a more solemn understanding of war.

“A lot of the folks your age don’t know,” Vitale said. “In World War II all of our freedoms were really endangered. If it wasn’t for those who served you might be speaking Japanese or German right now.

Fulton, who invited the veterans to his classes, said he wanted to bring history alive for his students.

“By the time they read it in a history book it’s been removed from them five or six times,” Fulton said.

Bringing veterans to the class, he said, gives students a first-person account of what it like to experience war as an individual.

When asked about his personal politics, Vitale paused and thought for a moment, then expressed what it truly means to be a member of the U.S. military.

“I  support the president of the United States of America,  no matter who he is,” Vitale said. “I support my chain of command.”