Audio In their own words (story audio) A World War II oral history of a soldier on graves detail Another World War II oral history bound for the museum Photos VFW Commander Syd MacLain Lina Belar Resources Perham Museum Tools E-mail this page Print this page Sponsor

In their own words
by Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio
July 17, 2005

Perham's VFW Commander Syd MacLain says at some point, he will share his Vietnam War experiences. Organizers plan to share the stories of veterans from across Minnesota in the Perham Veterans Museum. (MPR Photo/Dan Gunderson)

Military veterans are hoping to build a new kind of musem in Perham, Minnesota. The focus of this museum won't be artifacts, but the voices of people who went to war. Organizers are trying to raise $1.2 million to complete the project. They say they want it to be a tribute to Minnesota veterans.

Perham, Minn. — The idea started with some local veterans. They wanted a veterans museum, but they didn't want dusty rows of guns and uniforms. They wanted soldiers' stories about war and military life.

They found an eager ally in Lina Belar, director of the East Ottertail County History Museum.

"It's stories that are what make a museum really interesting," says Belar.

Her goal is to gather stories from veterans all across Minnesota. To jumpstart the project, the Perham Veterans of Foreign Wars closed their bar and restaurant and donated the building to be used as a museum.

The Minnesota Legislature appropriated $100,000, and the city of Perham chipped in $90,000. Local veterans are soliciting donations.

Veterans' stories are being collected on video. At first, the response was often typical Minnesota modesty, according to Lina Belar.

"'I didn't do anything important, my story isn't important.' And then you record them and it's just incredible," says Belar. "They did these things, and then they went back to being farmers, or laborers, or merchants in a small town, and they didn't think what they did was so special."

So far the stories are mostly from World War II veterans, and some are telling stories they've never told anyone.

Here are a few excerpts from interviews done for the museum project.

-"The river flowed red. And I'm not saying it was made that way. It was blood."

-"On guard duty at night it would be coal black. And you get yourself up against a tree and put your bayonet on your gun and you're thinking, heaven help any son of a biscuit if he shows up."

-"Can you imagine having your own people open up on you. Your own people shooting at you? It happened. I was there. I saw guys get killed. My own buddies. Down they go."

These are just a few of what organizers hope will eventually be hundreds of stories.

The veterans museum will be designed so visitors can follow an individual soldier from civilian life to basic training, war, and back home again. Organizers hope the collection of stories will also be a treasure trove for family members and historians in the future.

Perham VFW Post Commander Syd MacLain is working to get other veterans groups behind the project, and the Vietnam vet knows he'll have to share his story someday, too.

"The concept of it is, to me, a little difficult. I was one of the ones who never talked about what I did. I was in Vietnam for three years. Terrified for damn near three years," says MacLain.

Like many Vietnam vets, MacLain is still wrestling with the demons from that war. But he's confident someday his story will be in the veterans museum. Director Lina Belar wants the veterans museum to be a place where visitors gain new understanding of the men and women who go off to war.

"I think people are going to be able to relate to that, even if they don't know the specific individual," says Belar. "They'll say, 'Yeah, my father was in the Battle of the Bulge, or my brother was in Vietnam. Now I know what he experienced.'"

Construction is scheduled to start this fall on the Perham veterans museum, and the exhibit, "In Their Own Words," is scheduled to open July 4, 2006.