Helping soldiers write their war stories

Monroe - Compared to war, General George S. Patton once said, “all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance.” Quite often, though, the indelible experience of combat is relegated to the deep and personal archive of memory for those who participated in war. This is quite natural but not always healthy for either the warrior or instructive for those who seek to learn the history of war. A local group of educators and members of the writing and arts community decided to team up and developed an informal writing program for area veterans and their immediate family members to recount and record their experiences. “It’s a chance to really test and show the healing and satisfying powers of working in the arts,” said artist Daniel Mack, who helped develop the project at the Orange County Arts Council several months ago. According to the Arts for Vets program announcement, veterans living in Orange County are invited to learn more about how to tell the stories, and the memories of their time in the military. Workshops are being offered in how to record those memories, how to finish the stories in fiction, non-fiction and how to use pictures and souvenirs as triggers of writing. The project has completed one the four planned workshops. The first workshop included three Army veterans and one Navy veteran who have served in conflicts ranging from World War II to the Iraq War. Cornwall-on-Hudson resident Raymond Mellin, captured in 1950, spent 37 months in a North Korean prisoner of war camp after walking a death march of 127 miles. At the end of the war, Mellin, an army combat medic, was among 210 survivors from a camp of 755 prisoners. Mellin participated in the first workshop, recording his experiences in a combat zone where temperatures dipped to 55 degrees below zero. Harvey Horn of Monroe was a young Army Air Corps navigator on a B-17 bomber when his plane was shot down and ditched in the Adriatic Sea during World War II. Horn was taken prisoner by the Germans and spent 36 days as a prisoner of war. Horn said the workshop helped him research and recall more accurately the details of his military past. Mellin said the program was excellent and the writing “just flowed out.” “Whether people want to preserve their experience for themselves, for their spouses, for their children and grandchildren, or for a wider audience, the workshops provide the opportunity and encouragement to write,” said retired SUNY English professor, poet, fiction writer and program instructor Mary Makofske. “It’s a chance to tell one’s own truth.” The veterans, she added, “wanted to tell their stories” and some will continue writing their experiences. They wanted feedback on the quality of their writing and responded well with ten-minute topic “prompts” and the group discussions prior to their writing. She described the first workshop as “very successful.” The Arts for Vets program is funded by the county and there is no charge. The next session is Thursday, Aug. 16, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Museum Village, 1010 Route 17M, Monroe. For information, call Arts for Vets Program Coordinator Megan Cooke at 469-8111 or e-mail artsforvets@hotmail.com.