CHAMPAIGN – A handful of Champaign high school students are hearing firsthand about the experiences of soldiers and sailors in World War II.

They've heard how Dick Cogdal watched a ship full of ammunition explode in the South Pacific and felt the force of the blast even on shore. How he dealt with his loneliness while at war. How Dan Perrino and his fellow musicians turned a train car full of angry Japanese civilians into friends through music.

The students are part of a three-year statewide project to tell the stories of veterans of World War II. Nine students from Central and Centennial high schools will videotape interviews with the veterans, as well as their own reflections on what they've heard, and then produce 30-minute documentaries.

Two students from Franklin Middle School participated in the project over the summer.

The project is part of the Illinois World War II Veterans Classroom Project, which provided $250,000 for laptops, external hard drives, monitors, cameras, scanners, audio equipment and editing software for students statewide. Illinois Learning Technology Centers, which help schools use technology in the classroom, are providing training to students and overseeing the video project.

Vicki DeWitt, director of one of the state's Learning Technology Centers, said the veterans group wanted a classroom project so young people would understand the sacrifices made by those who served in World War II.

"People say there's a lot of people interviewing World War II veterans," DeWitt said. "I say, not kids. If you want to make connections with kids, the kids need to be doing the interviews."

The Champaign students interviewed three veterans this week. Cogdal told the students about missing his wife and how he'd sing their song – "The Day After Forever" – when he was lonely. Then he sang it for the students.

"It was sad and touching," said Centennial junior Abby Wiegand. "He was tearing up, and we were all kind of sad about it.

"I really liked talking to him. I'm excited to do more interviews," Wiegand continued, adding that she plans to interview her grandmother about her late grandfather, a military doctor during the war.

Perrino told about traveling throughout Japan performing music while U.S. forces occupied the country. On one trip, the musicians were jammed into a train car with Japanese citizens, who were visibly angry at having to stand in the aisles, and also frightened.

A couple of musicians were trying to work out a chord structure for a song and began playing. Others noticed the Japanese reacted positively, so they joined in.

"We had a little jam session," Perrino said. "By the time we got to Sapporo (their destination), they were sending up apples and cookies and even hugging us and thanking us for the music. The power of music completely took an angered situation and turned it into a positive."

"I thought that was incredible," said Ashley Wilson, a junior at Centennial and one of the students who interviewed Perrino. "That was my favorite. I made him tell the story twice."

Suzanne Aldridge, an English and drama teacher at Centennial High School, is one of the teachers involved with the project, along with Centennial choir director Marian Wyatt and Central business teacher David Johnson.

"They are making connections they never had before, because the history was in a book," Aldridge said of the students. The interviews "were one-on-one, and they realized this older generation was young like them once and they had hopes and dreams, and the war got in the way."

Perrino said it's important for young people to have a relationship with the older generation.

"The fact that students have the opportunity to talk to the few remaining veterans ... (the history) becomes real when you can get it firsthand by someone who was there," he said.

Each team of three students will do 10 interviews this school year before producing their final piece. The videos will be posted on a Web site for the project, http://wwii.ltc.k12.il.us, and the raw interview footage will be uploaded to the Library of Congress for its Veterans History Project. The veterans will also get a DVD copy of the videos.

Wilson said the experience of talking to veterans and seeing their photographs is something she wouldn't have imagined she'd be able to do.

"We learned so much from them," she said. "It really makes us excited for the rest. I can't wait."

Call for veterans

Teachers at Central and Centennial high schools are looking for more World War II veterans who are willing to share their stories with the students working on the Illinois World War II Veterans Classroom Project. Any interested veterans can call David Johnson at 351-3914 or Suzanne Aldridge or Marian Wyatt at 351-3952.