I'm the luckiest guy there is.

In 1994, I got to interview my dad for a project for The News-Gazette. We contacted scores of veterans and others for "When We Went to War," a special section we published on June 6, 1994, the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

When I called to tell him about the project, he tried to beg off: "I wasn't in D-Day." But D-Day was just the anniversary for our publication date. We interviewed veterans from throughout the years and all the theaters of World War II.

Dad turned 17 in May 1944 and joined the Navy after his junior year of high school. I have a son who is now 18, and it is beyond my understanding to imagine him, a year ago, at war half a world away.

Like many World War II veterans, Dad didn't talk much about the war. He served on a destroyer in the Pacific and if we kids pestered him, he would tell us the one about a Japanese kamikaze plane diving straight for his gun emplacement, only to be shot down at the last minute by a U.S. pilot. Or how he didn't drink and so other guys got his beer allotment — and one night before he shipped out, he helped his drunken sailor companions get home safely.

So when I sat down in the living room and turned the tape recorder on, I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was way more than I'd ever known before. For more than an hour, Dad answered questions.

His first view of the ship he was assigned to was of a big hole in the side — right where his station was. He was given a blood-stained life jacket from the previous occupant of that space. Two guys who went to empty trash cans into the ocean both fell in when a chain gave way; by the time anyone noticed, they were miles away, in the vastness of the Pacific.

At some point, I asked him if he'd thought at the time that he might be killed. He took his glasses off and lowered his eyes, but I could see the tears. "You got that right," he said.

I suspect that there were many moments like that across East Central Illinois, because my dad was just one of almost 200 people we interviewed. Every newsroom reporter did some of the interviews, but two — Greg Kline and Phil Bloomer — did most of them, and then the two of them wrote the special section.

Newspapers generally aren't intended to be permanent; "the rough draft of history" and all that. But earlier this year, we were talking about "the World War II project" as we called it back then and decided we should preserve it better than sticking some copies in a drawer.

Which brings me back to why I'm the luckiest guy there is. I was the "newsroom project manager" for our new book, "When We Went to War." Which means I got to gather the text and then track down photos for the book — because the original photos were lost to older technology.

I exchanged emails with the children of veterans, who were invaluable in supplying pictures. I got calls and letters from veterans themselves. I packed up a netbook and scanner and went to homes in Champaign, Urbana, Mahomet and elsewhere to get photos. Friends dropped off photos and other material. Now and then, veterans stopped in the lobby of our downtown Champaign office.

So we have a book and dozens of pictures — some are images of people we quote in the book and some are images of people we didn't talk to in '94.

And as I scanned pictures, I got to talk with these veterans. A guy whose Army unit came upon Hitler's home in Germany, still smoking from a British bombing the day before. A man who survived the hellish ordeal of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis after it delivered the components for the first atomic bomb. A man and his wife who were in Mississippi when the war broke out and who have made a life in Champaign-Urbana for decades. A Marine who survived Iwo Jima.

Because the text of the book was already done, we couldn't include everything we got this year. So we're starting a place at http://www.news-gazette.com where people will be able to upload photos and memories of their family members. I get to have a hand in that, too. I have a touching letter from a man who served in the Merchant Marine, written to his grandson, telling him about his service and giving him his uniform hat.

This is history, told in the first person. And I'm the guy lucky enough to have had a part in it.

Book ceremony

The authors of "When We Went to War" will be guests on a local radio station on Thursday and a ceremony to mark the publication of the book is scheduled for Friday — Veterans Day — in Urbana.

The event is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Friday at Clark-Lindsey Village, 101 W. Windsor Road, U.

Doors will open at 1 p.m., with musical entertainment by Elaine Hall. Parking is available at Stone Creek Church, across Windsor from Clark-Lindsey. Shuttles will transport attendees.

The program includes a welcome from Deb Reardanz, president and CEO of Clark-Lindsey; presentation of the colors by VFW Post 5520 Color Guard; master of ceremonies Mike Haile; remarks by Greg Kline and Phil Bloomer, authors; Mike Howie, editor; Ann Rhoton, host of "Standard Time" on WDWS; and Brian Moline, of WDWS, WHMS and WUIL.

The authors will join Moline for his show on WDWS at 4:15 p.m. Thursday, and then will be available to sign books at the radio station, 2301 S. Neil St., C, from 5 to 6 p.m.