Scott Berrier, right, interviews Hancock County veterans Dave Pasco, to his left, followed by Fidele “Frenchie” Legere, Butch Bodell, Ralph Sweet and Bob Wooten at Maxwell Intermediate School.
Mitchell Kirk | Daily Reporter
MAXWELL — The COVID-19 pandemic may be preventing military veterans from taking part in an annual tradition of visiting Hancock County schools on Veterans Day to talk about their experiences. But that’s not stopping their stories from reaching students’ ears.
Several Hancock County veterans recently sat down for a recorded interview with a Greenfield-Central teacher who’s also a veteran. That educator is sharing the audio from the discussion with students as he prepares to launch a podcast in which his young learners will soon be asking the questions.
Dressed in their Greenfield Veterans Honor Guard uniforms, the vets sat at desks around microphones in Scott Berrier’s classroom at Maxwell Intermediate School on Sunday, Nov. 7. Berrier, a fifth-grade math teacher and Army veteran, led the interview with questions he and his students came up with.
“With the COVID restrictions, we’re trying to make it as normal as possible,” said Berrier, who served two tours in Afghanistan.
In the past, veterans would come to the school, visit classrooms and answer students’ questions.
“So my thought is, this is as close as we could go,” Berrier said.
He used equipment obtained through a grant he received from the Greenfield Central School Foundation to start a student-run podcast.
“Kids nowadays have headphones in all the time,” he said, adding he wants to give them an opportunity to listen to something about their school and the positive stories in their community.
During the interview, the veterans talked about what they missed while serving overseas, like their families, their mothers’ cooking and their girlfriends. They recalled losing friends to war.
There were happy memories too, like a soldier finding a dog with a litter of newborn puppies under his bed in his bunker in Vietnam, and reuniting with fellow service members after decades thanks to social media.
Ralph Sweet joined the Navy in 1954 and remained for 22 years. His first role was sending and receiving messages using Morse code, a method he remembers to this day.
“I was pretty good at it,” Sweet said. “I could copy about 30 words a minute, send about 15.”
He also recalled fulfilling a duty of visiting parents of a man who was killed in action during the Vietnam War to tell them of their son’s sacrifice.
“I still remember that to this day,” he said. “It’s tough to even tell about it, let alone do it. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.”
As Veterans Day approaches, Berrier asked his interview subjects what the best way is to honor a former service member on the holiday.
With a sincere thank-you, according to Dave Pasco, a Greenfield High School graduate who served in the Army from 1969 to 1975.
“Acknowledging that we have served, whether it be currently, past, or whatever,” Pasco said.
“That’s all. I really have been impressed with the school system for all these years on what an effort they make to commemorate the service of our local veterans. I’m talking from the elementary schools all the way up to the high school.”
Bob Wooten said the best way to honor a veteran is with respect, something service members didn’t always receive when returning from the Vietnam War.
“We did not get a very good homecoming when we came back from there,” said Wooten, who served in the Navy’s construction branch and was in Vietnam intermittently from 1967 to 1969. “It looks like we’re doing a much better job of respecting those guys.”
Fidele “Frenchie” Legere has visited students in person for Veterans Day in the past and said he was happy to take part in this year’s adaptation. He served in the Air Force for 20 years and was the crew chief of a KC-135, a large tanker jet that refuels planes in mid-flight.
“I hope they understand what the military person goes through,” he said of the interview’s future listeners as he and his fellow veterans made their way out of the empty school on Sunday. “It’s not always easy, but there’s a lot of camaraderie there, because you’re taught to take care of each other. If it wasn’t for the servicemen, we wouldn’t have what we have now.”
Listen to the interview with the veterans here.
