“Then with their permission, we’ll have scribes take notes so that we can post on the library’s blog some of the main ideas that will come from the discussion along with a few specific stories.” “We’ll be holding some discussions at the workshop that are designed to just get people talking and sharing stories,” Moore said. “But then I went to Vietnam, and I didn’t think too much of that.” “I feel like I sort of dodged a bullet,” Clawson said. He had to wait a year to be assigned to active duty, and the war ended before he could go through flight training and take part in the fighting.Ĭlawson would go on to fight in Korea and Vietnam, and he says he’s thankful that he was spared from World War II. “There aren’t many of us left,” Clawson said, “and I’m one of the younger ones to come out of the World War II era.”Īt 81, Clawson was only 17 when he signed up for the Air Force in 1943. Writing about his experiences as an Air Force pilot during the Korean and Vietnam wars helped Don Clawson, a retired major, share his personal history with his family and create a record of events that might otherwise be forgotten. The men and women who were there embody living history, as their various experiences cast the same events in different shades of meaning. In the aftermath of war, those who lived through the event often become the standard bearers.