Effort continues to preserve veterans’ stories

SCARBOROUGH — Just in time for Independence Day, the experiences of two Scarborough veterans who fought to preserve democracy during World War II have been preserved in the Library of Congress.

Mark Dyer, a 35-year Central Maine Power lineman and troubleshooter, completed the first round of 25 interviews between 2003 and 2007 in cooperation with one of the subjects, Kenneth Dolloff, now 92, who went ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day.

Dolloff was then an active member of Libby-Mitchell American Legion Post 76, and through that association learned of the Veterans’ History Project, launched by the Library of Congress in 2000 to preserve oral histories and other artifacts from those who fought on the front lines in the nation’s various wars.

When Dolloff approached Dyer for help, the younger man readily agreed. Though not a veteran himself, Dyer is a self-declared “World War II buff” who reveled in stories told by the men he met at the town’s Dunstan Fire Station, shortly after he joined the fire department in 1969 at age 16.

“There were several people on the company who were World War II vets and it always intrigued me to listen to their stories first hand,” he explained, at his Flintlock Drive home on Monday. “Now, those men are in their mid-80s and they’re dying by the hundreds every day.”

In fact, according to the National World War II Museum, there are roughly 1.7 million men and women left alive of the 16 million who served in World War II, but they are dying at a rate of 740 per day.

Of the 25 veterans whose stories were preserved by Dyer and Dolloff, some have passed on since the 2007 publication of their wire-bound book, “Scarborough’s Greatest Generations: Histories of Scarborough Residents During World War II.” One of those who have since died was Lester Hashey, a Scarborough resident from the early 1970s and an exception to the Dyer/Dolloff rule of focusing solely on those who lived in Scarborough when joining the service, based on his status as one of the soldiers memorialized in the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers.”

“Every name we had to check,” recalled Dyer, noting that 60 years after the fact, there were surprisingly few records, even at the town office, detailing who served from Scarborough. By cross-checking multiple sources, Dyer and Dolloff came up with 383 names, finding along the way two who died in the war but are not named on the town’s Word War II memorial and eliminating one who fabricated his service.

“It took us five years and still there were more people we couldn’t get to,” said Dyer. “And then when it came time to do the interviews, it was hard to get some guys to even talk, because they had to go into their closets, where they had suppressed a lot of those awful memories over the years.”

The 90-minute audio recordings taken with each veteran did not dwell on gory details, said Dyer, but still there were a lot of tears.

“We told them, we just want to preserve your general experiences for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren, where it will be preserved forever,” said Dyer. “Still, I know some of them suffered for weeks afterward because of their interviews.”

Scarborough Town Council Chairman Ron Ahlquist says those tears came back this spring when Dyer added his father Clarence to the list of histories preserved.

“I was kind of a mess,” he said, with a warm laugh, noting the pride at having his father’s experiences recorded for posterity.

Clarence Ahlquist volunteered for the U.S. Coast Guard after the attack on Pearl Harbor and spent the war as a carpenter building bases, always arriving at each island after the fighting was over.

The other recent addition to the project, 92-year-old Arthur Purington, also saw no fighting, spending his time after being drafted as a U.S. Army mechanic in Alaska, distinguishing himself as an instructor of new recruits until returning home to a career as a much sought-after mason.

Although neither Ahlquist nor Purington ever fired a shot in anger, they are no less heroes for their service, said Dyer. World War II, he said, required a full national effort, with those who served in support roles just as vital as those whose names appear on memorial stones. “World War II was the last truly patriotic war, not like the political wars we’ve had since.”

Although Dyer doesn’t plan to reopen the 2007 book, the two recent interviews sent to the Library of Congress as personal favors, he does encourage others to take the reins.

“It was just so much work to do what we were able to complete,” said Dyer. “The majority of the people we weren’t able to get to the first time are dead, I’m afraid, but I’m happy to help anyone who’d like to complete an Veterans’ History Project interview packet on their own.”

The reason to do so is as important as ever, says Dyer. 

Recently, he gave a talk on his project to a history class as Scarborough High School. The students showed only the most desultory of interest and not one could say for certain if a member of their family had served in World War II at all, let alone what he or she might have done for the war effort.

“It was kind of disappointing, really,” said Dyer.

But, he says, that clarifies why he and Dolloff launched the project, and why he made two late additions while he still could.

“It meant a lot, to know that the lives of these people have been documented, that was a real satisfaction,” said Dyer. “Now, if the time comes when one of these young kids today is interests, that information is there for them to find, as opposed to the others who have passed, who’s contributions will be forgotten.”