To the Editor:
Thank you for your recent “Vineyard Voices” focusing on our Island veterans. We need to recognize fellow Islanders who, oftentimes, serve us in a myriad of ways, so quietly and kindly. As a history teacher at MVRHS, I and a fellow teacher were lucky enough to have some of these men come into our classrooms each year as we were teaching the Vietnam War. Tom Bennett was our connection, and he invited the group of veterans that he counseled to come into our classes for a full day of talking with students, sharing their stories, their experiences. It was so good to read Tom Bennett, Skipper Mayhew, Bobby Tankard, and others in last week’s paper, and it brought back such strong memories.
I learned so much from their giving of their time in our classrooms. No matter how many times I heard their stories, they never got old. These veterans are living history. They are primary sources. These men relived their stories as they told them, and it was truly one of the most powerful, thoughtful days in our teaching of U.S. history curriculum.
Marge Harris
Oak Bluffs
