Four generations have passed since The Greatest Generation went to war in a global conflict that lasted from 1941 to 1945.
To many that long ago war is just a footnote in history books but one Henryetta family wants to make sure it is not forgotten.
William Roscoe “Rock” Enis was a member of the Seventh Infantry Division, not much older than those seniors who will receive their diplomas this coming May. He and others in the division battled through some of the toughest engagements in the Pacific including the Aleutian Islands, Leyte, and Okinawa.
Those battles are available for Henryetta area residents to study with the donation of digital DVDs donated to the Henryetta library this week.
Rock died earlier this year leaving behind his wife, Pat, son Rick and daughter Betsy.
Pat and Betsy presented librarian Joann Hott with the DVDs garnered from military movies of the day. They contain the battle for Leyte and Luzon as well as the engagements at Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian island chain of Alaska.
“He was in the artillery that was part of the Seventh Division,” Pat said Wednesday.
“At first he didn’t talk much about the war but, after his second Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C., he would tell us some of the stories.”
She recalled her husband’s memories of the battles at Saipan and Okinawa where local residents told by the Japanese they would be tortured, chose instead to jump from cliffs and kill themselves. “He remembered seeing whole families jump to their deaths.”
“He told us that the artillery shelling was so frequent that at times, “if he was sleeping when the shelling stopped, it would wake him up.”
At the end of the war, he went to Korea and wound up ashore with an officer and some other soldiers. Not knowing where they were at, they ran into some members of the now-defeated Japanese army who were able to direct the Americans to Seoul so they could join their comrades.
The Aleutian Island fighting was the only battles of the war actually carried on the North American continent.
“Rock told us that he was with an officer who watched the films and pointed out where the fighting took place.
Hott said the DVDs are available to be viewed at the library to anyone who has a Henryetta public library card. The original VHS tapes from the series, "The Big Picture," and "Alaska at War," are going to be placed in a display case at the library.