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Published Friday, December 12, 2008 in Local

Photo by Brenda Pedraza-Vidamour

Mailah Abdullah and Carley McLain of Newnan High School sit with Randy Martin in his restored World War II jeep.

Veterans share experiences with Newnan High students

By Brenda Pedraza-Vidamour

The Times-Herald

Delaine Randolph searched for a Marine to talk with Friday morning before she had to return to her class at Newnan High School.

The 15-year-old sophomore, originally from South Carolina, was at Newnan High's veterans program. The program is held at the end of each semester at the Jackson-Pless National Guard Armory.

About 100 veterans who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and some of the country's other conflicts gather twice a year at the armory to set up their memorabilia and await the throngs of students who meander through, examining their tabletop displays. Veterans arrive from all over the metro Atlanta area.

The exhibits Friday ranged from fully-deployed parachutes draped from the ceiling to scrapbooks filled with black and white photos and newspaper clippings of some of the most significant moments in the nation's history.

The teen-aged boys tended to gather around the exhibits of weaponry -- like the M-4 semi-automatic rifles and SAW (standard automatic weapon) machine guns that were on display at one of the Iraq War veteran's exhibits, as well as the small-scale replicas of booby traps used by the Viet Cong at one of the Vietnam veteran's displays.

Teen-aged girls tended to flip through the photo albums, finger the medals and read the postcards from home. They also listened longer as the men and women eagerly shared their stories and answered questions.

Randolph was among those who got caught up in several of the veterans' stories, sidetracked from her quest that morning to locate a Marine.

She was diverted by Hugh Lee Young of Carrollton, a World War II vet captured by the Germans. He spent 18 years as a prisoner of war. His mug shot from the Austrian prison camp, with his then 21-year-old bandaged face, was lying on the table next to a box of medals that included the Purple Heart. Young, now 81, tried to explain to Randolph what the camp was like.

"You know the show 'Hogan's Heroes.' Well, that was made from my prison camp," he said.

Randolph, removed from that war by three generations, wasn't familiar with the television comedy that aired in the 1960s and '70s. She said she also couldn't fathom the length of time that Young endured in a prison, a period longer than she's been alive.

"It's kind of scary," she said. "I couldn't stay in jail for 18 years."

She was only partly through the rows of tables and had already talked at length with vets who had survived D-Day and Pearl Harbor, and with a veteran who watched a friend raise the flag at Iwo Jima.

She explained how one veteran told her how he was aboard one ship looking across the ocean at another ship and watched it explode in front of him.

"There were, I think, about 556 on that ship, and all of them died," she said.

Hearing the veterans' stories was timely for Randolph since her history class, taught by Stephen Quesinberry, had covered most of those events in the first semester. It solidified what she studied. It solidified her desire to rejoin the ROTC and get better grades in history, and it reinforced her goal to join the cadre of men and women who live and die by the "Semper Fi" motto.

Randolph, who's aunt was a Marine, was looking for a final affirmation on Friday since she too wants to be a Marine after she graduates.

There was also a special group of soldiers who served in Vietnam at the event Friday.

John B. Overcash of Marietta brought friends from the South Vietnamese army who served alongside Overcash in the U.S. Army Special Forces. The group was reunited in 1993 through the Georgia Vietnam Veterans Alliance. On hand Friday were Kein Nguyen, Loan Tran, Triet Tran, Overcash and Hieu Nguyen.

Kein Nguyen and Hieu Nguyen, who are not related, served secret reconnaissance missions with Overcash in Laos and Cambodia in the late 1960s. The missions have since been declassified.

After the fall of Saigon and imprisonment for several years, all four in this Vietnamese group were eventually released by the North Vietnamese and granted political asylum in the United States. The four live in the Atlanta metro area. It was their first appearance at Newnan High School's veterans program.

Overcash said other Vietnam vets were happy to see them there.

"I think they were glad to see some of our old friends. We felt like we deserted them when we left," he said.

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