Carr, Jimmy

Local veterans featured in DVD collection: Searcy native produces 10-disc documentary of World War II experiences

A love for the past and a bus ride to Washington D.C. led Searcy native Gabe Gentry to take on a project bringing world history to a local level.

Gentry, with funding provided by the the Free Masonry in Arkansas, produced, directed an edited the recently released documentary, "World War II Remembered, an Oral History of Arkansas Veterans," a ten volume DVD collection that takes an intimate look at Arkansans who fought in World War II.

"World histories are very fascinating to me," Gentry said. "It's the ultimate cheat sheet -- you don't have to follow their format exactly, but there are those elements that work and you can incorporate them into your own journey."

Gentry said he started the project shortly after graduating from the University of Central Arkansas in the summer of 2003, but his interest in World War II began four years before when he took a trip to Washington D.C. with his grandfather. On the bus ride, he was introduced to World War II veteran Wilbur Johnson of Sherwood, a field artillery sergeant in the U.S. Army. The two struck up a conversation and for the first time, Gentry said he experienced war stories on a larger context than just history books.

"I had all this information fresh in my head and all the sudden I had this person beside me," Gentry said. "I just started firing off all these questions."

The two made a friendship that day that would span the next few years culminating in Gentry taking his new love for war stories and search for post-collegiate direction to a new level.

"I got to thinking about what was important to me and what job would provide the things I enjoy," Gentry said, adding he then started to write a grant and with the help of his grandfather, found a place to send it.

George Franks, former head of the Free Masonry in Arkansas, liked the idea of a focused documentary on Arkansas veterans and brought it to the other Masons, who agreed unanimously to give Gentry the funding he needed to start the project and then donate copies to libraries across the state.

Gentry, who worked a year and four months on the project, said his grant money enabled him to hire people for technical services including DVD authoring and graphics outlay of the boxes.

Gentry said, however, he did all the interviews alone. Gentry used a portable ten-inch monitor which he Velcroed to one knee and a variable zoom lens with a remote unit that could zoom in without losing eye contact.

"Here they are, sixty years after the fact, remembering things they so desperately tried to forget -- the last thing I wanted to do was start toying with a camera," Gentry said, adding it was in production he wished he had asked for more help.

Gentry said he would have coffee and talk with the veterans before starting the interviews -- recording a few minutes of non-war related questions and walking around the camera.

"The first twenty minutes of the interview was just getting them relaxed," Gentry said. Gentry said although he is part of the "MTV" generation, media supplying a lot of information at once, he got motivation from the documentaries of Filmmaker Ken Burns.

"I love how quite his films are," Gentry said. "They hold a picture in front of you and say look closer, look closer, look closer -- OK now we can cut."

Gentry calls the veterans' stories, "uninterrupted world history" combined with a different take on documentary filming. Gentry said although most documentaries show war footage cut into stories, he kept his project structured in a way that the interviews were more conversational.

"It's basically their story, so my original intent was that two hundred years from now, people can pull that DVD, put it in and it looks like that veteran is looking at you," Gentry said. "It will seem like you are having a dialogue"

"I think far too often history is taught as a set of facts that require memorizing -- I think what history really is to me, a very long story with a beginning that goes back further than you can imagine and with an ending that hasn't been written yet," Gentry said "It's everything that we are and everything that we can be, in a way."

Johnson, himself, would later become the first interview on the first volume of the DVD set.

In the DVD, Johnson, who was part of the Dachau Concentration Camp Liberation, speaks candidly about the gruesome scenes he witnessed in Germany.

"That's what I found in Wilbur's stories. They didn't follow that bell curve of drama -- but it was real and completely authentic and sincere," Gentry said. "I've very much loved the sincerity in Wilbur's story and lessons."

Gentry said he realized Johnson and others could talk their experiences, not in textbook terms, but in terms of what it felt like to be there.

Gentry also interviewed six White County residents for the documentary including U.S. Marine Corp Cpt. Herman Lubker of Bald Knob; U.S. Army Infantry Sgt. Lawnie Coffman; Army Air Corps Staff Sgt. Jimmy Carr, U.S.M.C. Infantry Cpl. Glen Pace ; U.S. Navy Cpl. George Woodruff and Welton and Frances Hudgins, a U.S. Navy chief pharmacist and a Navy nurse, all of Searcy.

"They all had really interesting stories," Gentry said adding that the late Woodruff, who is featured in volume VIII, was a PT boat gunner whose sister ship held future president John F. Kennedy. In the DVD, Woodruff reveals he was there when JFK's boat went down and part of the rescue effort.

Gentry said Woodruff died a few weeks after the interview took place.

Coffman of Searcy, who lost the use of his left arms during his service, told of sparing a German's life and then running into him again coming off boat to France.

"Lawnie was coming off the boat and [heard a noise]-- it was the prisoner he had spared," Gentry said. "He had learned just a little bit of English but said thank you, thank you, prison good -- thank you for not shooting me."

Gentry said Pace, who is now a pastor, talked about the spirituality associated with war and how it effects the body, mind and soul.

Gentry, who felt his own relationship to his grandfather grew out of the experience, said the best part were the conversations themselves and learning what the veterans cherished in this country, the founding principles they fought for and what they now see threatening them.

"Every time I left a veteran's home all I could say was thank you," Gentry said. "That was 'thank you for coming out of your garden and putting on that button down shirt; thank you for rearranging your living room and sitting in front to of three studio lights and a blinding camera," Gentry said. "But thank you of your service -- no other time did I feel such an appreciation for what they have done."

Gentry said next he would like to do a national version of the film.

"It's still very fresh in my mind," Gentry said. "I learned what all the pitfalls are -- I think I could do a good job."

Gentry said he also has future plans for documentaries on the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam and Korean Wars.

"I've always liked documentary film -- I think because I'm such a big people watcher," Gentry said. "I'm always looking at other peoples lives."

Gentry said a good documentary film is finding a fascinating character who is still sincere. Gentry found forty -- trying to highlight each one with an interview reflecting his or her time in national service.

"I think in a lot ways I am very ordinary, but I have a great eye for seeing the extraordinary," Gentry said. "There's something very fulfilling in sharing those stories."

"World War II Remembered" is laced together with an introduction of raw WWII footage and stirring music, adding to the emotional whole of Gentry's labor of love.

"In the end, I'm really happy with who I am now, and I'm happy with what I've done," Gentry said adding his new path will let him see many different sides to human life, whether he personally experienced them or not. "I'm picking those stories to tell and in a way I kind of get to live in that world for while."

Gentry is the son of Sherry Gentry and Steve Gentry, both of Searcy and the grandson of Dwane and Robbie Treat of Searcy and Pat and Tom Gentry of Searcy.

"World War II Remembered" is available at the White County and Harding University libraries. For more information or to order contact Arkansas Scottish Rite Freemasons at (501) 375-5587.