In September, I just got home from practice and was getting ready for my Zoom interview. This interview was for the club SAVE(Serving And Veteran Experiences) whose goal is to interview veterans so that their story never gets forgotten. Students in this club ask veterans about their family and time in the service such as where they were stationed. But most importantly we make sure to be respectful we do this by not going on our phones during the meeting. And after each interview, we each say thank you, and follow up with a thank you note or email.

At the start of the interview, the student leading the interview begins by thanking the veteran for their time. After this, the veteran typically begins by telling us a back story typically including information about their family, friends in the service, and time in the service usually. And after we take turns asking the veterans further questions about their service or family. But making sure not to ask too personal questions in order to avoid making the veteran feel uncomfortable. 

During this specific interview, the veteran didn’t talk about friends much so one student asked, “do you still keep in touch with any of your friends from the service?” And he said, “yes, I’ve been in touch with some of my friends for more than 20 years now.” I thought this was awesome that even after 20 years him and his friends still make an effort to reach out to one another. Another question we asked him was, “are you happy that you joined the service.”And while he was collecting his thoughts a small smile began to form on his face as he thought about the good memories he had while in the service. As he began to open his mouth he said, “yes, I am happy I joined the service because it gave me the opportunity to travel the world and serve my country at the same time.” Those two answers even after a year stuck with me because of how positive he was about the service.