Building 640 at the Presidio in San Francisco

Building 640 at the Presidio in San Francisco
Information Source for the Military Intelligence Service Historic Learning Center

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

World Perspectives.

Today was a normal day. We worked on a video to put on Youtube, made some fliers, and wrote thank yous to our sponsers. Last Friday, July 22nd we gave a tour for some middle school students. Because it went so well, we were given a pizza party. We thought the pizza party was going to be the only surprise of the day but then somebody special marched in.

Max Nihei's grandfather Ken Nihei came in to visit Max. He sat down and drank tea while we sat around him. I bluntly asked him "Hey Mr. Nihei, do you have any war stories that you may want to share with us?" I expected some heroic story about how he fought a long battle against the Nazis. What he said was a little different. He told us a story about how he was in a forest in Europe and he had to dig a trench. There was a bunch of new guys who were added to the unit. They were told to dig a trench. When the Nazi soldiers began shelling, one of the new guys got hit. The guy was screaming and he tried to tie up his leg but the bandages kept falling off. In the morning, the guy was dead. Hearing the story made me very sad. Mr. Nihei said that they did not even know his name. It was sad but Mr. Nihei talked about going hunting when he was living in Wyoming and teaching Max how to shoot. In the end it was a good talking to a man from an intense time in history.

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