CENTENNIAL — Ninety-four-year-old Richard “Dick” Raiter showed up for an interview Wednesday morning wearing his Navy uniform he “purchased” in 1943.
It fits him like a glove.
“I am very proud of the Navy and the time I spent in it,” he said.
Raiter, who served as a lieutenant commander in the Pacific theater, is among about 60 World War II veterans living at Holly Creek Retirement Community.
Twenty veterans at Holly Creek are being interviewed this month as part of the , a nationwide program that records “living histories” of war veterans.
“There’s a level of urgency” to record World War II vets’ stories because of their rapidly dwindling numbers, said Ken Yaphe, a volunteer with the who is documenting stories at Holly Creek. “There was a level of urgency 10 years ago, but now even more so. The younger (World War II) veterans are in their 90s.”
Glenn Fisher, a private first class in the Army infantry who had two fingers shot off by a Nazi soldier in Germany, is among the veterans at Holly Creek.
Fisher, who lost vision in his right eye during a training exercise in Texas before his deployment to Europe, wrote a 2002 book, ” which details his wartime experiences.
On Nov. 21, 1944, Fisher, then 20, was with the 102nd Infantry Division when about 200 members of his company were ordered to attack the village of Beeck to gain strategic ground. The soldiers had crawled through a muddy beet field, Fisher said, and most of their rifles were “clogged with mud and would not fire.”
Of the 200, only about 20 survived, Fisher said.
The book examines, among other things, why the Beeck attack was “ordered against overwhelming odds,” Fisher said.
“The Army messed everything up, except my medical treatment,” Fisher said with a chuckle.
Hank Gehle, 89, served in the Army Air Corps and flew bombing missions over Germany, operating a new “navigational radar” system on board.
It was Gehle’s job to jam radar from German artillery systems below, making them less likely to hit American bombers.
Elaine Brennan, 94, served stateside, in Georgia, in the Navy’s Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVES. She helped train pilots using a “Link Flight Trainer.”
When America first entered the war, Brennan was a young teacher in Colorado. “I decided I am not going to sit around in Denver. I have got to get into this,” she said.
Her father was proud “to put a star in the window” of her family’s home, she said.
“Thrilled and excited” to serve, Brennan recalled her stint to be mostly positive, but a few pilots she encountered in her teaching position lost their lives during the war.
“It was a good time and a sad time,” she said.
Paul Arther, who celebrated his 92nd birthday this month, became a dentist in Littleton after his war duties with the Office of Strategic Services. Arther, who served in Europe, was awarded a Battle of the Bulge Medal and other decorations.
Arther, whose assignments included decoding intercepted German messages, described his service as “romantic and exciting,” but it had dark moments.
He recalled the capture of a Nazi who was wearing an American uniform. The impersonation resulted in execution, he said.
“I wouldn’t think American troops would do that, (but) they did,” Arther said, his voice trailing off. “They shot him.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kierannicholson
