Scholarship helps preserve veterans' history

Lynn Johnston. photo by Tom Chace

Many veterans of World War II and the Vietnam War believe that today's young people have no concept of what it was like for the millions of men and women who served their country in those difficult times.

For the past three years, a Sisters man has been doing something tangible about that.

He is Lynn Johnston, a local building contractor, himself a Vietnam veteran, who is awarding a substantial cash scholarship each year to a senior graduate of Sisters High School.

The money for the scholarships comes from his own pocket. He receives no government grants; organizes no fund-raising events no telethons; he does no soliciting.

He does it because he believes it.

"I read a short article about a Florence attorney recently that made my point exactly," Johnston said. "This man was in his fifties, a leader of the local group of peace activists, who asked another if he was a combat veteran."

The onlooker replied that he was in World War II at Iwo Jima, to which the attorney replied, "Iwo Jima? I don't know about that place."

The story goes on to relate that 2,100 Americans died there. "Did they die in vain?" the story asked. "Not even a memory? A postscript? A hyphen? And it's been only 57 years."

Johnston wants those memories to last. He wants "baby boomers" and the babies of the boomers to know what it was like, what their parents and grandparents did and sacrificed.

Applications for the scholarship for 2004 are now available at the high school counseling office. The award is $3,000.

Johnston started the program three years ago with a gift of $1,500 and has added $500 to the award each year since.

"If other veterans would like to contribute, we could build this scholarship fund into something really worthwhile," Johnston said.

The three criteria are that each applicant must read a book about one of the nation's recent wars. Each applicant must then interview on videotape a veteran exploring how his or her military experience affected that person's life both professionally and personally.

And then the student must write a 300-word essay ("not a book report," the criteria state), about, "what the applicant has learned or gained from this experience."

Last year's winner was C. J. Adams from Camp Sherman. In his essay he states that "...these men and women who took up an extraordinary call to patriotism and sacrifice were always just 'old people' to me ... an obstacle in traffic, a head of white hair and a call to proper behavior.

"Due to my ignorance, I never took the time to listen to what they had to say, cutting off a connection to a gold mine of wisdom and perspective and knowledge. I now want to explore that treasure and retrieve the valuable insight within before it crumbles in silence with the passing of a generation."

To contact Johnston call 549-5381.