Oklahoma State University history students to share Payne County WWII stories in Philippines

Three Oklahoma State University graduate students will travel to Manila along with their history professor to tell the stories of the impact people in Payne County had on the Philippines campaign during WWII.

"This one small county had such a sizeable impact in one of the greatest campaigns in WWII."

Brent Jones, an OSU Master's in History student, came across a 1942 article from the Stillwater News Press that said, "you would be hard pressed to not find a Payne County man in any of the wars far-flung battlefields." He decided to look to see if that was the case, and found one war zone that stood out.

"In the first few months of the war it was just another Stillwater man, another Payne County man missing or killed in the Philippines," said Jones, who has found 40-50 individuals from Payne County who were impacted in that country during the war.

Making the trip Possible

Last summer, Laura Arata, PhD, visited Manila to learn firsthand what the logistics might be and how her students would be received at the embassy and the Manila American Cemetery.

"It's maybe not a place that gets visited so much by someone like me or by students like ours," said Arata. "All of the locally employed staff and people from the Philippines that I met with and interacted with while I was there were really excited to have us."

Image Provided By: Laura Arata

"Payne County stories are not usually told." How the students plan to display their research

Jessi Simmons, a PhD history student, is tasked with designing shadow boxes to be displayed at the Manila Embassy. She's been working with people at a Manila fabric company to recreate the fabric of a uniform of a nurse who would have served in the field hospitals of Bataan and the mosquito netting soldiers would have used in camp. The boxes will be unique to each story and include photos and text.

A few of the stories the students will tell

The more Molly Adams learned, the more the OSU Master's in History student formed a connection to the past.

"You can’t help but feel connected in a way and close with these people, and the drive that they get honored is very strong," she said.

The students are raising money to help offset the costs of the trip, and they describe a few of the stories they will tell along the way:

Ace the War Dog

Ace was rescued and trained to become a War Dog by Major Lorren Perdue; they flew missions to the Philippines in 1945 before settling in Stillwater, where Major Perdue took charge of OAMC ROTC.

Sister Mary Shafers

Also known as Sister Scholastica, Mary Shafers was a nun in the Catholic Order of Mary Knoll. She was imprisoned in Los Banos and Santo Tomas internment camps during the war.

Correspondent Dean Shedler

Dean Schedler was an Associated Press Correspondent and was captured during the Japanese invasion of Manila. His reports detailed the war for readers around the world.

Captain Ted Kern

Ted Kern earned his undergraduate degree from OAMC before joining the Army. He served as a medical officer in the Philippines and was imprisoned by the Japanese during the war.

Image Provided By: Laura Arata

A personal connection: "I share a soldier’s kinship with all of these."

Brent Jones has been in the Oklahoma Guard for about ten years. He said he deployed to Afghanistan and East Africa and he "is fortunate to make it back when so many service members have not."

Jones has been interviewing surviving family members.

"It's an immense honor and one of the things I’m most proud about of [with] this project," he said.

The Stillwater Wildfires, heartbreak, and hurdles ahead of the trip

Laura Arata was one of many who lost her home in the wildfires on March 14th. She lost everything, including her passport, and is hopeful she can get a new one in time for the trip on May 26th.

"It really did make me even more deeply invested and more deeply motivated," said Arata. "Public history is always about telling stories and helping us learn about and share our common experiences as human beings. And I’m deeply committed to local history, I always have been."

These same students came to help her sift through the rubble to find anything that might be worth saving.

"We were needed, so we showed up," said Adams.

What's next after they return?

The group will create an exhibit at the Stillwater History Museum and hopes to one day have an exhibit at the Stillwater Airport as well. Now that they have this strong connection to a unique piece of Payne County's past, they want to share it with others.

"I am honored, as I know that we all are, that we get to be the bearers of these stories and bring them into the light," said Jones.