Fun story but also Sad. When I was in 8th grade my English teacher had given us a WWII writing assignment. I remember we had a choice between interviewing a WWII Veteran or writing about significant battles or dates in WWII. I remember my pastor at the time mentioning that he was a WWII veteran so I knew it would be easier to interview him and getting the assignment done quickly. I asked him one day during a service if I could interview him for a school assignment and he agreed. The following week we met up after Sunday morning service and I had my questions ready. Before I could begin to ask the first question he gives me a leather binder with documents inside and he tells me “any and all information you need is in that binder”. I froze up but after a few seconds I asked him if I could ask him a few quick questions but he responded with the same sentence “any and all information you need is in that binder”. He shook my hand and turned to walk away, I quickly said “Pastor Paul” but he turned around and told me “Son, any and all information you need is in that binder” and he walked away. I was frozen and out of words. I knew I couldn’t pester him, so I walked away and got in my car waiting to go home. When I got home I opened up the binder and saw many documents such as boot camp info, deployment documents, training documents, and medical information. There was nothing I could really use in that binder. I was kind of upset but again I couldn’t tell that to my Pastor. So I went to my schools library and local library to look up interviews and newspaper articles. I made up all the answers to the questions I had to ask but made them similar to what others had documented in books and newspaper articles. I got a B+ in the end. When it came to return the binder to my pastor he asked me how it went. And i told him it went great and I got a B+. He was content and he shook my hand. He responded with “I knew you would do well” and he took his binder. For years I never knew why he wouldn’t answer my questions. Then two weeks ago Pastor Paul passed away at the age of 95 in his sleep. Last week we had his funeral and he was buried in a veterans cemetery. The military present fired off some riffle rounds and the trumpet played what I believe is called “Military Taps” sorry if I’m mistaken. Upon hearing it my heart sank and after years I realized why my pastor didn’t want to answer my questions. He had made peace with his past in the army and didn’t want to speak of it. From what his son said in his sermon I’m sure Pastor Paul had experienced some ugly warfare. I wonder if he knew I was gonna have to make something up in my paper or just go a different route.