By: Cristopher Avello
For the past five years, Tyler Boland has traveled across the country. He interviews World War II veterans. This is part of his passion project.
He believes it’s crucial to share their stories on his YouTube channel, Keeping History Alive. We have a limited time with them.
“My great-grandfather was a Marine in World War II. He died before I was born. To honor him, I said I’m gonna interview as many World War II vets as I can.”
During Tyler’s interview with Russell Sattazahn, Tyler asked him whether he would ever return after leaving Europe 80 years earlier.
To which Russell later said, “Tyler got me going to Germany.”
Before being sent to the army, Russell was drafted as a senior out of high school in 1944, and after walking into machine gun fire in a small town, his hand was shot off by heavy artillery. But, Sattazahn told himself, “ Russell, get a hold of yourself. This is not gonna change. It can get better. “
As it turned out, they both embarked on the trip of a lifetime, Tyler reached out to The Rifle Organization, and set up a GoFundMe account for a little bit of donation money. They got the funds in four hours.
The trip brought back a lot of memories for Russell, he felt it was important people knew what things were like, so he got things done he would’ve never gotten done. Above all, if there are WW II vets out there, Tyler I is going to keep doing what he is doing.
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