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Local Soldiers Who Served In WWII Share Their Scary Stories In Preview To 'War'

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 13, 2007

The biggest event on PBS this year is Ken Burns' 'The War,' a seven-part series about World War II.

Debuting Sept. 23, it promises to be as slickly produced, insightful and compelling as Burns' epic 'The Civil War,' the 1990 film that still ranks as the most-watched documentary in the history of television.

As a precursor to 'The War,' PBS outlet WEDU, Channel 3, presents 'Heroes From the Bay,' a locally produced documentary, written by Clearwater producer Spencer Briggs. It debuts at 8:30 tonight and will repeat several times through October.

Narrated by Bob Hite of WFLA, Channel 8, this special incorporates archival photographs and film with interviews of people from the Tampa Bay area who lived through those trying, triumphant times.

For several months, WEDU has been gathering recollections of the World War II era at wedu.com. The Web site also features an interview with Burns.

Among those appearing on tonight's program are Tampa brothers Willie and Joe Vila, who were teenagers when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Willie was 16 and Joe was 17 when they lied about their age to join the Marines and were shipped off to fight in the Pacific. Willie recalls that he quickly learned he had 'to kill or be killed.' The brothers fought at Okinawa and Iwo Jima and returned at age 20 as decorated war heroes.

Willie and Joe have five brothers - Wilfredo, Hector, Robert, Denio and Tony - who also served in the U.S. armed forces from World War II through Operation Desert Storm. The Vila family was recently honored with a 5 1/2-foot-tall granite marker at Vila Brothers Park, 700 N. Armenia Ave.

Also interviewed is former Congressman Sam Gibbons, a Tampa native who was among the 101st Airborne Troopers who parachuted into France prior to the D-Day invasion.

'It was plain old infantry slogging and fighting,' he says. 'It's not pleasant. It's just deadly and scary.'

Former Navy Capt. Ralph Styles of Sarasota, who was stationed at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked, shares his memory of that day of infamy. John Germany of Plant City, who served under Gen. George Patton, recalls liberating survivors in a German internment camp.

'The bodies were still warm; the ovens were still warm,' he says. 'The ones that could walk went after the guards and tried to shove them into the ovens.'

Other veterans, such as Terry Lyle, speak briefly. As a 'mule packer,' Lyle had to lift heavy weapons onto the backs of mules.

Gus Stavros, a successful, well-known Tampa businessman, tells of the night when the surviving 36 men in his platoon defeated more than 400 German soldiers, taking some 200 prisoners.

He later survived a mortar attack that cost him the use of his left hand. He also has a steel plate in his head.

'The doctors told me to go home and enjoy the few years that I had left, and that was 62 years ago,' he says.

'Heroes From Tampa Bay' also addresses those who served in the all-black branches of the service including Moses Darby, who shares his memories of Patton, and Charles Johnson, who remembers sharing his rations with German refugees.

Tampa's Evelyn Johnson, who was in the all-black unit of the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), was impressed at how well she was treated in England and France compared with the racial discrimination she faced at home.

The special includes a recording of Hite's late father, Bob Hite Sr. He was working for CBS in 1945 and broadcast the news of the end of war in Europe.

The special closes after Stavros notes, 'War is not nice; war is not right. It is necessary sometimes.' He says we should appreciate those who serve. 'Thank them and bless them.'

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