GREENBURGH, N.Y. (WCBS 880) – Interviews with American veterans who survived war and told their stories are being aired this Memorial Day weekend on Greenburgh’s public access channel.
The veterans witnessed history and had a hand in shaping the world. Their stories were recorded in their own words for future generations.
The Town of Greenburgh has interviewed roughly 150 veterans. It airs these "Veterans Living History" videos on public access all weekend long every Memorial Day. You can watch some of the interviews online here.
Among those interviewed was 97-year-old Nick Ruberto, who volunteered after Pearl Harbor as a gunner in a B-29 bomber in the Pacific.
Towards the end of the war, Ruberto remembers his superiors telling him: “They said to us, ‘We’re going to send you over, but if the war stops – if it’s over and you’re going – drop the bombs in the ocean and return.’”
“If they had stopped that war a couple hours earlier, we wouldn’t have dropped it, we wouldn’t have bombed the place,” Ruberto said.
When they landed Ruberto wrote in his logbook, "Thank God it’s over. I hope I never go to war again."