FM’s Alter led them on the journey back in time
On a hot morning, with just about a week of school left in the year, Highland Falls Intermediate School fourth graders proved that this year, if nothing else, they learned to be a great audience.
The students spent about an hour listening to and asking questions of Fort Montgomery’s Ray Alter, who was on hand to talk to the students about World War II. He’s a history buff, and has passed that love of learning about the era on to his grandson, Troy Siemon, who is in fourth grade at the HFIS.
Alter came to the presentation loaded with items to share with the students — for instance, a model USS Arizona and a model USS ‘Big Mo’ (aka USS Missouri). He spoke about the significance the battleships played in the war.
His history lesson was conversational. Alter was wearing a shirt featuring various WWII American airplanes, and he also wore dog tags belonging to his late father, who fought in the war. He had original newspapers that he showed off the big banner headlines declaring the war over, and “one of my most prized possessions”, an original letter from General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Alter also showed off a World War II Army helmet loaned to him by the Highlands Historical Society.
But he started the presentation by asking the students to all close their eyes and imagine with him that they were children in 1939. “You’re sitting at your kitchen table doing your homework. Your mom is cooking a good dinner. The front door opens and soldiers come in and take your food, and your valuables. And, if your parents happened to be Jewish, they were probably going to be arrested,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s what happened when World War II started.”
He explained why the war started — “because Adolf Hitler had become the leader in Germany, and he was still very unhappy with how World War I ended,” he said, saying he wanted to claim German land back. As well, Alter explained, Hitler wanted a “perfect society”, and eliminating Jewish people, for him, would make that happen.
Alter’s presentation wasn’t deeply detailed for the students, but he gave a short overview that the children could follow. And, he made it local, talking about Highland Falls’ World War hero, actor Charles Durning. The then young soldier, as part of an artillery unit arriving in France after the D-Day invasion of Normandy, was the only member of his unit to survive the war.
“If you go down Main St., you’ll see a street named in his honor,” Alter said. “Now you’ll know why it is there.”
The students had good questions. Among them was why he had given each of the students a penny to hold during his talk.
“Every little community came together for the war effort,” Alter said. “Children would often go out after school and collect aluminum, glass and rubber that could be used in the effort. Every penny counted.”
And, he pointed out, that while the children held copper pennies, in 1943, because copper was needed for the war, for one year only pennies were made of steel.
