“Vandy Goes to War” Turns Focus to Korean War-era Memories

Vanderbilt University is broadening an effort to collect the wartime stories of its alumnae.

So far, the Vandy Goes to War project has focused on World War II. Librarians have collected oral histories of both what happened on campus during the war and the experiences of students who fought overseas.
Lyttleton Anderson is one of the voices already recorded. He was drafted into the army after his freshman year at Vanderbilt. In 1944, Anderson was captured by German soldiers—and escaped.

“I was able to crawl into a drainage ditch after dark, and escape by crawling under the barbed wire into a creek. I had watched the guards and saw where they were going, and how often they crossed that little ravine, and I was able to get away undetected. I was able to find my way towards the front line again, because I could see the artillery flashes.”

Just 13 months later, Anderson was back at Vanderbilt. He graduated in the class of 1948.

The university is still collecting World War II stories, but now it’s also putting out a call for recollections from the Korean Conflict. That war began 60 years ago this summer.

You can listen to the oral histories and read transcripts at http://vandygoestowar.library.vanderbilt.edu