EVANSVILLE — Charles Hubbert's nightmares were so terribleafter World War II, his wife hid with their toddler son in thebathroom as he fought the Gestapo police in his sleep.
''I'd scare her to death,'' Hubbert, a former prisoner of war,said at his kitchen table recently with a tape recorder running."Once awake, 'I'd yell, I'm OK,' and she would come out.''
Hubbert's story is among about 3,900 oral history submissionscollected so far for the Library of Congress' Veterans HistoryProject. Indiana veterans have contributed 1,450 of them and thestories of 375 others were submitted on their behalf.
The emphasis is on recruiting World War I and World War IIveterans because thousands of them die each week across thecountry.
Donald Ritchie, a historian for the U.S. Senate who was aproject adviser, said older veterans are often more willing to talkabout the ugliness of war after the years had past.
''For a long time people shy away from talking about painfulsubjects," Ritchie said. "They saw friends die and feel guiltyalmost. They have trouble bringing it up. They don't want to burdentheir families with stories.''
Later, ''they review their lives. They sort out the good and thebad ... They go from wanting to talk about it to feeling compelledto talk about it,'' Ritchie said.
To get Hubbert to tell his story, Larry Ordner, a staffer forU.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, attended an MIA/POW luncheon at a SirloinStockade restaurant in Evansville and sought him out.
Hubbert later sat in his home and told Ordner of having hisplane shot down and eventually helping to design and build escapetunnels in a German POW camp. Hubbert was transferred from the campto another but heard later when 50 men were executed for escapingor attempting to leave.
''I never gave up hope,'' Hubbert said when asked how hesurvived POW camps.
While Hubbert's story is one that movies are made of -- the film''The Great Escape'' is based on the men killed at his former camp-- Ordner said he found something compelling in all of more than200 interviews he has done.
''The people who thought they had nothing to say actually hadthe most poignant'' accounts, Ordner said.
One reason that the stories of so many Indiana veterans havebeen collected is that Lugar and members of his staff have gone toschools and civic meetings across the state, encouraging veteransand volunteers to participate.
Lugar also has prepared television and radio public serviceannouncements that were to begin airing in Indiana on Tuesday tomark Veterans Day.
Ordner makes it a point to ask the veterans what it was like tocome home from war. Hubbert said his nightmares eventually wentaway, but he knew he wasn't the same person after theexperience.
''Every time I'd enter the room, I'd see where the exits were,''Hubbert said.
When talking about coming home, veterans from different warstend to describe varied receptions. While World II veterans tend toexpress pride and say they would do it again, many Korea andVietnam veterans don't always share that view, said EllenMcCulloch-Lovell, director of the Veterans History Project.
''What we're starting to hear from Vietnam was how hard it wasto come home and not be appreciated,'' McCulloch-Lovell said.
Some veterans say it is easier to tell their story to astranger.
Guy Stephens, 78, of Yankeetown, said he told his interviewerabout the day he was liberated from a German POW camp -- somethingthe retired school principal said he had never discussed with hisfamily.
''It's hard for POWs to talk to your family about combat or whatyou've experienced as a POW,'' Stephens said. ''There's somethingabout POWs, we never talk about things. I told him things I'venever told my family ... I don't know why.''
Ritchie said the project, which is also accepting writtenmemoirs, letters, diaries, maps, photographs and home movies, wouldprovide a wealth of information to historians.
Jon Carl, a history teacher at Evansville's Reitz High Schoolwho assigned two classes last spring to interview a veteran for theproject, said the work helped expose his students to what warveterans experienced.
''I think it sparked a lot of questions that the kids had. Tome, that's what history is all about,'' Carl said. ''You never knowthe whole story. There's always another question that needs to beanswered.''
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