Elmhurst high school students work with veterans to portray ‘Faces of Valor’

Adolph Olivi was not going to hold back.

“Ninety-four years old, I might as well tell my story,” the retired Marine corporal said.

A resident of The Roosevelt at Salt Creek in Elmhurst, he gathered at the senior community on Veterans Day with more than two dozen other veterans and York High School students for the unveiling of initial portraits created for the project, “Faces of Valor: A Portrait Journey of Our Veterans.”

Twelve students from York teacher Justin Riskus’ Military History Club and art teacher April Antonson’s photography class interviewed and photographed the veterans on Oct. 29. It’s an ongoing project.

“I think it gives the veterans company, and it’s great to talk with people who’ve lived through history and not just read about history,” said York senior Francesco Bifero, who spoke at the lunch gathering along with Elmhurst American Legion T.H.B. Post 187 Commander Eric Pulia and Army Special Forces veteran Bill Shanklin, also of Post 187.

“These people ... lived through history, so they’re primary sources. And I think this is very beneficial in ways a book could not be,” Bifero said.

In what Olivi called a “good conversation” with “bright, young people,” he had told the students about serving in a helicopter squadron in North Carolina after World War II. His assignments included laying telephone wire out of a helicopter while two buddies held his feet.

York freshman Krystian Zmaczynski saw the project as experience for a potential career.

“I want to see if I can handle editing the photos — sending it out in a specified time frame. So I think it was great practice, and at the same time, I was honoring veterans,” he said.

Elmhurst’s Bobbie Cucco, a retired Air Force nurse stationed in Rapid City, South Dakota, drew on 65-year-old memories during the United States’ early involvement in the Vietnam War.

“They were pretty interested in what was going on, I thought,” said Cucco, who retired as a captain. “It was worth the trip for them — to see another side of what was going on in the military.”

Cucco said female students were intrigued by her experience and the role of women in today’s military.

“They can do any kind of thing. They just thought, well, this is for the men,” Cucco said.

“I said, ‘No, women do all kinds of things in the military that they think they’re not capable of doing.’”