D-Day Expose

So I've ran into the major difficulties of writing with a strict deadline...
The D-Day article came together, but it definitely could have been better. I should have gotten started earlier! It was my fault.
So I called the VFW's in the county on Thursday, but I only could get in touch with one, who promised me there would be plenty of WWII veterans to interview.
The others, I assumed, I could stop by and find someone...
I was mostly wrong.
I called two veterans on the phone before I left to travel the county, one of which was nice and talked a lot about his experiences. The other man, however, kept screaming at me, yelling, "What do you want me to say?"
Both of them didn't storm the beaches of Normandy, but still had amazing stories. One, the man who talked a lot, was a messanger and dodged shells to stay alive while running notes back and forth between troops. He once almost was injured by scrap metal to the head but luckily was wearing a helmet at the time. He was also in the Battle of the Bulge.
The man who was more hesitate to talk, and I learned later was in his mid 90's, said "I was in the battle of the bulge, some other battles, than I came home." I also got out of him that he was injured during the battle of the bulge- a bullet wounded his leg and hurt a major nerve- and was treated for frozen hands and feet.
This is where journalism gets dangerous- it's important for people to know what happened and remember, but it is hard to interview those people, who many times don't want to relive those horrible memories, and make them tell you there story.
So I then went to the VFW in Westminster, where I found a veteran who served in the Pacific. He was also kind of agressive, but luckily his wife was also there to help with the interview. And also I'm thrilled I'm less than two months from being 21 but I still can't sit at a bar. (Instead, this old man and his wife had to get up and move because of my age.)
An actual D-Day survivor was at the bar, but he refused to talk to me. Thus more of the dilemma.
After not being able to snap a picture of the veteran, I went on to the VFW in Taneytown. It took me forever to get there because of construction and it was in the middle of NOWHERE, (more so than is typical for Carroll County) and it was closed. Sigh.
Then, from there, I went to the VFW in Mt. Airy. This is the man who told me there would be WWII veterans there. I went in and found out he was confused-there were only two men there, and one was a Korean War Veteran and the other was a Vietnam Veteran. I interviewed them and put them into my article, but their quotes got cut. That's probably because they said that the veterans they knew, like their dads, had a lot of problems. I guess that may not be appropriate in a remembrance article.
The Vietnam Veteran said I should go to the American Legion, but the people there said the only veteran they knew wasn't there.
"They're all dying off," the man said.
After that, I traveled back to the office to find an email from my boss, sent around the time I left, saying he received a call and found the perfect veteran for me to talk to. This man said he's in a nursing home, but he would go with me. I TRAVELED FOR NOTHING AND I HAD THE PERFECT STORY RIGHT UNDER MY NOSE!
I knew I should have connected my Carroll County Times email address with my blackberry, too. I'M SO STUPID.
So I call this man, and he tells me all about this guy. Apparently, he was one of the elite men who wore a ranger outfit and climbed the cliffs of Normandy (while being shot down at my german soldiers) on D-Day. He was one of the few survivors. He also had other stories, but was very hard of hearing, etc.
So, then this man kept saying, "I wish you would have called earlier. It's just too late for me now."
I felt sick to my stomach. How did I miss this!
I didn't give up yet, though! I called the nursing home and asked if I would be able to speak with him even without his friend, and they told me he was sleeping so no, but I would also need someone to help with translation since he was so hard of hearing. So, it was a no go. I just wanted to die.
But, as you can see, the article happpened and it was nice, I think. I should have done a lot of things differently, but now I know!
Tomorrow, I go to the carnival in Taneytown. Trying to drag a friend along, but in Carroll County, you're pretty carnival-ed out by my age (there's one every week in a different town in CC).

Read my story:
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2009/06/06/news/local_news/6_vets_remember_dday.txt