Then, Vietnam War veteran Gilbert Gonzalez appeared on screen to explain the scene he had filmed more than 40 years before.

A battle had erupted between U.S. forces and the Viet Cong, Gonzalez said. Viet Cong soldiers had opened fire on the Americans from the cover of a building, then ran off. American gunships then opened fire on the building itself, and only afterward did the pilots realize the building was an orphanage, now filled with dead and wounded children.

So the pilots landed in hostile territory, dumped their cargo and began filling the gunships with the wounded children, before flying them to safety and medical care.

It was a snippet of wartime history that defined for Da Vinci student Aaron Levin-Fay not just the human cost of war, but also the bravery of the soldiers who risked their lives to save those children.

“In our daily lives,” Levin-Fay said, “we mostly ask what we can do to benefit ourselves. I can only speculate what went through their minds. (But) these soldiers performed an incredible act of selflessness and valor.”

If there is anything that the students of Da Vinci have learned over the past three years participating in the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project — and they say there is much — it is that the lessons of war are more nuanced than they imagined going into the project.

And that was the point when teacher Tyler Millsap added the Veterans History Project to the school’s annual “America at War” project. In addition to the months of collaborative group work studying America’s war history, Da Vinci juniors for the past three years have videotaped interviews with area veterans about their wartime experiences. They’ve then sent those interviews to the Library of Congress, which has collected some 100,000 oral histories from American veterans since 2000.

Da Vinci students have contributed 78 oral histories since 2010, and in doing so have developed a new understanding about war that they didn’t have before, Millsap has said.

This year they interviewed 23 veterans in all, a number of whom, like Gonzalez, were in the multipurpose room on Friday to be honored by the students for their participation in the project.

Also among them was 90-year-old World War II veteran Warren Nichols, who was told by student Lauren Hartz: “You are the bravest man I’ve ever known.”

Nichols not only fought in the second World War, he also left behind a pregnant wife and family to fight in Korea, missing the birth of his daughter.

“I cannot even fathom how difficult that was for him,” said Da Vinci student Pete Young.
Nichols also shared with the students what he gained from his wartime experiences, as horrifying as they were at times.

“I had no idea how strong I was,” he told them in the videotaped interview. “I got tested over there and I found out who I am. … A lot of people grow up never running into a test, so consequently, they never know how strong they are.”

Gonzalez brought a different perspective from his Vietnam War days.

He told students he’d come to the conclusion not long after arriving in Vietnam that he was on the wrong side.

“You know,” he said, “these people are kind of fighting for their freedom.”

And from that point on, he said, he focused more on simply surviving.

Da Vinci student John Conant didn’t expect to hear that from Gonzalez going into the interview.

Conant said he went into the interview believing the Vietnam War to be wrong, but said he never would have said so to a Vietnam vet. Turned out he didn’t have to, and he expressed surprise at that.

But the students also disagreed with Gonzalez about something.

In the act of killing, Gonzalez told them, he had lost his humanity, and it never returned.

“Even today I don’t feel sorry for people,” he said in the interview. “You can’t. You cannot kill somebody, you cannot pull the trigger, if you have any humanity.”

Student Emma Meads disagreed.

“I don’t believe someone can lose his humanity,” she said. “I think war reveals our humanity.”
Iraq war veteran Amanda Gedaut served as an exceptional role model to the three Da Vinci students — all female — who interviewed her.

She spoke openly of the discrimination she has faced in the Air Force, the many times she was told, “You don’t belong on this airplane.”

Her response: “What, are you from the 1940s?”

It hardened her in a way. Even now, she said, as her husband, his parents and her own parents urge her to get out of the military and start a family, it keeps her there.

“There’s a piece of me that’s just angry,” she said.

When she does leave, “I need to do it for the right reasons,” she said.

Gedaut was the only woman among the 23 veterans Da Vinci students interviewed this year, and student Yasmin Kouchesfahni said she looked forward to returning to Da Vinci for a future America at War presentation “when half of the veterans in the project are women.”

Among those listening to the student presentations and watching snippets of interviews was Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, who was asked to be the afternoon’s keynote speaker, but had the difficult task of following the student presentations.

“Where do you start after all that?” he said. “What these extraordinary students have done … how do you add to these stories and film clips?”

To the veterans present, Garamendi said, “I really thank you for doing something so extremely important for the next generation.”

And he thanked the Da Vinci teachers who made it possible — Millsap and Hayleigh Munoz — “for this extremely important experience … that too few Americans have had … reaching back to past generations and taking from them their experiences, emotions, triumphs.”

And for preserving them for all time.

To learn more about the Veterans History Project or to view the thousands of oral histories recorded there, visit http://www.loc.gov/vets.

— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at aternus@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8051. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy

Even in defeat, there were certainly bright spots for the Blue Devils as Andre Foster caught coach Julie Crawford’s eye with his smart play.

“Andre is really athletic, but he’s never played volleyball before,” Crawford said. “He’s really starting to understand the game.”

The coach also came away impressed with the consistency of setter Don-Wook Shin.

“The goal right now is just to keep developing,” Crawford said. “We’ve been playing point-for-point with these teams but we just haven’t been able to get much momentum. In that third game, we started to get excited and it showed.”

UCD women’s lacrosse

Despite a hat trick by sophomore Elizabeth Landry, the Aggies never recovered from a run of five unanswered USC goals, falling to the Women of Troy, 12-7, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match on Wednesday night at Aggie Stadium.

Besides Landry’s three scores, senior Hannah Mirza tallied a goal and an assist to go with team highs of four draw controls and two caused turnovers for UCD (1-3, 0-2). Aggies Courtney Neff, Ellie Delich and Carly Voris also chipped in one goal each.

USC struck first with a goal in the ninth minute but Mirza quickly netted the equalizer.

When the Trojans scored three straight to take a 4-1 edge, UCD once again responded by tying the contest. In that three-goal spurt, Landry hit back-to-back scores in the 16th and 20th minutes, then Delich punched one in with 10:14 left in the first half.

But that was when USC scored five unanswered goals to take a 9-4 advantage in the 37th minute and the Aggies never got closer than three the rest of the way.

Senior defender Tess Alekna led all players with five ground balls for UCD, which plays next on Sunday at Cal (2 p.m.).

UCD football

Nonconference games in September against Northern Arizona University and the University of Nevada have switched dates on the Aggie football schedule.

UCD now heads to Reno on Sept. 7 to face Nevada, then hosts Northern Arizona on Sept. 14 in what will be the first of three consecutive games at Aggies Stadium.

The dates were switched to accommodate the Wolf Pack’s game at Florida State, which was moved from Sept. 21 to Sept. 14.

The Aggies open the season on Aug. 31 at South Dakota and season tickets are now on sale by calling the UCD ticket office at 530-752-AGS1.

UCD track and field

Aggie middle distance standout Katie Fry and sophomore thrower Veronica Smart were named the Big West Track Athlete and Field Athlete of the Week, respectively, after standout performances at Stanford last weekend.

Fry, a sophomore from Lemon Cove, opened her spring season by capturing the 1,500 meters, edging Sydney Gray of Cal across the finish line.

Fry’s time of 4:27.53 was a two-second PR and moved her into No. 7 on UCD’s all-time list.

Smart, from Daly City, was a double-winner at Stanford, getting victories in the hammer throw (47.32 meters) and the shot put (13.72 meters). Her shot put mark was good for fifth best in program history.

The Aggies are back in action on Saturday, hosting the Aggie Open at Woody Wilson Track.

UCD gymnastics

Aggie Katie Yamamura picked up yet another Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week award on Tuesday, the 12th of her career and her second of the season.

The two-time NCAA regional qualifier was recognized after breaking her own school all-around record with a winning 39.325 total in Friday’s home meet with San Jose State.

Yamamura scored 9.775 on vault, a personal-best 9.900 on uneven bars, a 9.800 on balance beam and another career high of 9.850 on floor exercise. She is now just the fourth Aggie to hit 9.90 or better on bars and has scored 39 or better in the all-around eight times, a feat no other UCD gymnast has accomplished more than once.

City softball

Registration for the city of Davis spring softball leagues is now open.

Signups are first-come, first-served, and will close Friday, March 15, or earlier if the leagues fill. League play begins Monday, April 1. Fees for the nine-game season are $510 per men’s team and $471 per coed team. Each team also must pay a $20 fee for ASA registration.

For league nights and more information, contact Lori Conrad at 530-753-7731 or lconrad@cityofdavis.org. Information is also available at www.cityofdavis.org.

River Cats preseason party

The ticket office at Raley Field will open for the season on Sunday and the Sacramento River Cats are celebrating with a preseason party presented by Raley’s and Bel Air, featuring free food, a live band, two photo booths, free stadium tours and balloon artists for children.

At the festivities — which are free and open to the public from noon to 3 p.m. — fans will get an all-access look at Raley Field in advance of this season’s Opening Night, scheduled for Thursday, April 4. Free stadium tours will be available throughout the event, and will include photo opportunities in the clubhouse.

Entertainment for young River Cats fans will include balloon artists, photo booths and bounce houses as well as an appearance by Dinger.

Round Table Pizza will be distributing free pizza samples, while free hot dogs and soda also will be available. Raley’s will provide food samples of different items throughout the concourse area.

The great performances bode well for the future, as the Blue Devils will run the same course at the Sac-Joaquin Section Championships. Before that, DHS has the subsection meet next Saturday at Frogtown in Angels Camp.

“Both squads put out some really good efforts (Saturday) and we’re feeling really good about where we are going into subsections next week,” said DHS coach Bill Gregg. “The second seven ran also ran really well.”

The second seven — Devils who will probably run JV at the Sac-Joaquin meets — provided support to Davis’ top runners, who filled up the top 10 in both the boys and girls DVC races.

The Blue Devil girls saw Fiona O’Keeffe (18:53), Maggie McManis (19:45), Laura Daggett (20:09), Giulia McIsaac (20:17) and Sophie Meads (20:34) sweep the top five, with Pooja Tripathi (20:58) in seventh and Danielle Gantar (21:18) in ninth.

On the boys side, DHS got top 10 performances from Sugal Sutter (third in 16:52), Paul Mohr (fourth, 16:56), Gavin Monges (fifth, 16:57), Daniel Rowen (sixth, 17:01), John Testerman (eighth, 17:11) and Alex Arnheiter (ninth, 17:25) behind race winner Jack Scranton (16:40).

A 17th-place finish by Matt Mayr (18:04) rounded out the Devil scoring.

DHS girls water polo

After dropping their first game at the Northern California Championships on Friday, putting them out of contention to win the tournament for a record fourth time, the Blue Devils had to reset their goal for the weekend.

The new goal?

“We wanted to be the best of the rest,” said DHS coach Doug Wright. “It was a good opportunity to test our resiliency.”

The Devils passed that test, taking ninth after beating St. Francis for the third time this season in the ninth-place contest.

In the 8-6 victory, Colby Stapleton’s contributions were key for the locals.

“She had two or three goals and made some really nice shots,” Wright said of his sophomore sensation. “She takes a lot of abuse in there, gets beat up pretty good, but she can dish it out too.”

The Blue Devils dished out their share of punishment all weekend after falling to Acalanes, 5-2. DHS bounced back with wins over Castilleja (9-2) and host school Menlo Atherton (8-0) to set up the matchup against St. Francis.

DHS boys water polo

Playing in the Finish Memorial Cup in San Jose over the weekend — a tournament that brings together the top-eight teams from Northern California and the best eight form SoCal — the Blue Devils had a couple of exciting wins on their way to a 3-1 record and a ninth-place finish.

After dropping its opener 12-7 to Corona Del Mar of Newport Beach, DHS trailed Coronado by four goals in the first half. Then, the Devils flipped a switch.

First, they came back to beat Coronado, 10-8. Then, the locals won a thrilling 13-12 overtime game against Foothill when Conrad McCarthy scored with 14 second remaining the second extra session.

Davis finished the tournament by getting seven goals from Connor Stapleton to defeat La Cañada, 13-7.

Stapleton scored 20 goals in the four games, Graham Fullerton and Conrad McCarthy added six apiece and Nicholson added five — all in the final contest. In addition, Garrett Fisk tallied four times and single goals came from Tyler Ujifusa and Sam Burke.

“This tournament was the end of a stretch of six games in four days — five against highly competitive opponents and two that (we won in) overtime,” said DHS coach Tracy Stapleton. “The team exceeded my expectations in all aspects of the game. Their defense was dynamic and the offense was patient and effective.”

The veteran coach had special praise for goalkeeper Jeff Stark, who shined all weekend, especially in the last game. Ujifusa also impressed his coach who said he “played the best defense I have seen him play this season.”

Without scoring, Zac Anderson and Chad Prizmich made strong contributions for the Blue Devils.

DHS boys soccer

The defending Sac-Joaquin Section Champion Blue Devils will open their title defense on Tuesday by hosting a familiar foe.

Sixth-seeded DHS will welcome No. 11 Napa, a team the Devils faced on Sept. 15 — and lost 1-0.

That result is a bit deceiving, however, as Davis was missing a few key players in that contest and saw two of its shots hit the crossbar.

Blue Devil interim coach Alex Park expects a different outcome when the two teams meet on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

“All of our players should be healthy and we are playing well right now, peaking at the right time,” Park told The Enterprise.

DHS won three consecutive games to end the regular season at 21-4-5, and hasn’t lost since Oct. 6. The Devils’ 7-0-3 record in the Delta Valley Conference was good enough to tie Grant for a league title.

DHS girls tennis

The Blue Devils, who finished off another undefeated Delta Valley Conference season on Oct. 18, earned a bye in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section team playoff and will open postseason play on Tuesday (2 p.m.) at the Community Park Tennis Complex.

DHS will face the winner of Monday’s match between Del Oro and Tracy, and Davis coach Sally Hosley said she expects Del Oro to win that match.

The Devils topped the Golden Eagles 8-1 in an early-season contest that featured some contentiousness during one of the singles matchups.

Davis rugby

The Davis Rugby Club is creating high school varsity and JV rugby teams for boys in grades nine through 12. Interested athletes and parents should attend an informational meeting on Thursday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. in the Blanchard Room at the Stephens Branch Library, 315 E. 14th St.

Practices will begin in late November, with games starting in January.

Rugby, a sport that is getting big in Northern California, is a played by kids of all shapes and sizes, and no experience is necessary. Safety is emphasized by the coaching staff, which is headed by former UC Davis rugby coach Steve Gray and includes Andy Malpass, another former Aggie mentor.

For more information, call Gray at 530-756-9111 or Mike Goodison at 530-758-6761.

High school girls interested in playing for the Lady Blue Devil rugby team can contact coach Jordan Apodaca at apodacajordan55@yahoo.com.