By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Hollywood’s newest movie about World War II, “Midway,” will likely draw millions of people. It topped the box office in its first weekend.
On opening night Friday, a few days before Veterans Day, the movie about the pivotal naval engagement during World War II drew 120 people, veterans, active duty military, and supporters to the Cinemark Woodland Mall Cinema.
The event was hosted by the Bowling Green State University chapter of Student Veterans of America.
Jason Graven, a recruiter and transfer advisor in the BGSU Office of Nontraditional and Military Student Services, said the students “wanted to find a way to recognize and honor both veterans on campus and veterans in the community.”
“Midway” seemed a great way to do it.
Dave Gedman, an area veteran who has worked with his childhood friend Graven on Task Force 20, said that though there’s an “unspoken brotherhood” among those who serve, often bringing different generations together is difficult.
American Legion and VFW clubs don’t offer a social scene that appeals to younger veterans, and older veterans may not feel at ease with younger veterans.
“Movies are a multigenerational thing and speak with every one,” Gedman said.
The response to the movie was good, Graven said.
Gedman said while veterans tend to pick apart a war movie, there was none of that. “It was a pretty good movie,” he said. He brought his 11-year-old daughter who has become interested in World War II, and she enjoyed it as well.
“It was pretty remarkable we were able to pull this off,” Graven said, noting it came together in four days.
The screening attracted an invited audience from different generations, who’d fought in different conflicts, including possibly a World War II veteran.
Students from Owens and the University Toledo as well a veterans from Toledo. A student organization from Rossford High that supports veterans was also in attendance.
All this was made possible, Grave said, by Thayer Family Dealerships. The company paid to rent the theater, so admission was free.
One of the younger participants was Grant Rospert, a 19-year-old criminal justice major at BGSU. He’s a member of the Army National Guard.
“I just feel the military is such a bond,” he said. When people return from the service they rejoin their family and friends, but feel a sense of loss of that bond.
The “Midway” screening was a way for “veterans and current service members to show that the brotherhood and sisterhood is still there.”
“There’s always a sense of family, a sense of brotherhood,” Gedman, who served 11 years in the Army first in the artillery and then as a Black Hawk helicopter mechanic, said no matter what branch they were in “all of us raised a right hand and agreed we’d give our lives for the same cause. There’s definitely an unspoken brotherhood.”
Those ties cross generations. He feels it with his wife’s uncle who served in the Vietnam War. “We had a lot of same experiences. We both were overseas when our first children were born.”
Graven, who served in the military police in the Army and was in the first wave of the invasion of Iraq, has experienced working across generations.
He was employed by the Ohio Department of the American Legion before coming to BGSU.
In that role he worked with veterans who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
The “Midway” screening drew a similar mix.
“To be able to sit with them and watch this movie based on a conflict many, many years ago and to see the reactions and thought process, and what they take from it is an eye-opening lesson for younger generations,” he said.
What followed were conversations that spanned the years that separated them, It was, he said, an “amazing experience.”
And, he said, the plan is to make event the first of many. The student veterans want to foster an ongoing, collaborative relationship with veterans in the community.
Both Rospert and Gedman said they’re on board.
Graven said they’re not sure what it will be, but they’re aiming to stage a get-together the first week in May. That’s Military Appreciation Month. The timing would mean students are still on campus, and it would not interfere with Memorial Day ceremonies.
