Town Turns Out For Vets

WAITSBURG -- Karen Fisher-Alaniz had no idea her father was a hero. When he was 81 years old, her father Murray Fisher gave her more than 400 pages of letters about his service during World War II. It turned out Fisher-Alaniz's father did not sit behind a desk during the war as he had told her before, but he had been secretly breaking the code of the Japanese.

Fisher-Alaniz presented part of her story and her book "Breaking The Code" to Waitsburg High School and middle school students last Thursday at an assembly held to honor Veterans Day.

The school band played the "Star Spangled Banner" and honored the veterans in attendance. Fisher-Alaniz's mother Bettye and father Murray sat in the front row, awaiting their daughter's presentation.

"There is nowhere else I would rather be than here today," Fisher-Alaniz said.

Murray Fisher had attended Waitsburg High School and she was proud to be at his alma mater. She said her father was a troublemaker who one day brought a firecracker to school, lit is and threw it into study hall. He sprinted down the hall to hide in the nearest bathroom and then later casually walk out, but the principal happened to be in that bathroom and he was caught in the act, she said.

Shortly after high school, he went on to serve America in WWII.

Fisher-Alaniz asked the students "what if war is declared?

If classmates were leaving for the military? If the U.S. needed you, if you risked your life, if you were named a hero? What if you were a hero and nobody ever knew?"

These letters that Fisher- Alaniz received when Murray

Fisher was 81 were a presence in her household, she said. She remembered her mother dusting around them for years. When she was given the letters, she decided to transcribe them so her children could read them and keep them.

"But there were some things that didn't quite fit," she said as she began to read them.

Fisher-Alaniz was told that Murray Fisher sat behind a desk in the war and never saw battle. Through the letters, she learned he was a top-secret code breaker at Iwojima and Okinawa. He lived on ships and submarines.

When he was older, he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. She said her mother once found him in the bathroom in the middle of the night, frantically washing himself because he thought he was covered in blood.

As she transcribed the letters, Fisher-Alaniz realized she had the potential for a book on her hands. She took chapters of her new book into a writer's group she attended and the group encouraged her to write herself into the story and describe what it was like to learn what her father really did during the war.

Through transcribing letters and writing the book, Fisher-Alaniz had one strong message for the students that day.

" There is someone in your life who has a story that needs telling," Fisher-Alaniz said.

She said there are people in life including friends, family members and neighbors who have done and seen things one could never imagine.

"Find the story," Fisher- Alaniz said. "It's as simple as starting to ask questions."

Once you find a story, she encouraged the crowd to listen well, write the stories down and look for letters and memorabilia.

"If not now - when?" Fisher-Alaniz said.

Fisher-Alaniz presented two copies of her book to the school's library in honor of her father and his friend who died in the war.

After the presentation, students, staff members and community members bought copies of the book and had Fisher-Alaniz and Murray Fisher sign copies.

Dorne Hall, who graduated from Waitsburg High School in 1943 and attended the presentation, said he enjoyed the presentation and wishes students learned more about the more recent history in school, such as WWII in greater depth. He had served the U.S. in the South Pacific in 1944 and 1945.

He said Fisher-Alaniz's message was strong and he agreed wholly with it.

"She said 'ask questions'" Hall said. "If you don't, future generations are not going to know about it."