![\"Retired](\"https:\/\/clemson.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/ITH-Will-Hines.jpg\")
<\/a>Retired U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Robert A. Henderson, 95, a Pearl Harbor survivor, poses next to his medals and a photo of himself from the era, Feb. 21, 2015. “Living this long is no accident,” he said. “It takes work.” Henderson served more than 50 months in combat during WWII, including at the Battle of Okinawa. “I was in the first and last battles of the war,” he said. (Photo by Ken Scar)<\/p><\/div>
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\nExpect to be impressed when you meet a Marine, but when that Marine is a 95-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor who challenges you to a pull-up contest, prepare to be blown away.
\nThis is one of many things Will Hines of Spartanburg has learned in conducting the\u00a0Veterans Project, an ongoing undergraduate research project to collect and preserve the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations can hear those stories directly from the men and women who lived them.
\nFormer Marine Staff Sgt. Robert A. Henderson\u2019s story begins in Hawaii on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, as a plane with a perplexing paint job thunders overhead \u201cclose enough that I could have thrown a rock and hit it\u201d toward a row of U.S. Navy ships docked in the harbor, he said. He thought it was part of a drill until the plane dipped and released \u2028a torpedo. The violent chaos in the two hours that followed would define much of the \u202820th century.
\nHenderson described in gripping detail the many months of combat he experienced, culminating in the Battle of Okinawa. \u201cI was in the first and last battles of the war,\u201d he said.
\nHines videotapes every word. One copy will go to Henderson and his family, and one copy will go to the Library of Congress to be preserved forever.
\nWhen asked how he stays so healthy at 95, Henderson takes Hines out to his garage to show off his home gym where he exercises three times a week. He demonstrates by doing 12 pull-ups without breaking a sweat and dares Hines to match him.
\nHines, a business management major\u00a0from Spartanburg, became involved in the project because of his lifelong fascination with history. His interest in veterans stemmed from his relationship with a great uncle who served in the Pacific during WWII. After Henderson\u2019s interview, Hines is slated to interview a Vietnam veteran and a Battle of the Bulge veteran. It\u2019s quite a day for a history buff.
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