BLOG POST #1: Featured Oral History Interview

Joseph “Sepp” Scanlin Oral History 

The September 11 Digital Archive

Saving the Histories of September 11, 2001

https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/98506

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DATE: 

October 19, 2016, 6:10PM via Skype

LENGTH OF INTERVIEW: 

01:13:12 (Full audio recording along with a text transcription)

NARRATOR/INTERVIEWER: 

Rebecca Brenner

INTERVIEWEE: 

Joseph "Sepp" Scanlin

RECORDING MEDIUM & FORMAT: 

Atom, csv, dc-rdf, dimes-xml, json, omeka-xml

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The historical topic or topics covered by the interview: 

This interview documents Sepp Scanlin’s experience of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. It explores his memories in the military on September 11, 2001, his recollection of his father-in-law at the Pentagon on that day, and how the terrorist attacks changed his life. He decided to stay in the military, and he fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

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“I relate to conflict. It has the power to create great good and horrible tragedy. You can capture the best of humans and the worst of humans in conflict. There is beautiful art that has come out of conflict, and devastation, so you can’t look at conflict from any singular object. It’s probably only words of wisdom."

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BLOG POST:

    This oral history interview of Joseph “Sepp” Scanlin is about his experience of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. It recounts his memories in the military on September 11, 2001, his recollection of his father-in-law at the Pentagon on that day, and how these terrorist attacks changed his life. He speaks about how he decided to stay in the military and how he fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq. 

    This interview is interesting to me because September 11, 2001 is one of the most life altering events that occurred in United States history, and it is one of the major events in our history that a lot of living people in today’s world experienced. I have always been interested in exploring various types of recounts of September 11 such as documentaries, YouTube videos, books, and interviews featuring different types of people during that time. Although the general, factual, historic information is basically the same, the experiences and thoughts about this major event are usually portrayed in different perspectives which I find to be truly intriguing because of how often I learn something new all the time.

     This interview speaks to me because the one-on-one conversation between Rebecca Brenner and Joseph “Sepp” Scanlin holds so much value within the questions that are being asked, and the responses that are being provided. Fortunately, Scanlin seems to have such a great memory of his time during September 11 and whenever Brenner asks him a question, he answers in such a well-thought out, and informative way - although sometimes it can get very lengthy! Also, I have a personal connection to the military with my father serving as an officer in the Marine Corps for my whole life. There were morals, values and experiences that Scanlin explained in the interview from his military experience that I could relate to as a military child and that I have seen with my dad throughout his years in the military. It is always fascinating to me to listen to other people’s stories in the military and be able to point out the similarities that I could relate to and understand. This interview in particular gave great insight and knowledge about Scalin's experience in the military during the time of September 9/11.