WWII oral history subject featured on PBS series

Published or Revised October 01, 2009

Claude Tyler of Blossom, Texas, will be featured on Episode 5 of the new Ken Burns PBS series [i]The National Parks: America's Best Idea[/i] Thursday on PBS station channel 13 beginning at 7 p.m. Tyler, a veteran of World War II and the Civilian Conservation Corps, was interviewed by his friend and PJC history instructor Lisa Johnson for the college's World War II oral history project a few years ago. "A special memory Mr. Tyler recounted during our interview was his ability to save his father from bleeding to death after a farm accident because the CCC taught him first aid," Johnson recalled. "He had just been interviewed by the Ken Burns company for the current national parks series at the time of our interview, and I am so excited that his service in the CCC will be recognized nationally tonight." The series' Web site says of Tyler: "During the Depression, 3 million Americans found much-needed jobs — and money to send home to their families — in the Civilian Conservation Corps, improving roads and buildings and planting trees in national parks and national forests. Claude Tyler, of Blossom, Texas, was sent to Death Valley and then Lassen Volcanic National Park."