By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
He doesn’t call himself a historian, but retired Army Lt. Colonel Milt Toratti does his best to keep the oral histories of veterans alive.
In fact, Toratti calls himself a local veteran, experiential, biographical historian.
“Experiential meaning that I look for the veteran’s experiences and developed an interview process that I’ve been doing for 68 years in recording the veteran’s accurate oral histories so he or she can then gift them to their grandkids, family, and friends,” Toratti tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline.
Toratti has put together a couple of new books, one on World War II and one on the Korean War, available at various book signings.
“This year, because of the Veterans Home Assistance League fundraising, I said, ‘Well, what if I now do a publishing of books?’ So, I did a book on the secret war on World War II and the Korean War,” Toratti says. “And those books are available now with the book signings and the proceeds go to the veterans home.”
Toratti has helped write 154 books, oral histories by veterans for their family and friends. He is working on 14 more. Toratti says many veterans are reluctant to talk about their experiences.
“And I never recruit anybody,” Toratti says. “They find me. And the reason is because they’re ready then. And then they’ll say now it’s time to tell my story so my grandkids know what happened.”
Toratti is in the middle of the book signing tour in which the sale of books will benefit the Cameron Veterans Home Assistance League.
He has appearances scheduled for Hamilton Sporting Clays, the St. Joseph Eagles Lodge, the Joyce Raye Patterson Activity Center, the Jesse James Antique Mall, and at Cameron Regional Hospital on Veterans Day.
Book signings:
911 Ceremony: Sept. 11th, at St. Joseph City Hall, 11am
Central High School- 1st FB game, Sept. 13th, 6pm
Eagles Lodge: Sept. 20th, 5–8 pm
Jesse James Antique Mall: Sept. 28th 8am-4pm
Joyce R. Patterson Sr Ctr: Galen Johnson-“Appreciation of History” Oct. 14th 1:00-3:30pm
Pronto Café: Sept. 25th (Wed.) 9am-1pm
Tractor Supply Co. (TBA)
Office Depot (TBA) Reed Auto Center, St. Joseph: Veterans Appreciation Nov 9th
Cameron Regional Hospital, Cameron: Nov., 11th (Veterans Day)
Book Titles Include:
Secret War Soldiers…Abandoned But Not Forgotten
Close to Frozen Earth, Closer to Death
Serendipity Stories From The Greatest Generation
This article as been updated since first published.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.