OAKLAND CITY - Don Hume can look back on his life and the events that took place with more than just memories. He has the photographs to remind him of a time in U.S. history that he documented while serving in the U.S. Army as an 18-year-old.

Those black and white photographs, less than 2X3 inches in size, came from a Brownie 127 camera his brother, Dewayne loaned him to take overseas with him when he enlisted in the military in 1944. Hume took the Brownie, a version of today's point and shoot camera, with him to Fort Riley, Kan. and later to Japan.

Hume sent letters home, sometimes with the photographs intact, other times with the film to be processed. Now those photos have been recopied and enlarged and are on display at Oakland City University's Dunn Gallery in the Cornwell-Reed Center across from the school's administration building in an exhibit entitled, "A Young Soldier's Journey."

The photographs feature various glimpses into a young man's life and the images he saw during the World War II Pacific campaign. The exhibit contains a selection of more than 40 photos depicting people, places and events, although none are of actual combat, said the 83-year-old retired school teacher, administrator and state legislator.

As Veterans Day approaches, the exhibit was somewhat of a brainchild to Hume's daughter, Denise Stewart, who teaches elementary school in Winslow.

"When my daughter, Denise first encouraged me to gather my photographs and to share them with others, I really wasn't sure why," Hume writes in a handout available to persons viewing the photos at the Gallery. "After gathering the pictures and remembering the stories related to them, I began to realize what my daughter was seeing. It was the journey of a very usual, young farm boy to very unusual and life-changing places. It was the return of a young man who was changed by his experiences and it was the opportunities that resulted from this journey."

When Hume was discharged from active duty, he finished his schooling and earned a bachelor's degree at then - Oakland City College with the help of the G.I. Bill and later his masters degree from Indiana State University, all in education.

Besides teaching at Chesteron and Michigan City schools, mostly in elementary education, Hume also taught 44 summers at Culver Military Academy in northern Indiana. And one of the biggest highlights of his life was serving in the Indiana General Assembly for 22 years. He was first elected in 1974 and that same year, brother Lindel was elected to the Indiana House from District 64. It was the first time two brothers served side-by-side in the legislature. Lindel still serves in the Indiana Senate.

In the end, Don Hume wants persons viewing the images at the gallery to not think so much about a young farm boy's life, but perhaps to think of their own. " .. my hope is that you might begin to view your life as a journey. Everything is not always a right turn or a wrong turn. Sometimes, it is just another curve in the road."