"New York War Stories," a documentary about the lives of a cross-section of New Yorkers during World War II premieres this Saturday, Sept. 22 on WLIW-21.

Among the many New Yorkers profiled is Jack Greaney, a longtime Massapequa resident. Melvin Brenner, another Massapequa resident, will also be on the program.

Greaney, who is a native of Freeport, had a unique story to tell. Eager to join either the Navy or the Air Force, Greaney, due to a hunting accident suffered in his youth, was turned down by both branches. But Greaney was persistent, and he managed to get into the service as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard temporary reserves.

Greaney served from 1942-1945. At first, Greaney was stationed in New Jersey, where he took part on convoys along the East Coast waters. Prior to the war, he had worked at Republic Aircraft in Farmingdale and so he was soon stationed at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

Greaney still wanted to be sent off to sea, and he was finally transferred to a Canadian Corvette ship, one that sailed out of Boston, New York, and the Panama Canal. That wasn't the end of his service. Greaney then went to a gunner's mate school in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. That led him, at last, to combat action in the Pacific. He ended up on the USS Roger B. Taney, where, at first, he took part in convoys along the Mediterranean Sea, near North Africa. Then it was off to Japan, where he saw action in the invasion of Okinawa Island, one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific theater. Over 300 ships were sunk in that conflict, one that took place as the war itself was ending. Greaney, obviously, survived that battle and as a bonus, he was reunited with his brother, William, who was also serving on a battleship.

After Okinawa, the war was over. "We walked around like it was a cruise ship," Greaney recalled of his time on the USS Taney. However, some diehard Japanese forces didn't accept the surrender and soon, the USS Taney found itself protecting one of the oldest ships in the fleet, the USS Pennsylvania, which found itself under attack from those same Japanese forces.

Both the USS Pennsylvania and the USS Taney escaped a burial at sea. For Greaney, the happiest experience of the entire war was at hand: The USS Taney was one of those ships selected to go to Japan and evacuate American prisoners of war from their Japanese camps.

"That was the most gratifying thing about the whole cruise," Greaney recalled.

After the war, Greaney was now back in Long Island, working at his father's bar and grill in Freeport. He then worked as a steamfitter and eventually as a contractor. Greaney settled in Massapequa in 1957 and has lived there since.

How did he get on the program? Greaney recalled that local Coast Guard auxiliary members were looking for veterans of the war to relate their experiences. Greaney did a spot on a DVD on the Coast Guard's contributions to the war effort. Later, his son noticed that WLIW was doing a documentary on World War II, and the producers were glad to have Greaney's reminiscences as part of the program.

Nearly one million New Yorkers fought in World War II. Millions more joined the war effort on the home front. "New York War Stories," focused specifically on local residents' experience of the global conflict. Interviews and images capture the mood of the time, from the familiar strains of the "Make Believe Ballroom" radio program to the common threads that defined life in wartime, no matter where you lived or on what line you fought.

The documentary with viewer-contributed videos and letters as its centerpiece, takes viewers through the trajectory of the war. Veterans and civilians from all over the tri-state area contribute their memories of what the war meant in their homes and towns to tell the emotional story of one of the most important events in world history, a dramatic time for a generation when world events turned local communities upside down and everyone was part of the war effort.

Six decades after the end of the war, childhood memories are vividly recalled in viewer letters that underscore the communal loss of innocence that still resonates in the lives of these men and women: a Western Union delivery boy who recalls the anguished response to his news at neighborhood homes; mothers crying over the ironing; the frightening prospect of losing family and loved ones and the harsh reality of young parents giving their lives too soon for the cause as war heroes; the ration stamps Marcia Lubow of Queens found "irresistible to play with" because she "didn't realize until much later why those little stamps were so important;" letters written to soldiers as classroom assignments; the blackouts Thomas Fleming, as a child in East Flatbush, innocently enjoyed "because with no lights anywhere we were better able to see the stars."

"New York War Stories," as noted, will have its broadcast premiere Saturday, Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. on WLIW-21. Channel Thirteen will also air the program on Saturday, September 22 at 9 p.m.