By David W. Keeber |
Sedona Public Library
Sedona, AZ - Fifteen hundred each day –
that is the number of World War II veterans that
are passing away each day. During the week prior
to Christmas, one of three surviving World War I
vets, aged 109 years, passed on leaving only two
such vets alive. This irreplaceable trove of
knowledge of America’s history at war deserves
preservation. Sedona Public Library is
participating in the Veterans History Project, a
national effort to collect this history and
preserve it at the Library of Congress and the
American Folklife Center, but we need help to do
this important work.
The mission of the Veterans History Project at
the Library of Congress is to collect the
memories, accounts, and documents of war
veterans from World War I, World War II, and the
Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf Wars, and to
preserve these stories of experience and service
for future generations.
By “veterans,” that means all veterans, men and
women, those who served in war and in support of
combat operations, all ranks in all branches of
service – the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine
Corps, and Coast Guard. That also includes the
Merchant Marine, those involved in home front
activities and citizens who supported the armed
services. The first priority is to focus on the
most senior veterans and those who served in
support of them, especially those from World
Wars I and II, and the Korean War.
James Billington, Librarian of Congress said,
“We owe our wartime veterans a profound
appreciation for their sacrifice and service to
our nation and its future. We also owe all our
citizens an opportunity to appreciate and honor
those men and women who have protected our
nation in the gravest of times. Together, with
the help of all Americans, we can honor our war
veterans and create a lasting body of
documentary materials that will inform and
educate our citizens in the decades ahead.”
The Sedona Public Library’s Board of Trustees
have determined that Sedona Public Library shall
serve as a participating partner in the Veterans
History Project, whose intent is to honor our
nation’s war veterans and those who served in
support of them. This is done by collecting
their stories. In so doing, we will assist in
creating a lasting legacy of recorded interviews
and other documents chronicling veterans’ and
other citizens’ wartime experiences and how
those experiences affected their lives and
America itself.
Your Library has assembled a cadre of volunteers
who regularly meet to interview veterans,
videotaping them and then passing the
information on to the Library of Congress. The
veteran receives a copy of the interview and a
copy goes on to the American Folklife Center for
archiving. These interviews are the personal
testimonies of the war experience of the vets
and their families.
The material is to be made available to anyone
who cares to research it via the Library of
Congress. If you have access to the Internet,
visit the Veterans History Project site at
www.loc.gov/folklife/vets. By searching that
site, you can learn more about the project
itself, search for individual interviewees and
even read their interviews and see documents and
photographs.
To date, the Sedona Library’s volunteer team has
gathered more than 30 interviews, and there are
at least 50 more interviewees waiting their
turn. They are a dedicated and active cadre, but
they are shorthanded. That’s where you come in.
We need the help of people who see this work as
vital. Help is needed to do the actual
interviews (there is training for this portion,
in case you think you would have no idea how to
proceed), running the video and audio equipment
during the interviews, assisting with completion
of the necessary forms, and other tasks. The
time necessary to do these tasks is adjustable,
ranging from a few hours per week to whatever
you care to provide. The need is great based on
the rate of loss of our World War II veterans
and the number of new veterans arriving home
each day.
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony J.
Principi says, “I urge all Americans to
participate in the Veterans History Project.
Capturing stories of those who served in uniform
in their own words will provide the inspiration
future generations will need when it is their
turn to defend the nation Abraham Lincoln once
called ‘the last best hope on earth.’”
If you are a veteran, or know a veteran, or
anyone who fits the description above, encourage
them to tell their story by contacting your
Sedona Public Library.
Please consider giving your time to this vital
national archiving project. You can experience
the extreme gratification of helping preserve
history, as well as the gratitude of the
soldiers who are finally able to tell and
preserve their stories. Call the Sedona Public
Library to sign up. Make it your New Years
resolution to help!
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