History project tells story of veterans

  • Published
  • By Army Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  The letters, memoirs, audio interviews and photographs are "everything that you could imagine," said Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, director of the Veterans History Project. The project is an effort which began two years ago by Congress to preserve the stories and memories of America's war veterans.

The letters speak of combat and what war was like, she said. There are also stories of pranks and funny misfortunes that occurred while veterans were on leave. But most stories, she said, speak of the closeness and camaraderie within the military -- "my buddies, my unit and loyalty," she said. "Loyalty is a very big theme."

Another theme often written about is love and longing for families and friends back home, she said.

The project is stepping up efforts to ensure the words of thousands of veterans are told to an even greater audience, McCulloch-Lovell said. During November, the Veterans History Project began airing a series radio broadcast called "Coming Home." The series features the oral biographies of 18 war veterans who tell of their war experiences and life in the military. It is being aired via Public Radio International, which develops and supplies of noncommercial audio content to affiliate stations throughout the country.

"Nobody on the show is famous,” McCulloch-Lovell said. “It's all the individual stories of people who served."

The project has also expanded features on its Web site, to include more digitized letters, photos and individual stories. Site visitors can now "see and listen" to the stories of 23 veterans at www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/. And there is no shortage of stories to tell, she said.

In the two years since the project began, McCulloch-Lovell said interest by veterans wanting to share their stories has increased immensely. For the past year, her staff of about 15 has been receiving as many as 200 submissions each week at the project's office, located inside the Library of Congress Folklife Center here.

"I think the older veterans are not sitting back and waiting for someone to interview them," she said. "They're sitting down and writing these remarkable memoirs and personal stories and are sending them to us. We have a memoir that is 20 pages long. And we have another memoir that is 900 pages long."

Still, she said, even with the increased flow of mail arriving daily, the project staff tries to read each and every story.

"We try to see and read everything that we can," she said. "We can't quite keep up with it, but we really try to be familiar with the individual stories in the collection."

McCulloch-Lovell said the collection is missing letters and stories from soldiers currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Once they get back home, and get some rest, and their life has settled, I'm sure we'll hear from them," she said.

On the importance of the Veterans History Project, McCulloch-Lovell said that 100 years from now people will be able to look back and understand why veterans served.

"A student, or family member or a historian or journalist is going to be looking at this collection and understanding the experience of people who went through war and how it changed them and how it changed the country," she said.

"Certainly our goals are to collect and to preserve the stories," she said, "but I think we also have two very important goals -- that we honor the service and that we educate future generations about what it's like to serve."