Remembering Our Veterans

With more than 1,700 of America’s war veterans dying each day, it is becoming critically important to preserve their stories for future generations. In honor of th 50th anniversary of Veterans Day, the Veteran's History Project of the U.S. Library of Congress is renewing the call for all Americans to honor our veterans by joining the VHP in preserving our nation's wartime stories.

"It's important to preserve history in the words of those who lived it," said Ellen Lovell, who has headed the Veterans History Project since it was authorized by Congress more than two years ago. "These are firsthand experiences, not of the generals and the politicians, but of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Rosie the Riveters."

Today, there are 19 million veterans of World War I, World War II and the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars living in the United States. But the older veterans are dying at an alarming rate - only 200 World War I veterans are still alive.

The American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress is collecting audio and videotaped oral histories, along with letters, diaries, maps, photographs, paintings, drawings, scrapbooks and home movies from the veterans and civilians who supported them on the home front. The stories, letters, photos, and other material is being digitized and posted online at Experiencing War - Stories from the Veterans History Project.

So far, the project has collected the recollections of more than 10,000 veterans, and it is growing at the pace of 200 submissions a week. The Folklife Center has developed easy-to-use kits for family members, schools, veterans groups, retirement homes and other organizations that want to participate by interviewing those who served.