Please take a moment today to thank a veteran for their service and to think of, and pray for, those who have died preserving our freedoms and protecting our country.
I wanted to also bring attention to something called "The Veterans History Project," which is a project of the American Folklife Center of The Library of Congress. The Veterans Project is dedicated to collecting and preserving the personal accounts of veterans for future generations. I'm in the process of completing this for my Dad.
While reading “The Greatest Generation,” authored by Tom Brokaw, I found myself moved by the stories of those persons about which he wrote. Many just barely out of high school, these men and women left family and friends to willingly face unknown challenges, gaining strength of character, mind, and body along the way. Whether they knew it at the time, they were building a solid foundation of character, strength, and integrity that would carry them not only through their service, but through their lifetimes as well. In his book, Mr. Brokaw asks his readers to encourage family members and friends to share their own stories, and so I did.
Knowing next to nothing about the military, I began looking around on the internet for questions I could ask my Dad and that's when I came across the Veterans History Project. Because I really didn't know anything about this time in my Dad's life, it turned out to be a very rewarding experience. In addition, during the course of working on this, I found out that my Dad had earned, but never received, some awards while serving. I'm now in the process of obtaining those awards for him.
This is a very important project and I encourage everyone to participate. Imagine having your loved one's story archived in the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress! You can read all about the Veterans History Project at the following link -
Veterans History Project
