AARP Colorado To Kick Off Veterans History Project
By: Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2003-05-09 18:21:00-04:00
Captain Kay Keating, veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam, sat in the restaurant and calmly relayed her first brush with terrorism, which 40 years earlier came close to ending her life. Eric Strauss, poised at his kitchen in front of a tape recorder, described crawling up the beach of Normandy to cut the German barbed wire barricades. Korean War veteran Vicente Sarrano chuckled as he recalled building model airplanes with his brother, a precursor to realizing a life-long dream of flying…these are a small sample of the stories collected thus far by AARP Colorado staff and volunteers.
AARP is a national sponsor of this Library of Congress project, authorized by an October 2000 act of Congress, which aims to collect, preserve and amplify the personal accounts of veterans who have served our country and those who have supported them back home. The Veterans History Project covers World War I, World War II, and the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. It includes all participants of those wars — men and women, civilian and military. It documents the contributions of civilian volunteers, support staff, and war industry workers as well as the experiences of military personnel from all ranks and all branches of service — the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard and the Merchant Marine.
In addition to audio- and video-taped oral histories, the Library of Congress is looking for documentary materials such as letters, diaries, maps, photographs and home movies. You can visit the Veterans History Web site or call their toll-free number, 1-888-371-5848 and leave a message to receive an information kit or for someone to call you back. (The AARP Colorado State Office also has a limited number of kits available.)
The Colorado state office kicked off the project with the National Day of Service, September 26, 2002. In 2003 there will be a statewide initiative that will allow us to highlight the accomplishments of these unsung heroes. As time progresses we hope to establish regional leads to conduct the interviews.
To volunteer as a regional leader, please call our office at 303/830-2277.
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