The Veterans History Project
My thanks to the many veterans who turned out today to work with the Texas Court Reporters Association, the San Antonio Bar Association, the Towers, and a group of lawyers so that the veterans’ stories could be collected as part of the Veterans History Project. The project will transcribe the stories—along with preserving audio recordings and the veterans’ photos, journals, letters, and other historic material—so that these documents become part of the permanent collection at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center. The Project, found online at www.loc.gov/vets, is designed to make “accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.”
This weekend, San Antonio attorneys and court reporters will volunteer to work with veterans to collect stories of the major conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries: World War I, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. Nationally, the VHP has collected more than 70,000 stories from veterans and civilian war workers who share their memories. After the VHP receives the transcribed interviews, its processing staff digitizes each transcript and places them online where they may be reviewed. Stories may be searched by conflict or era, branch of service, prisoner of war, and gender. Service location, unit or ship, or individual names may be searched, also.
The United States Congress created the VHP in 2000. Public Law 106-380 was sponsored by Representatives Ron Kind, Amo Houghton, and Steny Hoyer in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senators Max Cleland and Chuck Hagel in the U.S. Senate. The legislation received unanimous support and was signed into law by then-president Bill Clinton on October 27, 2000 with the hope that people for generations to come will have the opportunity and place to read about the real-life experiences of American servicemen and women.
