Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Before it is Too Late



The Library of Congress is recording the stories of Veterans for their Veterans Voices Project. Their goal is to record as many veterans from World War II before they pass on. The reasoning behind getting these first is they are passing away at a faster rate than those of the other wars.  They are collecting the stories of the other veterans also. The end goal is to obtain as many first person experiences of war. 

Wright State University gave students the change to partake in this project by creating an oral history class in spring 2014. I was honored to be able to take the class and to work alongside classmates who are veterans themselves. This class inspired me to start recording the oral histories of my family members. Since the Library of Congress is focused on the veterans, I am getting a different view of war with interviewing my mother.  She is the military spouse of an airman who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War.  I am able to better understand of life with and without the husband present since he did three temporary duties overseas. I actually did two interviews with my mother. One focused on her life as a military wife and a comprehensive interview of her life. Pubic historians should be recording or writing down our own history along with obtaining those of family members to preserve our memories for the next generations.

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