WASHINGTON - To mark the 50th Anniversary of Veterans Day, the Library of Congress Veterans History Project announces a series of special initiatives to celebrate the project and renew the nationwide call for all Americans to honor veterans by joining the VHP in preserving the nation's wartime stories.

The origins of Veterans Day are in Armistice Day, declared in 1918 to mark the end, on Nov. 11, of World War I. The first observance of Veterans Day took place in 1953 in Emporia, Kan. The following year, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law a bill that permanently changed the name of the holiday to honor all American veterans.

On the 50th anniversary of the first observance of Veterans Day, the Veterans History Project announces several new initiatives:

• Special Public Radio Event: The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress will present a one-hour Public Radio International special titled, "Coming Home," the first part of the series "Experiencing War" that will recount America's stories of sacrifice, triumph, great expectations and crushing disappointments. The program, drawn from the oral histories gathered by the Veterans History Project, will be aired in early November. Max Cleland, American war hero and former U.S. senator, will host the program.

• New Web Features: The project has fully digitized 24 stories from the VHP archives to appear on the Library of Congress Web site. One comes from Vietnam veteran Rod Hinsch: "Only the veterans, history and God ever know the real truth about that Southeast Asia war fought long ago and so very far away," wrote the Army Special Forces veteran in his VHP submission. These personal narratives bring the project to life for all Americans to experience VHP on the Internet.

These 24 stories will be followed by many more culled from the Veterans History Project archives. The interviews, letters, photographs and memoirs can be viewed on line at www.loc.gov/warstories

• New Story Gathering Kits: In response to overwhelming interest in the project, VHP has prepared two new easy-to-use kits for participants to use in recording their stories. A "Memoir Kit" provides guidance to veteran and civilian supporters who wish to document their own personal stories in writing. A new "Field Kit" equips third-party interviewers with forms and basic techniques necessary for successful interviews. The Field Kit will be distributed throughout the VHP's volunteer network, including to classrooms and youth partner organizations. VHP also has produced a large print version and an audio version for the sight-impaired.

In less than three years, the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center, with support from the U.S. Congress and AARP, has collected more than 10,000 wartime oral history submissions through the Veterans History Project.

"We are proud to have collected so many stories in three years. More than 1,700 of America's war veterans are dying each day and our window of opportunity to preserve their stories for future generations is closing quickly," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "Every veteran has his or her own war, and each is custodian of a unique story and memories. This project will tell the American story through thousands of different voices, thousands of different pictures and thousands of different memories."

Of the VHP's 10,000 submissions, no two are alike. Some veterans share their stories with friends and family through carefully crafted memoirs; others give interviews to nieces and nephews, grandchildren and students, who have no personal remembrances of those times and events.

Still others dust off their attic trunks and revisit their own war years (or those of deceased family members) through personal correspondence and photographs. AARP, the nation's leading organization for people age 50 and over, is the project's founding private-sector sponsor. Together with 800 VHP partner organizations that are participating in the project, AARP is working with its members and a vast national network of more than 150,000 volunteers to collect stories from everyday Americans whose heroic deeds and wartime efforts preserved freedom.

"We are actively encouraging our 35 million members to tell their own story and reach out to veterans whose stories have yet to be archived," said AARP President Jim Parkel.

On the Net: Veterans History Project: www.loc.gov/veterans

AARP: www.aarp.org

Warsaw Library Participates In Veterans History Project

BY TERESA SMITH, Times-Union Staff Writer

Warsaw Community Public Library staff participates in the Veterans History Project by digitally taping interviews with area military veterans who served in overseas conflicts or with civilians who contributed to war efforts.

Assistant librarian Joni Brookins says any veteran in the county is welcome to come in and reminisce.

Sen. Richard Lugar's office is coordinating the recordings in Indiana, which will be preserved at the Library of Congress and in WCPL archives.

It is estimated that 6,000 military veterans, including those of World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Persian Gulf and Operation Iraqi Freedom, reside in Kosciusko County.

So far, WCPL has archived 15 interviews, with another one scheduled, Brookins said.

"There are a series of questions to help prompt a person's memory," she said. "People can use the form or just talk."

The interviews take about an hour and a half.

Information packets are available at the library. It is possible for WCPL staff to visit veterans' homes if the veterans cannot travel to the library.

For more information, contact Brookins by calling 267-6011. [[In-content Ad]]