Honoring Our Veterans

HONORING OUR VETERANS

The long retreat that had begun in New York and continued from the Hudson to the Delaware was over. Casualties had been few in New Jersey, and it pitiable appearance and miseries notwithstanding, the army, or the semblance of any army, had once again survived…

In truth, men were dreadfully dispirited. Many had given up, in addition to the 2,000 who had refused to sign on again after December 1. Hundreds had deserted. Many of those left were sick, hungry, altogether as miserable as they appeared.

To Charles Willson Peale, walking among them by the light of the next morning on the Pennsylvania shore, they looked as wretched as any men he had ever seen. One had almost no clothes. "He was in an old dirty blanket jacket, his beard long, and his face so full of sores that he could not clean it." So "disfigured" was he that Peale failed at first to recognize that the man was his own brother, James Peale, who had been with a Maryland unit as part of the rear guard.

This excerpt from David McCullough's book, 1776, tells the story of a man who, because of the ravages of war, could not even recognize his own brother's face. In every war, our soldiers and families suffer such hardships - some visible from the outside, others emotional and not readily apparent. With Veteran's Day approaching, and followed shortly by Thanksgiving, let us be mindful of the sacrifices and hardships endured by our soldiers and their families. What an appropriate time for us to give thanks to them and their families for their sacrifice and the freedoms preserved and so richly bestowed on all Americans by their service. One way you can honor the sacrifices and recall the hardships and bittersweet memories of these men and women is through participation in the Veteran's History Project.

The Veteran's History Project, a nationwide volunteer effort to collect oral histories from America's war veterans, provides an avenue to do just that. Now in its fifth year, the Project has collected more than 40,000 individual stories. Through this unique project, the heroic stories of our veterans can be preserved for future generations. Families will learn more about their loved ones' experiences and we as a nation will learn more about the sacrifices they made for our freedom. With the population of WWI and WWII veterans growing ever smaller, it is important that these stories are recorded before it is too late. I missed the opportunity to do this with my father, and now my children and grandchildren will only learn of his legacy secondhand.

By interviewing at least one veteran, you can preserve memories that otherwise might be lost. My uncle was a downed fighter pilot and P.O.W. in World War II, and I am looking forward to recording his story for inclusion in the project.

To learn more about the Veterans History Project and how you can be involved, visit the Library of Congress Web site at www.loc.gov/folklife/vets.

http://bachus.house.gov/HoR/AL06/Press+Room/Opinion+Editorials/Honoring+Our+Veterans.htm