More than 200,000 West Virginians have served in the U.S. military during wartime, but very few of those men and women have had their memories recorded for the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project.
Author and photographer Eric Douglas wants to change that.
In 2000, the Congress directed the Library of Congress to begin collecting oral histories from American war veterans. This program became the Veteran's History Project. Today, audio recordings, videos and original documents are stored in the Library of Congress. These resources are an invaluable memory for researchers and future generations.
The project collects first-hand accounts of U.S. veterans from the following wars:
- World War II (1939-1946)
- Korean War (1950-1955)
- Vietnam War (1961-1975)
- Persian Gulf War (1990-1995)
- Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts (2001-present)
Douglas has begun a project to capture these oral histories from West Virginia war veterans. West Virginia oral histories will be submitted to the Library of Congress, and Douglas plans to create a documentary project of West Virginians at war called "Voices of War."
Contact him to set up an interview at: eric@booksbyeric.com
For more information on the project, visit www.booksbyeric.com/vhppage.html