Congressman Jim Moran's News Commentary

Our servicemen and women have been sent into harm's way to defend our country numerous times in America's history. We all remember the lessons from our high school and college civics classes that recounted historic battles which forged the nation's independence and later identity as the defender of global democracy. The records encased in the National Archives, Library of Congress and countless other military museums tell these tales and those of the brave young men and women who sacrificed in those conflicts in order to ensure the freedom of this great nation.

While the written word and visual images of these experiences give one a powerful testament to the horrors of war and mettle of human beings under fire, there is an element to many of the presentations that is decidedly missing. That missing piece is a narrative from the actual soldiers who witnessed the events first hand. While some accounts do exist, the bulk of these oral histories were being lost as a consequence of our nation's veterans reaching the end of their lives.

Now, thanks to the efforts of the Library of Congress' Folklife Center, a new program has been created called the Veterans History Project. The project represents a national registry of veterans' interviews and experiences, recorded and archived as a lasting first hand account of our nation at war. Since its creation, thousands of interviews have been conducted across the country, including more than 3,000 during the dedication of the WWII memorial.

Over the past two years, I have been working with staff on the Veterans History Project to promote their work and inform local veterans of the opportunity to contribute their experiences for the historical record. Staff members in my office have helped with the identifying and interviewing of many Northern Virginia veterans.

If area veterans are interested in sharing their stories for the Veterans History Project, please contact Bryan Spoon in my Reston District Office at (703) 481-4339. The interviews being conducted through the help of my office will take place at the Hollin Hall Senior Center, located at 1500 Shenandoah Road, Alexandria, on August 16th and 30th. Later this fall, many of the interviews will air on Cox Channel 35 and Fairfax County Channel 16.

I hope many more veterans will take this opportunity to preserve experiences that I imagine were some of the most, if not the most, pivotal of their lives. These records will be very instructive to future generations, not only for their educational value, but to also show how high the costs of war can be. An appreciation of this fact should never be underestimated.