Team Vance keeps war memories alive

  • Published
  • By TSgt M. Davis
  • Public Affairs
American veterans who have been there and done that can now tell their stories to Team Vance members involved in the Veterans History Project to be preserved for future generations.
Since 2000, volunteers from around the country have gathered and preserved wartime stories, written memoirs and memorabilia, not as an official record of war, but personal accounts of incidents and remembrances of events.
"We are collecting information from veterans who were involved in war -- enlisted, officer and retirees," said A1C Jeffery Wheeler, 71st Medical Operations Squadron and Veterans History Project manager. "It is important to archive these stories to preserve a part of our military heritage."
The key focus is on U.S. veterans from World Wars I and II, the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars. Although war veterans' information is valuable, so is that of Americans who were working in occupations supporting the war, such as war industry workers, United Service Organization workers, flight instructors and medical volunteers. Stories can also be told through correspondence, photographs and other collected items.
Commemorative coins are being sold to help fund the program, Airman Wheeler said.
"The coins are $10 each, $5 from each coin sold will go toward the Enlisted Heritage Hall at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.," he said. "We are also giving the coins to the veterans who participate in the program as a gesture of thanks."
When a veteran's account is recorded, the image is added to an archive at the Veterans History Project headquarters in Washington, D.C. Once it is processed and housed in a preservation environment, his or her service history information will be available online in a database and the interview will be available to researchers who visit the Library of Congress.
After serving in the military collectively for 46 years, Vance chapel volunteer Ernie Sarver will get a chance to tell his story to be preserved in the project.
"This program is a good way to get the public to understand what it was like for veterans out on the front lines," said the veteran of three wars. "It's important for all to know that we put our lives on the line to keep our country free."
Mr. Sarver, who has done everything from flying aircraft to driving tanks, hopes that bringing veterans' experiences to the forefront will give recognition of their accomplishments and sacrifices made for their country.
"We lose a lot of history when our veterans die," he said. "This is a good way to keep their memories alive and in our hearts and minds forever."