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Posted by: Megan Harris
I don’t keep a diary, but I used to. When I was in graduate school, I kept a diary on my computer, a la Doogie Howser. I wrote in it nearly every day, sometimes multiple times a day, venting my frustrations with my thesis and my anxieties about the future, and composing cheesy pep talks …
Posted in: Veterans History Project
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
June is National Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Month. I am glad. Not because so many military veterans are living with the disorder or suffering because they are afraid to seek treatment. I am glad because now people can increase their awareness of PTSD, satisfy their curiosity, ease their fears and easily seek help if …
Posted in: Veterans History Project
Posted by: Megan Harris
Seventy years after D-Day, it may feel like the events of June 6, 1944, are well-covered territory. That’s how it has felt at times to me, at least. Between depictions of the Normandy invasion in movies and miniseries such as Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, and popular histories such as those written …
Posted in: Oral History, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Stephen Winick
In honor of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, we present this vintage AFC researcher photo. (And by “vintage,” I mean “prior to the existence of Folklife Today.”) This photo shows the stage, film, and television actor George Takei, best known as Mr. Sulu from the original Star Trek, who visited the AFC Reading Room on April …
Posted in: AFC Reading Room Visitors, Asian American History, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Megan Harris
On a hot, humid day in late May almost 10 years ago, I was on the National Mall in Washington, DC, surrounded by tens of thousands of World War II veterans and their families as part of the National World War II Reunion. The Reunion was organized around the official dedication of the National World …
Posted in: Oral History, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Megan Harris
The following is a guest post by Rachel Telford, Program Specialist at the Veterans History Project. When Veterans History Project staff members are called upon to identify particularly interesting, poignant, or visually appealing collections in our archive, one name that comes up again and again is Kenje Ogata. A Japanese-American who fought for more than …
Posted in: Oral History, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Megan Harris
In a letter dated November 16, 1918, an Army Private First Class stationed near Verdun, France, wrote to his mother, Dear Mother: By firelight on the fought-over ground of this stricken country I pause to rush word to you of my safety + well being. The last three weeks were terrible + of them I …
Posted in: Uncategorized, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Megan Harris
The following is a guest post by Lisa A. Taylor, liaison specialist with the Veterans History Project. A version of this blog post ran on the Library of Congress Blog on March 13th. Disabled combat hero, veterans’ advocate, politician, woman. U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) is many things, most strikingly, a person who has not …
Posted in: Oral History, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Megan Harris
As I write this blog post on March 13, it is 29 degrees here in Washington, DC, and it seems impossible to believe that spring will arrive in just over a week. Emerging from one of the snowiest and coldest winters that many regions of the country have seen in decades, in which the phrase …
Posted in: Oral History, Veterans History Project