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Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, are urging the designation of a National Veterans History Project Week to support efforts already under way to collect the stories of America's 17 million veterans.
Veterans' oral histories are now being collected by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The library's National Veterans History Project is a clearinghouse for recorded histories including videotapes, audiotapes, manuscripts and other items. Crapo himself has interviewed Idaho veterans for the project.
Now, Crapo and Risch want to designate a week highlighting the effort. “Increasing public participation in the Veterans History Project can best be established by building on public awareness of this worthy project,” Crapo said in a news release. “As a nation, we have celebrated National Veterans Awareness Week and we should build on that by creating a new National Veterans History Project Week.”
He added: “The Veterans History Project ensures that future generations of Americans will remember the service and sacrifice our brave veterans have made over the last century. Many of our World War II veterans are advancing in age; we must find ways to prioritize the gathering of their memories and stories for future Americans.”
On Tuesday, the Senate, by unanimous consent, passed Senate Resolution 340, which asks the Senate to designate a Veterans History Project Week. The cosponsors are Sens. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Richard Lugar, R-Ind., John Rockefeller, D-W.V., and Jean Shaheen, D-N.H.
The resolution also encourages state and local governments and national organizations to support the effort and calls on every American to "interview at least one veteran in their families according to guidelines provided by the Veterans History Project."
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