State Bar and Texas Court Reporters Association initiate Veterans History Project

August 25, 2011

By Bonnie Fletcher, Texas Veterans Commission, Austin

The Texas Veterans Commission is assisting the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Court Reporters Association (TCRA) in their search to find Veterans who want to share and document their military experiences for the Veterans History Project (VHP).

VHP was created in 2000 as a part of the American Folklife Center at the U.S Library of Congress.

The mission is to collect, preserve, and make accessible the personal accounts of American wartime Veterans so that future generations may hear directly from Veterans and better understand the realities of war.

At the State Bar annual meeting in June, the TCRA and the State Bar launched the initiative, which had a positive response led to several lawyer-Veterans recording their stories on site and other Veterans to set up dates to be interviewed at a later time.

Court reporters who are members of the TCRA are volunteering their time to record and conduct the interviews. They will provide the Veterans’ oral histories in written transcript form to the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

The Veteran may also submit memoirs, collections of original photographs, letters, diaries, and other historical documents they deem necessary.
The interview and any documents or pictures, will be housed in the U.S. Library of Congress in a preserved environment within the permanent collections. The stories and collateral materials will be available to scholars, students, and anyone else visiting the U.S. Library of Congress.

This project not only honors the nation’s heroes, but also allows them to create a lasting legacy of their wartime experiences and how those experiences affected their lives and America itself.

There is a six month processing period for each interview donated.

The State Bar and TCRA are looking for Veterans from all conflicts and eras. The current goal is to record 1,000 oral histories interviews in one year.
If you are a Veteran that would like to be interviewed or know of one, contact Stephanie Moses at 214-653-7178, Stephanie_moses@sbcblobal.net, or Judy Marchman at the State Bar at 512-427-1520, jmarchman@texasbar.com.

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