Kerry Ward and Lisa Taylor of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project talk about the value and progress of the Veterans History Project, which is preserving the voice of veterans for the sake of ourselves, and our progeny.
Kerry Ward and Lisa Taylor of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project talk about the value and progress of the Veterans History Project, which is preserving the voice of veterans for the sake of ourselves, and our progeny.
Thinking about future generations. And having this information, these voices, these stories, these pictures, these diaries and journals and military documents preserved so that like those other items that Kerry mentioned earlier that the Library of Congress has, these stories will still be here, just like those future generations will be able to look them up, hear their voices, see what they and hear what they had to say about their military life. But not only that, for the veterans who participate, it's an opportunity for them. They may not exist anywhere else to tell their own story, in their own words in their own way.
Charlie Malone:Welcome to Season Two of the policy vets podcast, engaging with leaders, scholars and strong voices to fill a void in support of Policy Development for America's veterans. With your host, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Dr. David Chilton, and the executive director of policy. That's Louis Celli. Today's guests, Carrie Ward, Lisa Taylor, of the Library of Congress, Veterans History Project.
Louis Celli:Mr. Secretary, a couple of weeks ago, you made a comment that the American people sometimes have short memories when it comes to remembering the sacrifices of our veterans, you know, if it isn't appearing on the news every night? Yeah,
Dr. David Shulkin:well, that's true. And it certainly comes to the way people formulate opinions. But when it comes to personal memories, or family memories, those are things that go on, or passed by generations and go on for a long time. And so I think it's these personal stories that we hear from veterans that are really not only family treasures, but also national treasures.
Louis Celli:That's a really good point. I mean, when you were a VA, you know, did you ever have time to just sit with veterans and listen to their stories? And you know, I'm not talking about their experiences at VA, but you know, some of their personal military journeys,
Dr. David Shulkin:oh, yeah, it was one of my favorite things to do particularly, to spend time with the World War Two veterans, because, you know, so many of them never really shared their stories with their families, they just came back and didn't talk about it a lot. But when I would get to spend time with them, they would feel very comfortable. And particularly, when I would put on my white coat and take care of them as their doctor in a VA. That's when they really feel comfortable talking about their stories, there's something about when they come into the VA Medical Center, it sort of frees them to go back in time and share their stories, because they know everybody around them, understands what they're talking about.
Louis Celli:You know, I've been in VA facilities all around the country. I've visited military installations all around the world, I can tell you that every veteran has a story.
Dr. David Shulkin:Yeah, that's true. You know, one of the one of the great things that I think is happening at VA, is that they are digitizing the national cemeteries. And what does that mean? That means that since every veteran who has passed has a story, the VA is getting those stories on a digital format, so that when schoolchildren and family members and other people were interested, go to a VA cemetery, they can actually pull up those digital files and hear that veterans story. And I think it's similar to what we're going to hear about today, with the Library of Congress's efforts to catalogue a lot of these stories. But you know, that it's one of the great things that a country can do is to memorialize when somebody has dedicated their life and sacrificed for their country to get their story, to be able to live on forever.
Louis Celli:You're right. I absolutely love that. As a matter of fact, that was a personal project of a good friend of ours, the Honorable Randy Reeves, and you know, some of the stories are hard to hear somebody can laugh, and but they're always interesting. They're, they're always something that you find at the end of the story. You were really glad for having listened.
Dr. David Shulkin:Yeah, and especially to family members who have lost somebody. You know, there are times I'm sure that it feels like nobody cares. Nobody remembers the sacrifice that that family went through. And so having that story down there and knowing that other people are taking the time to hear about that important life, and what they did sacrifice, I think is really an obligation that we have, and I'm so glad that VA has embraced that mission and continues that important work.
Louis Celli:You know, as generations pass, you know, sometimes they they take this history with them and many of these stories are lost forever. Just a few months ago, we lost a really important piece of that history Max clean And Senator Cleveland lit a truly impactful life.
Dr. David Shulkin:Yeah, I think that's right. He was an amazing not only Senator but but also had a big impact, as you know, as a VA administrator. And that just seems like this past year, we've lost so many of these great giants, whether it was Bob Dole, or Johnny Isakson, you know, so many people that have just, it was that generation of just truly amazing people. And, you know, I think we have a current generation, that's amazing, too. And hopefully, they'll be celebrated when, when their time comes as well. But, but it's so important for us to remember the contributions of others.
Louis Celli:You know, I didn't, I didn't get to meet Senator Cleveland until after he had left the Senate when he was with the few American battles monument commission. And we're just really lucky that he had the foresight to, to really be a major contributor and back the project. We're about to heat we're, you know, we're going to hear about today.
Dr. David Shulkin:Yeah, yeah. I, I think that this is something that many people don't know about, that the Library of Congress has its own special initiative for veterans. And it's, it's really important work. And we want everybody to know about it, because we want people to know that there's a way that they can record their stories and get them to live on for future generations.
Louis Celli:Now, exactly. To your point, this has been going on for two decades. It started in 2000. So, you know, they've got already got 1000s of hours of audio and video and pictures and stories of veterans. And a lot of people don't know about this.
Dr. David Shulkin:Yeah. And of course, you know, you're the one who brought this to my attention. So how did you connect with Lisa and Carrie, that we're going to hear from today?
Louis Celli:That's a really great question. It just comes from being involved in the community I sit on, I sit on a board that features veterans artwork, and the library has invited this organization, it's called uniting us, and has invited them to bring their artwork and and display it for the public. Right out on the Fourth of July. I mean, one of the most popular times at the Library of Congress is going to be open. And through that is when I learned about the Veterans History Project. And I was really taken aback and I was a little embarrassed that I didn't know more about it. And I just thought it was important that you know that we that we invite them in and let them tell our listeners a little bit more about what they're doing.
Dr. David Shulkin:Yeah, that's right, Lou, I remember we did that podcast with uniting us last year. And it's it's just always amazing to me, the wonderful pockets of talent that are out there, who are giving back to our veteran communities and really making this such a such a rich and robust group of people that are out there who care so much about these Americans who have sacrificed
Louis Celli:Well, you know, capturing these stories, and all of this really rich history is just so important. So why don't we get Lisa and Carrie in here? And let's get started. All right,
Dr. David Shulkin:let's go.
Louis Celli:Hey, Lisa Carrie, welcome to the policy vets podcast. Thanks for taking the time to join us today. We really appreciate it.
Lisa Wright:Thanks for having us. We really appreciate being here.
Kerry Ward:We're very happy to be here.
Dr. David Shulkin:Well, I also to want to welcome you to the podcast. And it amazes me that so many people have never heard about the Veterans History Project. That's why we wanted to have you both on this morning. So maybe Lisa could start with you. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you got involved in this project and how long you've been involved?
Lisa Wright:Absolutely. I'm a native Washingtonian. I am a proud product of DC public schools. I attended two HBCUs, Howard University and Bowie State University. So my background is communications journalism specifically. And I came to this project after spending about 20 years in the nonprofit world as a communications expert and fundraiser. And when I heard about this position, and being open, it felt like such a good fit for me because it's so mission oriented. So it just felt like home. And I really love being here and been here for about 12 and a half years. And I feel like it's gonna be a much longer time that I spent here. It's a it's a great place to work the Library of Congress. And this project just makes it even more special.
Dr. David Shulkin:Yeah, I think that I'm always amazed at how many people visit Washington but don't go visit the Library of Congress building I happen to think it's actually the most magnificent building in Washington that's open to the public. And so I encourage people if they've not had a chance to do that to get over there. Carrie, how about you? How long have you been involved? And tell us a little bit about yourself?
Kerry Ward:Sure. Well, I am originally from Arizona, where I had studied psychology in pre law. But you know, life does not always take us on a linear path. I eventually started working with aviation event management with the United States Navy and Marine Corps Blue Angels and Thunderbirds manage also a veteran service outreach program that utilized a world war two b 25, Mitchell bomber, traveled the country in order to drive attention to the assistance that they provided veterans. And although that beautiful piece of machinery was a great way to attract veterans and the public, it was really the veterans and their stories that not only compelled me, but also compelled others to further talk about how they could be helped by this organization. So before I had even heard about Veterans History Project, I was doing something a little bit similar. I was sitting down and talking to these veterans, interviewing them, getting to know what their history was like, and then sharing it with their community. Once I found out a little bit more about Veterans History Project, I knew that that was something that I would have to be involved with. Lisa and I are both liaison specialists with the Veterans History Project. And although we have the same job title, we get to do slightly different things. For instance, I get to specialize in the Gold Star family members, whereas Lisa gets to specialize in the scouts.
Louis Celli:Terry, if you don't mind, the Secretary really brings up a very good point. And that is the Library of Congress, while while visited by a great number of people each year and visitors to our nation's capitol isn't one of the main attractions. Would you mind telling us, you know, just a little bit more about what the Library of Congress is?
Kerry Ward:Absolutely. I love that the Secretary said it was one of his favorite buildings in Washington, DC, because I always feel that I may be a bit biased, but I think it's the most beautiful building in Washington, DC, the photos, the art, the architecture, all of it has an overarching theme of storytelling that's built right into the art and architecture. And that's part of why the library put such an emphasis on preserving and archiving narratives. When we're able to share and archive the stories, it helps us preserve our culture. And it aids us in really understanding our past so that we can better prepare for our future. The Library of Congress is the oldest federal and cultural institution, and we are the world's preeminent reservoir of knowledge providing unparalleled integrated resources to Congress and the American people. I love to put that plug in because we really are the people's library. And so we invite everybody listening to take a look at the resources available both online at Loc for library of congress.gov or in person. Now, if you're anything like me, when you hear Library of Congress, you automatically think books, right. And while we do have a magnificent collection of over 14 million catalog books in print materials, that is only a small fraction of the over 170 million items that the Library of Congress has. If you like comic books, we have the largest collection of comic books in the world. If you like music, we have the Stradivarius violins. If you're interested in cartography, we have the Walter Mueller map, which is the first time that the word America appeared on a map. And if you like memories, we have the Veterans History Project.
Dr. David Shulkin:So is it is it true that every book that's published is is in the Library of Congress? Or is it a select group of books and other types of materials?
Kerry Ward:That's a great question that actually comes from our copyright office. So in addition to all those items that I mentioned, part of the reason that we have that number is because we have the copyright office at the Library of Congress. And so anything that is published and has a copyright on it is at the Library of Congress. If it's self published, then we perhaps may not have it. Sure.
Louis Celli:Lusa Veterans History Project is really unique at the library. How did it get started?
Lisa Wright:It got started back in 2001. Prior to that, Ron came from Wisconsin Congressman Rankine was at a family backyard barbecue with his World War Two era dad and uncle who were swapping war stories as they had tended to do at family events. At the time, Ron kinds children were very young running around playing. And he was listening to these stories. And then he thought, my kids are too young to really understand this conversation. But one day, they're going to want to know what these great heroes had to say. And so he asked To pause the conversation, ran into the house, get the video camera, which is what most folks use back then. And he came back out and said, Okay, start over. And so he recorded their conversation so that he could preserve it for his own family's history so that his children and their children can hear these stories. And he thought that it would be really great if folks all over the country had an opportunity to do this for their families, but not only for their families, but so that this information could be preserved someplace and thought about where could this live so that future generations can access all of these stories. And he went back wrote up the legislation, the idea was originally jotted down on a paper napkin, so that he would not forget and we still have that napkin. He jotted it down, went back, got the legislation written, it passed unanimously, surprise, unanimous legislation passed. And we were up and running. In 2001. We were initially intended to be a five year project that was intended to basically capture the stories of World War Two era veterans, because at that time, of course, they were aging. And we were concerned about getting these stories while we could. Five years went by the popularity was steadily growing, and people were interested in preserving even more stories of Korea War and Vietnam War era vets, and just on and on, and we continuously got renewed and we are still here now. 21 years later.
Dr. David Shulkin:Wow, what a great story. Lisa, I I have to get a pile of napkins, because I always my ideas I always think are great, but I forget about them the next day. So So you know, what one day the goal would be to have my napkin in the Library of Congress? Absolutely. How do you how do you find the veterans to interview how the how do you know who's got these great stories out there that you want to capture?
Lisa Wright:So the great thing about this project is that it is grassroots. It's totally volunteer based. So we have a very small team fewer than 20 people. So our job is to present the information, and then archive it and process it and make it accessible. We put the information out there so that people can sit down with their own veterans, if you have a veteran that you know, if there's one in your family, your household, your community, even if there are other organizations around you, or places that veterans may be, then you can interview those veterans on your own, we have a full kit is what we call our little booklet of instructions that walks you through this entire easy to follow process. So you can sit down at your veterans kitchen table, living room sofa and have a very informal conversation or oral history interview, to talk to them about their life before, during and after military service so that we get the full arc of their story. And so we don't really need to hot for veterans there. There. There are over 20 million living wartime veterans out here. Our challenge is more so finding volunteers to actually sit down with the veteran in their life and interview that veteran and then submit that story to us.
Louis Celli:You know, carry when you were talking earlier, I I was a little surprised at the diversity and all the different things that the library does. I've been there on a couple of different occasions for different reasons. I've even been there for private events where they close it off, and it is a magnificent and beautiful building. But does the library have other projects like this? Sure.
Kerry Ward:So the Veterans History Project technically falls underneath the umbrella of the American Folklife summer center. And under the American Folklife Center, we have a number of different oral history projects, including the slave narratives, we have occupational folklife poetry, we have civil rights oral history project, and we also are the home to story court if you're familiar with them. The difference is that with the Veterans History Project, we're not run by professional oral historians. but rather as Lisa mentioned, it's the individuals and organizational volunteers across the nation that helped to sit down and learn a little bit more from those veterans and voluntarily submit those to the Library of Congress. The other thing that makes us somewhat unique is that with the Copyright Office underneath the Library of Congress, we are kind of sticklers for copyright. And so we consider ourselves the keepers of said stories, but not the owners of the stories. So what that means is if somebody wants to use these collections, we work with researchers, documentarians, authors, if they want to use it for something other than strictly educational purposes, we send them back to the veteran or back to their next of kin to get permission.
Dr. David Shulkin:I'm wondering whether the pandemic has impacted your ability to continue this work and to be able to continue the catalogue, great stories that that people want to give has it changed the way that you have to do things?
Kerry Ward:Well, I think the pandemic has affected all of our lives in different ways. And certainly we were not exempt to that. We had to pivot somewhat. But what it allowed us to do was to really kind of shift focus, and dig deep and come up with some really creative ways to present collections. Our mission with the Veterans History Project is to collect, preserve and make accessible the firsthand memories of our nation's veterans. So part of what we were able to do, you was really focused on different ways, as I mentioned, to present these existing collections through things like virtual story maps, presentations, blog posts, and more. And in some ways that actually helped us and a great instance of this, as Lisa mentioned, we're on our 21st year. And so we just celebrated our 20th anniversary, and we were able to do that with a series of virtual panel discussions and musical performances. And because we shifted to a virtual platform, it allowed us to connect with a more diverse group from across the country. It also pushed us to sit down and learn, document and share about both virtual and in person at a distance interviews, which are resources we now have readily available for anybody who's interested via our blog at loc dot govt forward slash, Betsy ETS,
Louis Celli:Lisa, Carrie brings up a really important point about things like copyright and being charged with, you know, protecting the, you know, the data that you guys collect. And even though it's available to the public, it doesn't mean that the public can just, you know, rip down somebody's interview and use it in their own Tik Tok video for their own purposes or for you know, for whatever they want. So, what's it like to be charged with a project like this? I mean, why, why something like this so important anyway,
Lisa Wright:it's so important for so many reasons, Lou, for one, we're thinking about not just today's researchers, not just today's loved ones of these veterans who are still living or recently passed, but we're thinking about future generations. And having this information, these voices, these stories, these pictures, these diaries, and journals and military documents preserved so that like those other items that carry mentioned earlier that the Library of Congress has, these stories will still be here, just like those. And so in order to do that, we take it very seriously the whole preservation process of these items, and future generations, we'll be able to look them up, hear their voices, see what they and hear what they had to say about their military life. But not only that, for the veterans who participate, it's an opportunity for them, they may not exist anywhere else to tell their own story, in their own words, in their own way. So we don't have a scripted process for them to follow, we do have some suggested interview questions that folks can use when they get our field kit to help them understand what kinds of things that kind of pull out the conversation, but the veteran can talk about whatever they want. And so for a lot of veterans, this is the only time they have ever spoken about what they experienced in the military. And of course, not every veteran saw combat, not everyone had a horrific war tale that you may think of when you think of a veteran's service. But some had other roles in the military that were just as important that helped the military work. And so we often overlook those veterans who weren't officers or who weren't on the frontlines. This project allows those who were cooks, or had other mechanical jobs or other things like that in the background that you don't hear about so much. And a lot of times, they're so humble, and many of them, even some of our women veterans don't even feel like they are a veteran because of that perception. But this project allows them to say, Hey, I did serve my country I did put on that uniform, I raised my right hand, I took that oath. And my story is just as important as everyone else's. And it's going to be preserved forever at the Library of Congress with everyone else's. And so we have a chance to give them that opportunity. And then for the volunteer who collects that story, who sits down to interview that loved one or that colleague or that neighbor, they become part of history as well, because their name is forever associated with that veteran story and their record that gets served get that gets preserved at the Library of Congress, which makes them a primary source contributor to the Library of Congress. So anybody who's aged 15 or older, can volunteer to participate as an interviewer. And any veteran who served at any point from World War One through more recent conflicts and is now separated from service. They can participate. So it's a pretty broad spectrum of participants and those researchers who come to us looking for the authentic stories, appreciate the fact that we have all kinds of stories from all walks of life, and that they're unedited. And those items are original. And so they they know that we've got the authentic, authentic stories available for them.
Dr. David Shulkin:Well, I think both of you have gotten our listeners hooked. So how does the public go about accessing and watching these videos? Carrie, maybe you could tell us about that
Kerry Ward:I would be happy to. So one way to access the collections is via our website, which again can be found at Loc for Library of Congress dot govt for a government entity. And then forward slash events V ETS. On there, you'll find both the archival side as well as the participatory side of our archive. And out of those 112,000 collections, many of them have some form of digitized content that's available via our website. So when you log on, you can literally go on and watch 1000s of hours of oral histories, you can view 1000s of photographs, diaries, letters, journal entries, and more. Another way to access the collections is because not all of our content is digitally available, we do have folks who come to the Library of Congress in person and come to the American Folklife Center where they can have the collection served, and they can view them in person. And they're the real collections right there. We do ask for approximately seven days notice in order for us to ready the collections, but you can feel free to email us and we would be happy to go ahead and set that up. You can email us at VO HP at loc dot govt
Louis Celli:it's so important, you know, someday 100 200 Maybe 300 years from now, you know some family from Massachusetts or Indiana or Guam or, you know, they're going to come to DC and be able to listen to their great, great great, great grandmother, or, you know, some uncle that that was related to them, and just listen to their their honest story right there at the library. And I mean, 300 years from now, there'll be some other, you know, hyper cool technology where they'll be able to come to life in some way. But you know, all that being said, it's got to start somewhere. And I almost want to say shame on us for just starting now, you know, we've got 20 years behind us. But we've got, you know, over 150 years, you know more than that of veterans history. So what's the best way for people now during the pandemic, to get engaged with this.
Lisa Wright:So the best way for folks is to look around them and think about who do I know who served in the US military, who's now out of service. So they're now considered a veteran. And we'll use the same definition of a veteran as the VA. Once they find out who that person is, they ask for their permission, of course, to share their story. And then they just get a recording device. Most of us are walking around with one in our pocket, or our purse right now we've all got it within a hands limped away. That camera and that audio recorder on your device can be used to preserve that story. So you just sit down with a field kit that we mentioned, that gives you all the instructions, it has some required forms that we need you to submit with that collection. And for at least 30 minutes, you have a conversation with that veteran and ask them a series of questions about their their military service and what made them decide to go in whether nothing was drafted, what their basic training was, like what their first duty assignment was, like, what it is they did throughout the military. And then as they came to transition out, whether that was through retirement or not whatever discharge process they went through, and then what life was like for them when they returned to civilian life. So that conversation is just recorded, stored on either a flash drive or some other technology that we mentioned in the field kit, like a DVD or CD. And then you ship that recording on edited along with those forms to us by commercial delivery. We receive it, we process it, it takes us about at this point about a year from the time we receive it to the time you can go on our website and go to our searchable online database and find that veterans record so every veteran who participates with us gets a summary service record on that website. And so that's the official record saying this veteran story lives at the Library of Congress. And it's that easy to do. So that's why we start the minimum age at 15. And anyone can participate. You don't have to be a professional historian. You don't have to know a lot about technology or, you know, audio recording devices. Any of that stuff. You don't have to be ken burns you just need To be a good listener, and someone who can follow simple instructions as a series of questions, and ship the stuff to us, it's very, very easy to do.
Dr. David Shulkin:So, Terry, can you tell us one of your favorite stories of of a veteran who has contributed?
Kerry Ward:I love that question. Because, you know, my favorite changes on a day to day basis, it changes with the wind. But today, I think I'm going to feature one of our collections that's from World War One. We we had mentioned that our collections start with World War One and go all the way through current conflicts. And one of the things we did not mention is that you can submit posthumous collections through the form of photographs, letters, journals, diaries, even two dimensional pieces of artwork. The collection I'm going to share today is that of Albert, John Carpenter, who was a 19 year old college student, when he headed off to France to fight in the Great War. And he took with him a pocket diary about the size of our cell phones today. And he starts his diary with October, the most eventful month of my life. And he goes on, he talks about the gassing, he talks about the money, he talks about his buddies that were lost, and he comes home. And like so many other veterans, he just tosses his diary away. And, you know, he just puts it in a closet and forgets about it never goes back and revisits what his service was like. And sometime after his passing his, his daughter in law, actually was the one who told the family, hey, I really think we need to do something with this, we're doing it a disservice with it just sitting here, it's got tears, it's got water damage. It's all loose leaf at this point, we know that we're not the only repository or archive out there. And we're very grateful that they chose to donate this collection to us. Because as we heard from Shirley, Hurricane Katrina had paid her family a little visit. And it wiped out everything that was down in the basement. And when she No, that was the exact location where the diary had been stored previously. Now, because this was one of the collections that was featured in one of our exhibits, we were able to repair a lot of the damage that it had to the journal. So our preservation and conservation labs, were able to take Japanese tissue paper and repair the tears. They took a proprietary chemical, put it over the pages in which the they were too badly water damaged, and which you couldn't read what was intended to be written. And with the proprietary chemical under ultraviolet light, for the first time ever, you were able to extract what was intended to be written on those pages. So now, we have a humidity controlled and climate controlled environment that houses all of our collections, to make sure that they're not lost to history.
Louis Celli:Lisa, what about you, and I'm sure that you've heard hundreds and hundreds of stories, it must be some, you know, that really resonated and really stuck with you. So, you know, we're, we're just about out of time, but I really want to hear about some of the stories that that you've heard. And then if you could follow up a little bit about, you know, how the, how the library is actually promoting this project?
Lisa Wright:Absolutely. Like Carrie says, so many come to mind. So the ones that I'm thinking of today are a few that I just interviewed within the last year, one sometimes just because of the story. And sometimes it's an image that's just so striking that it just sticks with you when you see the veterans picture. And for Raquel Riley Thomas, it was both her story and one of her photos as just a bit. She was She is a veteran who became a beauty pageant queen. And one of the photos she submitted to us was done by professional, but they took a shot of her and full camouflage, including her face. And the other half of her is in her full beauty queen gown and her crown and everything. And it's kind of a split photo. And that image sticks with you when you see it. It's beautiful. And it's so striking. But I had the privilege of interviewing her last year. And she already had a story on file with us. And she sat down with me again, to do a virtual one. And her story was just amazing. She she grew up, went to college, and then joined the military became a photo journalist. And she's, you know, she's gorgeous, by the way, so she was modeling and doing all kinds of things, had her own family and had two daughters. And one day one of her daughters said, Well, Mom, why don't any of the Disney Princesses look like me? Raquel is African American, and her children are too and she was so saddened by the fact that she didn't have any princesses to show her daughter she decided to become one. And so she got into the beauty pageant world won all sorts of crimes. competitions and Putin, including Mrs. Maryland. And they even made a Barbie doll in her image, which she keeps at home, which is so cool to me. So when I interviewed her, she showed me some of those things. And that story just sticks out and she's a really amazing woman entrepreneur started several organizations. She's a mentor and doing all kinds of great things to uplift women and women veterans as well. One other quick story that I just interviewed around this time last year, was a gentleman named Justin Butz, who is a veteran Navy veteran and a farmer. We did a full panel last year on veterans who farm as just one option that veterans have when they leave military service. And Justin was one of those who agreed to participate. He had grown up pretty poor. And his grandfather taught him how to farm as a little boy, he spent a lot of time with his granddad, he had no idea he would end up circling back and making that profession. I think he was a wrestler or something in high school, he was pretty big, went into the Navy, big, strong guy loved his military service. But he got sick with an autoimmune disorder while he was in the military, and unfortunately had to leave due to medical reasons. And so he decided to go become a chef, he went to culinary school. But the call to farming just kept pulling him back. And so today, he is a farmer in upstate New York. He's teaching people how to farm, people from urban communities come through just to learn and see what's going on on the farm. And the stories that he tells about just life as a farmer are so amazing. And you don't really think of veterans going into a path like that. But there are so many out here and there are organizations as well, that we collaborated with to do that panel. But in terms of other collaborations, we have many one of them is uniting us, the arts organization that we are collaborating with. And we'll be doing a series of events this coming June, to highlight veterans who are artists and how they use art to heal and deal with the invisible wounds of service. We also collaborate with other groups, like the CO girls, for one that was a an event a group of women that we highlighted a few years ago, which all spun out of a researcher and author by the name of Liza Mundy, who was doing research to highlight the stories of World War Two code breakers, these women who were secret code breakers for World War Two, she found these stories that were pretty much hidden in the basement. And so she wrote this book, and got so much attention from the stories, their families of the CO girls, most of whom were deceased. By then we're reaching out to her saying, Hey, I think my grandma was one of these women. I think my mom was one of these women, she told us she was a secretary. But I found some pictures, I found some some documents in the attic. And so all of that turned into the Library of Congress hosting the first ever and probably only national reunion of the World War Two cold girls and that collaboration is going to go down in history is just being so awesome. We had about five of them who are well enough and able to travel to Washington DC and be present. And then family members of a lot of the deceased women came and honored their CO Girl by we did a nice processional. And they all brought a photo a framed photo of her and processed and to honor their memories, and they all got certificates. And it was just really great. But that's just a couple of stories and a couple of collaborations that we have, but they are constantly coming through these stories, spark conversations, which turn into events and collaborations with organizations all over the country.
Louis Celli:I just want to say thank you so much for for coming here and sharing, you know, this this project with us, it's it's so meaningful, and it must be so fulfilling to work in it. And you know, with your permission, I think we'd like to invite you guys back later. So that, you know, maybe we can hear just, you know, a podcast about some of the stories and maybe even have some of the some of the interviewees as guests as well. You know, I think our listeners would really like to hear a little bit more about some of the some of the more interesting stories and they don't always have to be stories about you know, extreme heroism they can be Everyday Stories from from people who've been able to navigate military service and come out on the other side. So I just want to thank you again for for being here. And, you know, before we go carry, we can start with you. There's anything we missed. We always like to give our guests the last word. Is there anything that we may have not touched on or that you'd like to add?
Kerry Ward:You know, we could be here all day talking about different stories. But the last thing I think I'll say and I really want to leave any listeners with is the fact that the stories in the collection that we have at the Library of Congress do not just sit on the shelves, collecting dust. In fact, they are used every single day by researchers, documentarians, and authors. As Lisa had mentioned, occasionally there are opportunities to be used in different displays across the country. And on very, very, very rare occasion. They give an opportunity to really highlight veterans and their service. I included in that as the story of Charles kettles, Lieutenant Colonel Charles kettles who's credited for saving over 40 men's lives in Vietnam. And after the interviewer had heard his story, he went to his local member of Congress, they started working on it, and 50 years after the fact, Lieutenant Colonel Charles kettles received the Medal of Honor, again, a very rare example. But it really does showcase what you're doing when you help us collect these stories.
Dr. David Shulkin:Well, thank you again, keep up the great work. And we're so glad that you are continuing to do the things you're doing. Thank you for joining us.
Kerry Ward:Thank you for the opportunity.
Lisa Wright:Thanks for having us.
Louis Celli:And that really is all the time that we have for this week. He listened. Join us next week. You're not going to want to miss this episode. We have retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander vindman. Alexander vindman, was the former director of European Affairs at the National Security Council, and he was born in Ukraine. He ran the Russia desk, and he's going to fill us in on what's going on. We'll see you next week.
Charlie Malone:Thanks for listening to the policy. That's podcasts. For more information about projects and other podcasts. Go to policy. That's dot org.