The sound of distant artillery, the heaves of choppy North Atlantic seas, the incessant mosquitoes of a jungle once wished to be forgotten or the glow from the oil fields of Kuwait aflame at midnight – any of these could be found in a movie, or soon on film in Surry County.
A new project is coming in early 2022 from the Surry County Register of Deeds office as officials there will begin a process to collect oral histories from local veterans. The project to preserve the firsthand interviews and narratives is in conjunction with the United States Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
The Veterans History Project (VHP) of the American Folklife Center collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.
“Individual histories are not what you would call academic histories,” said Todd Harris, Surry County Register of Deeds. “We want to collect what they saw, what they went through and how it affected them when they got home.”
First-hand accounts from veterans will create the primary source material needed for future research and scholarship. They will also serve to illustrate the humanity and sacrifice of those who helped form the nation’s history.
A history major himself, Harris knows that this project will have to have a sense of urgency to collect these stories before it is too late. “The preservation of history is very important” and as these veterans are passing on, so too are their stories.
In order to produce a more complete picture, the VHP also collects oral histories with Gold Star Family members, defined as a parent, spouse, sibling, or child of members of the Armed Forces who died because of their service during a period of war.
“Everything we do here will be shared with VHP and the Library of Congress,” Harris said. “This project is for Surry County though, and while the Library of Congress may only be interviewing veterans who served in combat, we want stories from all our veterans.”
Harris tells a story that is too common these days. A family member of his who had served in the Pacific Theater during WWII moved out west, “I always said I should talk to him and collect his story, then he died. That was the catalyst for this, the genesis, many years before I came to work at the Register of Deeds office.”
Locally, Harris referred to Stanley King “who served on the USS Intrepid. He’s 96 now, so he is really one of the first ones I want to interview.” There are going to be other Stanleys out there, and this project is meant to find them and bring them in to tell of their experiences.
Harris encourages everyone to share the information with veterans organizations, churches, and other local groups to get the word out to try and increase the participation level of the vets. Having veterans tell their stories and then getting those stories archived may be a way for some families to get additional closure or gain a greater understanding. The benefits gained from the project would be worth the costs, but Harris noted that this project will not cost the county a dime.
The Register of Deeds Office has enlisted the help of author and historian Tom Perry in this project as well. “Tom has done an amazing job of researching and preserving a lot of local history going back to the Civil War. He was a natural to get involved,” Harris said.
Perry assisted in collecting oral histories from Vietnam Veterans in southern Virginia for a similar project, “It was emotionally draining. I interviewed every one of these guys and every one of them broke down at some point,” he said. “I realized that no one had ever talked to them.”
Some vets, most notably those of the Vietnam era, found instead of ticker tape parades and iconic VJ-Day kisses in Times Square that they were seen as outcasts. Many have not wanted to tell their stories for fear of judgment, or worse the fear of memory. The danger of losing their collective knowledge is real and growing with each passing year and every flag draped coffin.
To correct that oversight and to add to the more complete story of the nation, Surry County’s veterans’ history project will begin in earnest in early 2022. The project will continue throughout the year if there are more veterans who wish to participate.
Harris also said that through the assistance of Dr. Pam Hairston veterans encountered during the project who require help to participate will be given a hand.
“The assistance would be mostly of the technical sort such as scanning a document or photo.” Hairston also added, “We will assist in the writing and editing of their story and that should not stop any veteran from being a part of the Project”.
Having been on hold due to COVID-19, Harris wants to make sure they are leaning toward caution given these veterans tend to fall into a group with higher susceptibility to the virus. “We have to be mindful of COVID, but absent some other outbreak, we will launch in January.”
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com