By Debbie Gardner
dgardner@thereminder.com
Did you serve? Whether you were in-country or stateside, just mustered out or saw duty decades ago, the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project wants your story.
What is the Veterans History Project? It’s a movement to collect and preserve the real-life experiences and memories of the men and women who have served in America’s armed forces throughout its many wars and peacekeeping actions. The project’s goal is to create a living history collection “so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.” (www.loc.gov/vets/about.html)
Now in its 22nd year, the Veterans History Project was established through legislation signed by President Bill Clinton on Oct. 27, 2000. It is funded by Congress and housed within the Library’s American Folklife Center. Though originally designed to preserve the memories of the dwindling ranks of World War II veterans, the Project has expanded to include veterans of all conflicts including the Cold War, as well as the memories of Gold Star family members and military personnel who have served during disasters.
“I love the idea that the United States preserves this information for historians, and anybody who wants to learn about [these veterans’ stories],” said Ruth Rootberg, an Amherst native who helped contribute two family stories to the project.
Prime recently spoke with Rootberg and her sister, Susan Shapiro, about the experience of helping to preserve history in this way.
Prime also spoke with the project’s new Director, Monica Mohindra, about the renewed focus of the Veterans History Project and its importance in understanding America’s shared history.
Rootberg was in California visiting her sister, Susan Shapiro, when Prime reached the two women to talk about participating in the Veteran’s History Project.
When asked how the pair found out about the project, Shaprio said it was through the James Madison Council. Her late husband, who became an avid collector of presidential letters in mid-life, was introduced to the council by a fellow collector, she said.
“It supports the growth of the Library of Congress,” Shapiro said of the James Madison Council, adding the group meets twice a year. “At one of the meetings they talked about the Veterans History Project, that’s how I learned about it,” Shapiro said.
Rootberg said the pair was always interested in family history – she had interviewed family members to create a history book for her parent’s 50th wedding anniversary in 1990 – and preserving the stories of an uncle who had served in World War II and a cousin who served in Vietnam, seemed a natural progression.
“My sister got me interested because she knew I had done interviews,” said Rootberg, who has also penned two books on The Alexander Technique – a body alignment method that helps improve posture, movement and reduce pain. “My inspiration was [American historian and broadcaster] Studs Terkel and [public radio’s] Story Corps and Terry Gross, that’s where I got the penchant for interviewing.”
The pair began by videotaping an interview with an uncle, Albert Rootberg, who had served as a bridge engineer in the European theater during World War II.
“He was in his 90s at the time,” Rootberg said of the interview, which took place in 2009. “Susan was in charge of the camera and did the technical stuff – lighting, angles – and I started with some questions.
“I started with some factual things, and I remember Susan asked some questions,” Rootberg continued. “Al built bridges so he wasn’t always directly in combat; he would talk about there being plentiful food, He spoke Yiddish [and] he could converse with the Germans … his service didn’t end right after the war; I found that interesting.” Their uncle served for a time as part of the post-war occupation force,in Germany, Rootberg added.
Though their uncle’s memories of his service were more general, she said he did have his discharge paper, which he displayed in the video. He was also wearing several of the medals he was awarded when the interview was conducted. As their uncle never married or had children and “there was no one to remember him,” the women felt it was important to preserve his story through the project.
“Al would make jokes about the German maidens, I think he did court someone but, in the end, he wouldn’t bring someone home who was German, or who was not a Jew,” Rootberg said.
The sister’s second interview with their cousin, Vietnam veteran Dr. Howard Harvey Tessler, was a very different affair. Recorded during a family gathering in 2014 – neither Shapiro nor Rootberg could remember if it were Passover or Mother’s Day – it included both a frank discussion of life in a hospital treating wounded soldiers and observations of the state of Vietnam society during the time he served.
Tessler had interrupted his medical residency as an ophthalmologist to join the Army under a special program for medical personnel, and was posted at Fort Leavenworth, KS, Fort Carson, CO and in-country from 1966-67 during the Vietnam War. That videotaped interview included Tessler reading from letters he sent home during his tour of duty in Vietnam, offering a first-person account of conditions and events.
“One of the main things he said was ‘there are no atheists in a foxhole,’” Rootberg remembered.
Both the Albert Rootberg and Howard Harvey Tessler interviews are now part of the Veterans History Project archives.
“The fact that they are there is really wonderful,” Rootberg shared, adding that she was “glad to see that taxpayer money was going to preserve history” through first-person stories like those of her relatives.
Monica Mohindra may be the newly-minted director of the Veteran’s History Project, but she brings to that post 17 years of experience collecting and preserving veterans stories as part of the project team. The wife of a navy veteran, she said she understands the power of the stories men and women who served can share with the nation.
“I haven’t had a day yet where I haven’t learned something about our experience as Americans,” Mohindra said. “To understand the experience of service, what drives people to do it and how that’s related to all of us in this country, I find that compelling and illuminating, and always relevant to everything that’s going on now.”
And though the project’s collection already numbers 112,000 veterans stories – including 9,000 hours of audio and 10,000 hours of video as well as original correspondence and the diaries of many service men and women – Mohindra said the project is always looking for more.
Reaching out to relatives and friends of veterans to encourage the vet to share their experience is crucial to capturing these pieces of living history before it is too late, Mohindra stressed.
“There is sort-of a popular understanding that 1 percent of the population [of the U.S.] serves, and that is an important statistic to understand,” Mohindra explained. “A few years ago, Pew Research did a survey to find out who is related to a veteran [and] it turns out 62 percent of the population is related to someone who served in the U.S. military, and that includes parents, spouses, siblings, grandparents or a child.”
She said connecting with vets through people they trust is important because when it comes to people who have served – especially those who have seen combat – many are reluctant to speak about the experience.
“Almost to a one they will say ‘Oh so-and-so served with me, he [or she] needs to tell his [or her] story’,” Mohindra said. “Or they say, ‘My uncle served, or my father or my grandfather, and they should tell their story.’”
Mohindra encourages people to “let the vet in your life and in your community know you want to sit down and hear their story – this is not for war stories at the bar, or fish tales at the picnic” but to learn ‘What did it sound like, what did if feel like, how did [your service] affect your life.’ These are the kinds of questions we are trying to pull together for the benefit of the nation.”
For a how-to field kit including “everything you need to know about conducting research” as well as the required forms and acceptable media formats for collecting a vet’s story, visit www.loc.gov/vets. Information is also available by emailing vohp@loc.gov or by calling 1-888-371-5848. Follow the Veterans History project on Facebook @vetshistoryproject.
