The Project collects first-hand accounts of U.S. Veterans from the following wars: World War I (1914-1920), World War II (1939-1946), Korean War (1950-1955), Vietnam War (1961-1975), Persian Gulf War (1990-1995), and the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts (2001-present)
In addition, those U.S. citizen civilians who were actively involved in supporting war efforts (such as war industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, medical volunteers, etc.) are also invited to share their valuable stories.
Stories can be told through personal narratives (audio and video-taped interviews and written memoirs, Correspondence, and visual materials like photographs, drawings, and scrapbooks.
The database is searchable. Filters exist to limit search by conflict, branch of service, POWs, and gender. You can also limit the search for just digitized entries or just transcripts. I did a casual search on the name “Smith” and filtered it by WWI and Army. One of the hits I got had no digitized material with it, but the record it it displayed for me was filled with transcribed information. Another hit had digitized correspondence, military documents like general orders, and a diary.
If you don’t have an ancestor represented in the database, you may find one of his buddies, or something about his unit. That can lead to a greater appreciation of your ancestor’s life because he went through the same things they did.
Check it out at http://www.loc.gov/vets/vets-home.html
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