National Veterans History Project

If you would like to meet a humble hero, stop by on Sunday afternoons on the third floor of the Jack B. Patrick Information Technology Center and library on the main campus of Augusta Technical College. We have met the first woman army nurse to land on Omaha Beach, a Navy commander who was in attendance at Yalta while staffing Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard the presidential yacht, a B26 pilot who flew 68 missions before being captured as a P.O.W., the one surviving brother of four who served together during the war. All of these were home grown young men and women who answered when their country called.  These interesting individuals are only a few who make up ‘The Greatest Generation”.  Across this country alone, World War II veterans are dying at the rate of about 1000 a day. When this generation is gone, we will no longer have these first-hand accounts of the war to end all wars.

Augusta Technical College’s Videography Class has been working with The Augusta-Richmond County Historical Society interviewing World War II veterans as part of the national Veterans History Project. Other organizations will be participating as well, but to date, Augusta Tech is the only team with any completed interviews.

The purpose of the program, approved by Congress in 2000, is to collect and preserve first hand experiences through video and audio interviews. The veteran’s stories will be submitted to the Library of Congress for inclusion in an online database.

The society has identified 245 local veterans, but others can be included. If you have knowledge of a veteran who would like to be included in this project, please contact Sherrie Rowe (706.771.4125).