"War is not an abstraction. The suffering is real." So said Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) at a recent gathering at the Library of Congress to celebrate the publication of "Voices of War: Stories of Service from the Home Front and the Front Lines."
Tom Wiener, editor of the new book "Voices of War," compiled from the Library's Veterans History Project, introduced veterans who read their personal accounts of war. - Michaela McNichol
Edited by Tom Wiener, and published cooperatively by the Library and National Geographic Books, "Voices of War" is the first book to showcase the extraordinary tales of courage, friendship and sacrifice collected by the Library's Veterans History Project.
"This book represents so much humanity and service," said Hagel. "It depicts so much that is right about this country and its people."
Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, cosponsored legislation in the Senate to establish the Veterans History Project in the Library of Congress to preserve the stories of America's war veterans. He brought greetings from former Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) "without whom the project would not have been possible."
Also on hand for the celebration was Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who has tried to do his part "legislatively, and otherwise, to help our men and women in uniform." Warner, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War and former secretary of the Navy, attributes his success to the G.I. bill, which enabled him to graduate from college and obtain a law degree.
"With that, I was launched," he proclaimed. Rattling off statistics about the dead and wounded in World WWII, Korea and Vietnam, and acknowledging the 1,000 men and women lost in Iraq, Warner is painfully aware of the cost of war. At the same time, he described himself as "a strong believer in the cause of freedom."
Introduced by Wiener, the real stars of the evening were some of the veterans and their families whose stories are featured in the book. Some traveled from as far away as Indiana and California to attend the event. Wiener encouraged the crowd to thank those in attendance for their service to their country and perhaps to ask them to sign a copy of the book. Their stories not only appear in the book, but on the companion Web site at http://www.loc.gov/vets/stories/voicesofwar/, along with the stories of all 70 veterans and families featured in the book.
From left: Flight Officer Louie Bronzy visits the grave of a comrade in a military cemetery in Newfoundland; a B-17 drops its payload of bombs over Europe, 1944; GIs and friends toast the end of World War II in 1945
"Each of us knows a veteran," said Veterans History Project director Diane Kresh, who added her father's story to the project. She said he never spoke of his service in Korea, for which he won a Purple Heart. So Kresh arranged for her son to interview his grandfather as part of the Veterans History Project.
"Through that story telling experience, my son saw his grandfather in a new light," Kresh said. "He got to know my father as he was as a young man—and as a hero, selflessly serving his country."
"These stories are told for future generations, so that they will know the human dynamics of war, the consequences of war," said Hagel. "That is why we started this project."
