NCA intern researching Veterans legacy at Library of Congress

From time to time, I’ll be introducing other people from around NCA who all contribute to our work in sharing veterans’ legacy.  I’ll let Maari Weiss introduce herself in her own words below, but I’d like to say that she is doing very interesting work, and we are all very pleased with her contributions to the Veterans Legacy Program.  She’ll be sharing similar things, as her work continues.  But here is her first contribution to the VLP blog.  Maari’s posts will be a series that she’s calling Veteran Spotlight.

Please let me know what you think.

All the best,

Bryce

In these Veteran Spotlights, we will bring you veterans’ stories, based on personal interviews and mementos that have been gathered by the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project (http://www.loc.gov/vets/). My name is Maari Weiss.  This fall, as part of my pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in history at George Mason University, I am working as an intern with the Veterans Legacy Program of the National Cemetery Administration. By working on this project, I hope to be able to put history to use, helping to preserve the memories of everyday people who contributed to our country, and to national and international history, through their service in our Armed Forces.

With Veteran Spotlight post, we aim to share the memories of one veteran whose stories might otherwise be overlooked, and to honor the sacrifices he or she made by serving in our Armed Forces. Each person who is featured on this blog has a dedicated collection of resources with the Veterans History Project and has been laid to rest in one of our National Cemeteries. The resources that are available from the Veterans History Project vary for each veteran, but they can include video or audio interviews, interview transcripts, memoirs, personal correspondence, official documents, newspaper clippings, photographs, and more. Some of the collections are available online, either in whole or in part, but others are only accessible in person at the Library of Congress, and are thus beyond the reach of Americans who live outside the Washington, DC area. By carefully sorting through these resources and taking notes on what we hear and see, we will work to write and share posts that shed light on the lives of the men and women of the past who made up our Armed Forces and are part of the veterans legacy enshrined in our National Cemeteries.

We hope that you enjoy reading about the lives of the individuals that we feature, and that you learn something and are inspired along the way as I am.

In these Veteran Spotlight posts, we will bring you veterans’ stories, based on personal interviews and mementos that have been gathered by the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project (http://www.loc.gov/vets/). My name is Maari Weiss, and I will be starting off this blog. This fall, as part of my pursuit of a bachelor’s degree in history at George Mason University, I am working as an intern with the Veterans Legacy Program of the National Cemetery Administration. By working on this project, I hope to be able to put history to use, helping to preserve the memories of everyday people who contributed to our country, and to national and international history, through their service in our Armed Forces.

With every post on this blog, we aim to share the memories of one veteran whose stories might otherwise be overlooked, and to honor the sacrifices he or she made by serving in our Armed Forces. Each person who is featured on this blog has a dedicated collection of resources with the Veterans History Project and has been laid to rest in one of our National Cemeteries. The resources that are available from the Veterans History Project vary for each veteran, but they can include video or audio interviews, interview transcripts, memoirs, personal correspondence, official documents, newspaper clippings, photographs, and more. Some of the collections are available online, either in whole or in part, but others are only accessible in person at the Library of Congress, and are thus beyond the reach of Americans who live outside the Washington, DC area. By carefully sorting through these resources and taking notes on what we hear and see, we will work to write and share posts that shed light on the lives of the men and women of the past who made up our Armed Forces and are part of the veterans legacy enshrined in our National Cemeteries.

We hope that you enjoy reading about the lives of the individuals that we feature in Veterans Spotlight, and that you learn something and are inspired along the way.

A Taste of What’s To Come

One of the soldiers who will be profiled in the coming weeks is Technical Sergeant Joseph A. Farinholt, one of the most decorated, but also publicly unknown, soldiers of World War II. Below, you will see examples of a few of the pictures and documents that we might feature in that upcoming blog post. If you can’t wait to learn more about Technical Sergeant Farinholt’s life, all of the resources in his Veterans History Project collection are available for free online at http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.03521/.

Joe Farinholt (left) in England with T/Sgt. John Sivak

Joe Farinholt and wife Agnes “Reds” Farinholt at a military ball.

Maari Weiss, GMU student and NCA intern.