[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 124 (Tuesday, October 5, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S10432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       VETERANS' HISTORY PROJECT

 Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I rise today to publicly recognize 
the progress of the Veterans' History Project and to honor Greg Latza, 
author of Blue Stars: A Selection of Stories from South Dakota's World 
War II Veterans.
  Blue Stars honors and immortalizes the incredible stories of forty-
four South Dakota World War II veterans. Greg's inspiration for writing 
this book came in 1994, when as a photographer for a newspaper, he 
covered a powerful interview of a Sioux Falls World War II veteran.
  As World War II veterans grow older, it is important to collect their 
stories, as Greg did, before they are lost. There are 19 million war 
veterans living in the United States, and every day we lose 1,600 of 
them. We will be able to honor their services for generations to come 
by collecting their memories for the Veterans' History Project and 
preserving them at the Library of Congress.
  The Veterans' History Project, which Congress unanimously approved on 
October 27, 2000, honors our Nation's war veterans and those who served 
in support of them, by creating a legacy of recorded interviews and 
other documents chronicling veterans' wartime experiences. The project 
encompasses veterans of World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, 
Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi 
Freedom.
  All recordings of personal histories and all documents submitted to 
the Veterans' History Project will be archived in the National History 
Collection at the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center. These 
important artifacts will create a comprehensive, searchable catalog of 
veterans' stories, thus allowing current and future generations to 
access them.
  I congratulate Greg Latza on his efforts. Blue Stars pays a great 
tribute to South Dakota's contributions to World War II. Like the 
Veterans' History Project, it serves as an excellent example of the 
importance of honoring and remembering America's veterans.

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