Veterans History Project Provides Way for Veterans and VHA Employees to Tell Their Story

More than 50,000 veterans nationwide have contributed their recorded stories to the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress. Now, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the Library have started a pilot project at the VAMHCS, which will add the stories of VHA employees to the collection.

“Everyone has a story to tell,” said Susan Kern, program manager, Voluntary Service for the VAMHCS, who oversees the new VHA pilot project. “This new pilot provides a wonderful opportunity to capture the unique stories of VHA employees and their service to our nation’s veterans.”

Expanding the project to include employees will help VHA establish a record of the agency’s history, to include groundbreaking discoveries by VHA clinicians and researchers. For example, breakthroughs in areas such as prosthetics, heart disease and diabetes have benefited veterans and millions of other Americans.

“We need to record for posterity how such important work was done,” said Darlene Richardson, VHA’s historian.“This is a great opportunity to preserve the history of those who have served veterans as well as that of veterans themselves.”

VHA employee James Hetmanski, lead information technology (IT) specialist at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and a 33-year VA employee, recorded the story of his role in the development of an IT process which enabled VA to print and scan bar codes on patients’ wrist bands. The technology allows VA doctors and nurses to use laptop computers to call up veterans complete health records, including drug prescriptions, test results and diagnostic images.

“I wanted veterans to know that I’m proud of the work I have done to help them, and I think there is a need to preserve that,” Hetmanski said.

Joel Coonin, an Army veteran who served in World War II and in the Korean War, retired from the Baltimore VA Medical Center in 1991 after 38 years of combined service. Coonin recorded his role in social services work he did with VA, including helping to develop Baltimore’s residential care program and nursing home programs.

“I talked more about what I did for VA (than his military service) because I loved working for VA.” Coonin said.

Most of the interviews are conducted by volunteers such as Chris Borowski from the Baltimore VA Medical Center. Borowski says some of the interviews can be memorable, such as one he did with an eighty-year-old World War II Navy veteran who had the misfortune of holding two buddies as they were dying.

The veteran’s family didn’t know much about his service in the war because he had not talked about it before. He told Borowski that he developed a much closer bond with his grandson, a Marine who has served in Iraq, after sharing his story with him.

“I remember that when I turned the camera off, he began to cry.” Borowski said.

Volunteers receive guidelines, including suggested questions, to help them conduct interviews. Interviews are sent to the Library’s American Folklife Center, where they are catalogued and archived for public use, along with photos, letters, diaries, scrapbooks and memoirs.

The Library has digitized about 4,000 of the interviews, which can be accessed via the Veterans History Project Web site at www.loc.gov/vets. Thematic presentations on the Library’s web site include stories about women veterans, veterans of Asian heritage, veterans who took part in the D-Day invasion or were present at the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Veterans and VHA employees are encouraged to have their one-of-a-kind story recorded as part of the Veterans History project. For information about how to participate, please contact Susan Kern, program manager, Voluntary Service, at (410) 605-7102.