I had an interesting experience this morning. I drove into San Luis Obispo to the Veterans' Museum for an appointment. They are involved in a project where they interview veterans and get oral histories of their time in the military, what they did, where they were, etc. It was kind of fascinating.
From there, in house they will take the video off the memory card of the camera and transpose it to a DVD. One copy they send to the veteran, one copy they keep on file at the museum and the third copy they send to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC where eventually it will be entered into the official record.
I would strongly urge anyone who is a veteran from any era to contact their local VA office and find out where that service is happening. The combat vets are just the tip of the iceberg and the people who were not involved in combat have stories to tell as well, even if you were just a clerk or a cook, not to demean that.
After my interview, I snuck a peek into the Armory. They have a Lahti anti tank rifle that just fascinates me. 105 pounds of portable 20mm firepower. Man, do I ever have bore size envy. What a hoot that would be to shoot. Of course a magazine of those cartridges would cost about my month's discretionary income so I don't see that happening any time soon. And they have examples of probably every battle rifle that was used in the 20th century and a few from the 19th century as well. Plus a terrific display of militaria mainly from the 20th century.
John (Bigsmoke)
