Ron Kind: “earlier this year, in April, as a matter of fact, this Congress declared the American GI the Person of the Century. I…”

“earlier this year, in April, as a matter of fact, this Congress declared the American GI the Person of the Century. I believe it was entirely proper and fitting that we did so. But I also believe it is appropriate that those men and women whose contributions were recognized as the single-most significant force affecting the course of the 20th century have an opportunity to share their unique experience so that future generations might better understand the sacrifices made for the cause of democracy. Now, we have the technology to do so, Mr. Speaker. That is why I, along with my friend, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton), introduced a couple of weeks ago H.R. 5212, the Veterans Oral History Project. What the bill would do is direct the Library of Congress to establish a national archives for the collection and preservation of videotaped oral histories of our veterans, as well as the copying of letters that they wrote during their time in service, diaries that they may have kept, so there is a national repository of this very important part of our Nation's history. We also believe that time is of the essence with this oral history project, given that we have roughly 19 million veterans still with us in this country today, 6 million of whom fought during the Second World War, roughly 3,500 still exist from the First World War, but we are losing approximately 1,500 of those veterans a day. With them go their memories.…”