Hot Springs Village veteran interviews are posted on History Project website

Veterans History Project participants Sam Laird, Fallon Snyder, Jeanne Meek-DAR project chair, Ervin Markwald and Merrill Clark. (Jeff Meek photo)

More than 120 Hot Springs Village veterans have now participated in the Veterans History Project’s (VHP) efforts to record and preserve their military experiences.

Each veteran who is interviewed receives a copy of his or her interview, and a copy is also sent to the VHP which is housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Funding for these copies is provided by the Akansa Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Jeanne Meek oversees the project for the DAR as Veterans History Project chairperson.

To date, 122 interviews have been completed since January 2007.

As of last week, 109 of those interviews are now listed on the VHP website: www.loc.gov/vets.

Of those 109 interviews, 23 complete interviews have been digitized and can be viewed on the computer.

Those 23 veterans who have had the honor of being selected for digitized viewing include: Tom Brown, Chuck Brunson, Bob Case, Merrill Clark, Jerry Devon, Paul Fair (of Little Rock), Richard Hill, Betty Krause, Tom LaGinja, Sam Laird, James Lynch, Oscar MacCammond, Malcolm MacDonald, Ervin Markwald, Richard McKinney, Armin Mueller, Penick Reitzammer, Bill Reynolds, Fallon Snyder, Ben Stangler, Tom Valentine, Chuck Whitfill and Jack Zordell.

To access the interviews, go to the website as listed above. Then click on “search the veteran’s collection.”

Type in the veteran’s name in the narrow search window.

When the veteran’s page appears, click on “view digital collection.”

On the next page that appears click on “complete interview.”

The Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress was created on Oct. 27, 2000, by a unanimous vote of Congress. The project seeks stories from those who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.