By Michael McHugh

Somerville’s Department of Veterans Services is launching a partnership with the Library of Congress to host the Veterans History Project. This project is an effort to collect, store, and preserve the stories of American war veterans for generations by keeping these accounts in the Library of Congress forever.

The department is looking for personal accounts of veterans relating to their experiences both during and after their time in service. By creating an accessible public record of these stories, they hope to prevent this invaluable information from being lost to time.

“This really started as the way for us to connect more with veterans and get them out of the isolation that was brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.” explains Ted Louis-Jacques, Somerville’s Director of Veterans Services, “It’s also a way for us to recount the stories of veterans, their time in service, and also what they do after service, because not only do they serve their country, but once they’re done they become police officers, firefighters, public safety, mail workers, and they just continue to serve in many different areas.”

The Veterans History Project, which was originally created by congress in 2000, reaches out to municipalities and veteran organizations across the country to tap into the wealth of knowledge in the different communities in which veterans now live. Now, through this new partnership, Somerville’s veteran community is able to share and memorialize their experiences for the public.

“In order for us to preserve these stories and to take veteran’s accounts from their personal lives versus hearing it from someone like a granddaughter or another relative, we knew it was really important for us to jump on this now,” said Louis-Jacques.

Time is a huge factor in the importance of this project, but another is the meaningful insight that can be taken from their stories in relation to today’s global politics or the recent actions of the US overseas.

“Some folks have shared their opinion on the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the Afghanistan war.” continued Louis-Jacques, “We’ve talked about how they’ve experienced unpopular wars that were brought on by the United States and how they went forward.”

Any veterans with personal accounts to share can reach out to the Department of Veterans’ Services by emailing veterans@somervillema.gov or by calling (617)-625-6600.