WASHINGTON -- Veterans Day on this November 11 may find special security precautions at ceremonies around the country, with officials on heightened alert, but the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will carry out its traditional activities with even more enthusiasm than usual.
"America's new war against terrorists will make veterans of thousands more young people," Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi said. "VA will be privileged to serve them, while we reach out to our oldest veterans who are facing their greatest need for VA services."
Principi will host the Veterans Day national observance at ArlingtonNationalCemetery. He noted that the VA's Veterans Day Web site – http://www.va.gov/pubaff/vetsday – offers information for teachers, veterans who want to share their military experiences with students and anyone who may wish to tape veterans' accounts for a history project.
VA also is hosting a link on its main Web site to support President Bush's new campaign, called "Lessons of Liberty," to unite schools with veterans. The site carries educational material for veterans and teachers to help bring veterans to every school in America to recount their military experiences for students. It will let younger generations learn about the hardships, sacrifice and heroism of veterans and the price they have paid to preserve freedom. It links to information offered by veterans service organizations and educational organizations.
Volunteers at VA facilities nationwide have been enlisted to tape audio and video interviews with veterans of the wars spanning the 20th Century, from World War I to the Gulf War, for the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project. VA is also encouraging veterans service organizations to participate.
Congressional legislation created the project in October 2000 to collect the stories of war veterans through the AmericanFolklifeCenter at the Library. Diaries, letters and photographs will be collected and preserved along with video and audio tapes.
A Veterans Day observance by the Department of Interior offers visitors to national parks free admission during the weekend of Nov. 10-12. Entrance fees will be waived to the nation's parks, monuments and memorials.
