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Experiencing War: Stories from the Veterans History Project

War can change everything in a person's life, whether in a split-second as a bullet whizzes by, or over a long campaign as a young soldier comes to a fuller understanding of himself or herself. No other experience can have this kind of transforming power, the ability to bring life into sharper focus and help us appreciate it in all its dark complexity and its simple beauty.

Featured Story: John Walter Earle
Image of Jeanne Holm

"When I look back on it, I realize we knew we were breaking ground..."

Answering the call to duty during wartime is one thing, but making a thirty-three year career out of the military was not something Jeanne Holm planned on. Thanks to World War II, Holm got in on the ground floor for women in uniform and rose through the officer ranks to become the first woman Major General in the Armed Forces. Along the way she fought many battles--not in combat, but against outdated barriers to women's full participation in national defense.

John Walter Earle's StoryGo and experience
Jeanne Holm's story
Experience more stories of Life-Altering Moments more stories
 

"The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes."      
                                                                                                                                        -- Oscar Wilde

 
Image of Art Buchwald

"'My father was the Marine Corps.' It was everything..."

Art Buchwald's story

Image of Jeanne Markle

"We ran out of bandages ... and had to use the Stars & Stripes newspaper ..."

Jeanne Urbin Markle's story

Image of Denton Crocker

"They wanted to prove that we could be as tough as the males..."

Joanne Palella's story

Image of Clare Marie Crane  on wedding day

"There isn't any place which looks as good to me as our home field ..."

Donald Spencer's story

Image of Samuael Boylston

"America is a nation in the process of trying to live up to its dreams ..."

Warren Tsuneishi's story

Image of Jacob Younginer

"I was running the show and nobody was killed or injured..."

Jacob Younginer's story

 
 
  The Library of Congress
  April 27, 2006
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