WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This Veterans Day, an Oregon U.S. Senator urges current and former service members to share their stories.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is asking Oregon veterans to get involved in the Library of Congress American Folklife Center’s Veterans History Project. "We want people from every dimension to participate. There’s no possibility of having too many people participate," he tells the Oregon Radio News Network. 

Since 2000, the project has accumulated, "These firsthand accounts of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and so-forth," says Merkley, "And, it’s really a gift, not just to one’s children and grandchildren, this is a gift to all of the coming generations in America." There’s a push now to make sure women and veterans of color are properly represented in the archive.

Senator Merkley’s office got involved last year. "My team’s been working with the Library of Congress to publicize this, to recruit volunteers to participate in it, to publicize to veterans this opportunity for them to share their experiences."

Documents and interviews date back to World War I. Merkley says more Oregonians need to participate, "They’re inviting every military member who has stories they’d like to share and pass on to the next generation. If they have artifacts like journals or pictures that they’d like to share, send those in. They become a part of the original archive that people will be looking at for centuries to come, as they try to understand what’s happened in the past." There's also a need for volunteers to conduct interviews and collect materials from local vets.

The Veterans History Project collection is available to the public at the Library of Congress website. Click HERE to learn more about participating.

Image courtesy of the Library of Congress