For the Record

Historical projects put veterans'
personal stories on display.

An improvised explosive device in Iraq ripped Eric Cagle’s Humvee apart in 2004. The U.S. Army staff sergeant from Las Vegas was left with brain damage and hemiplegia that make him a wheelchair user, along with having sight problems. Despite his more severe injuries, Cagle’s thoughts are of his fellow servicemembers.

“If someone else had gotten hurt, I couldn’t have taken that,” says Cagle. “I mean, I’m happy to be the guy who got hurt because those are my soldiers, my kids. I didn’t want them to get hurt.”

Cagle is among an estimated 22.7 million living veterans. This number is expected to drop to around 14 million by 2035, but various groups are working to make sure the stories of vets such as Cagle are not forgotten. The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center (loc.gov/vets) is one of several programs around the country working to record the experiences and thoughts of veterans. Rather than learning about history by reading a textbook or an article on the Internet, future generations will be able to study it through actually hearing the firsthand accounts of the people who were there.

 

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