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Watch Senator King present the interviews HERE
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Angus King today sent his first nine interviews with Maine veterans to the Library of Congress, where they will be preserved as part of their Veterans History Project (VHP) for future generations. During the presentation ceremony, Senator King and VHP Director Monica Mohindra emphasized the importance of preserving the first-hand stories of America’s veterans; emphasizing that this story is essential to honoring and understanding the sacrifices of America’s brave servicemen. The senator also discussed how his interviews with Maine veterans helped him shape the legislation and better understand the issues facing those who served. King recently included a serviceman suicide report recommended to him during an interview with a veteran in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023.
“We are literally recording a history that can inform our future. One of my favorite Mark Twain sayings, everyone has one, is that history doesn’t always repeat itself, but it usually rhymes. It means we all have something to learn from history.” said Senator King. “For example, the first interview I did was with a friend named Carmine Pecorelli. Carmine served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam – he served in the Navy, Air Force and Army in one career. But unfortunately, we lost him a few months ago. Without [Veterans History Project] his story and stories would be lost.
“The other thing I think is important about these interviews is that they can inform policy,” Senator King continued. “One veteran told me in the interview that he thought it would be worthwhile to ask the military to look at veteran suicides by job classification. It is [now] an amendment to the National Defense Act that will be introduced in the US Senate in a few weeks, and she came out of that interview. We’re asking the Department of Defense to look into the issue of veteran suicides by job classification to see if there are places of additional danger that we need to address. People in my business don’t listen enough, and that’s what this program is all about, listening to veterans from different backgrounds, different conflicts and different experiences.”
During the presentation ceremony, VHP Director Mohindra thanked Senator King for his work on the project and for providing the nine interviews from Maine.
“Thank you so much, Senator King and everyone in your office who helped arrange the interviews and gather the stories,” said VHP director Mohindra. “You ensured that the voices of the veterans you interviewed would live on. We tend to think of it as something that lives on because we’re talking to individual veterans. But the truth is that this legacy of service and this life, living ownership of that legacy is not just because you accept these individual personal narratives. It’s because of the usage and what happens to them once they’re here. They don’t sit on dusty shelves, but are used every day. Countless communities in Maine and the nation will benefit.”
Over the past year, Senator King has conducted nine interviews with Maine veterans as part of the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project, the library’s effort to collect, preserve, and disseminate the personal accounts of America’s war veterans so that future generations can hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. Interviews and primary documents from the project are then used by researchers, historians, students and filmmakers across the country. You can find or watch all nine of Senator King’s interviews HERE.
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