Veteran Legacy Project founders Michelle McCarville, Chris Anderson and then-U.S. Representative Harry Mitchell (second, third and fifth from left) are pictured with volunteers who shared their stories.


anything from declassified documents to old issues of National Geographic. Add to that tracking down relevant photos and diagrams, and one interview may represent 20-100 hours of their labor of love. Each veteran receives a CD of their interview as well as a transcript and a photograph. The package is submitted to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project for processing. After the Arizona project’s website is complete, the interviews will be accessible there, too. For now, a few are available through a Kindle download via amazon.com. Type “Arizona Veteran Legacy Project” in the Amazon search box. Other Auxiliary members drawn to a similar project should not let the comprehensiveness of this Arizona duo’s example intimidate them, however. Start small and go from there, Anderson advised. “The more you do, the


28 LADIES AUXILIARY VFW MAGAZINE


more you improve.” It’s all about learning along the way, she said. More importantly, Anderson


said, “We learned the depth of what their sacrifice really means. It’s not just going off to war...We understand what that band of brothers and sisters really means... that those who never went can never understand,” she said. Anderson’s profound empathy


was stirred particularly through her sister Grace’s interview when her husband took his own life. “I have respect for any


military man or woman who has had to face humanity at its worst, to experience humanity and inhumane acts and do it on behalf of their country,” she said. “We were not there; we do not truly understand what these people had to go through and we must try to understand and be non-judgmental. They have to reconcile that inhumanity with themselves.” n


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