IMPACT DAY

The company I work for has an annual day called IMPACT day. This is a day that the company takes to give back to the community. They give all 100,000+ employee's a paid day of work and deploy them into the community to give back. Last year I worked out at Fort Belvoir with the USO. There we put together care packages for troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a great opportunity. This year far surpassed the opportunity I had last year.

This year I volunteered at the Veterans Administration (VA) medical center. The project I worked on while I was there today was taking audio history of WWII and Korean War veterans. The project is actually sponsored through the Library of Congress. These audio recordings will be cataloged and maintained as historical reviews of this very special generation. I met 2 very interesting people today. The first served in WWII. He was born in 1924 and joined the service at 18. He enlisted in the Army's Air Corp and flew a P-47. He had some interesting stories to tell. We talked for about an hour. His failing memory and my lack of memory about WWII dates & events made the discussion difficult.

The other vet that I interviewed today was born in 1925 and served in both the Navy and Army during the Korean War. This vet served as part of a armored division along the 38th Parallel. Even though we talked for about 2 hours we barely scratched the surface on the memories and stories that he had to share.

I am hoping to go back out there again soon. I was invited back by the hospital to talk with the vets anytime. I think it will be interesting to read up on some of the history from these two wars and to also hear first hand from the troops that were there about living through it. I find it pretty cool that my name will be included in a document that will be preserved as part of American History.