#10

Project Idea 1 ( oral history and the military)

RON DEVLIN Of The,Morning Call. (2001, Nov 11). Students relive military history by telling their relatives' stories** parkland classes celebrate the holiday with "the veterans wall.'. Morning Call. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/393040671?accountid=27045

                In an oral history exercise Art smith asked his ninth grade class to interview relatives and friends that had served in the military, he also asked the students to bring pictures to put on a wall as a memorial. Smith found that most of the people in the stories were in their teens when they had been enlisted or drafted, he also found that these soldiers came from diverse backgrounds. Smith taught his class that all this veterans were a part of history by being the primary eyewitnesses to the real story.

                Military and history go along with each other because without history the military could not learn from the past. We need to know the past to make a better future and I think that Smith was trying to teach his students that oral history is the best because the people who were present are the “primary eyewitnesses to history” and they know what actually happen and when they pass it on, that person can learn from the past and not make the same mistake and teach others not to make the mistake.

Buckley, C. (2012, Sep 24). Valley veterans tell war stories for oral military history project. McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1069267596?accountid=27045     

            All military history begins with oral history, and the library of congress folk life center is doing just that to be able to preserve the oral history of the military told by the people who were actually there, the veterans themselves. This project is mostly made up of volunteers who go out and find stories orally, written, videotaped, or recorded. The veterans who participate in this project say that sharing their stories helps them heal from the pain of being in war. Some of the stories presented in the history channel came from the research done by the library of congress folk life center. When the veteran participates in this research they record him/her and when they are done the veteran will get a copy, so he can leave it for his posterity.

Project Idea 2 (Stories the military does not want told)

Olmsted, D. (2004). Telling Stories the Military Doesn't Want Told. Nieman Reports, 58(2), 45-48.

            The military has a history they don’t want people to know, and this article talks about that sad truth of what is being kept from the general public just so the military can have good public reputation. It is easy for reporters to talk to the grunts who say how happy they are being so far away from home, but it’s a very different story when the reported tries to talk to a soldier who is not as happy and feel like he is being kicked around especially when they really are. Reported Mark Benjamin heard of a soldier at fort Knox who was wounded, before he arrived with his photographer they moved the soldier from pitiful living and even worst medical care. When the reported found him the photographer was going to take a picture of the wounded soldier who was outside the medical barracks waiting in formation. The photographer was detained and taken to the garrison commander’s office. The military covered this story up by saying that they photographer had trespassed.