VLP 1

One of my favorite mini-projects for Florida Virtual School was curating 2-3 oral history interviews with 36 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. Soldiers represent the intensity of life and death—which we all face—at its highest concentration. They must face so much, so fast.

I read The Things They Carried and Tim O’Brien’s first book Going After Cacciato back in 2004. Strangely, though Carried is a much stronger work in terms of literary quality Cacciato has stuck with me more vividly. I’m enjoying re-reading Carried though.

I could not agree more passionately with the VLP’s mission of highlight the service of the whole lives of America’s veterans, not just time they spent in combat situations. I look forward to connecting an individual soldier’s life with the big picture of the Vietnam War and indeed of 20^th century (Cold War) world history.