I guess the thing that has surprised me the most over the last 3 months as terabytes of content have come in from a variety of Commands we’re working on, is how really sparse the written history is. To be even more specific, the most glaring omission of all is something-—anything—about the Command’s contribution to the OIF/OEF fight. It’s usually about one paragraph worth. And it’s not because no one cares. I know that it’s because we have small forces with overwhelming and repeated demands on them. They simply can’t get to everything. And granted, collecting the items to help tell that story can be a big pain, but let me see if I can put it in perspective regarding the pain vs the worth of it all. When I went to a lot of time and trouble to assemble the items for my Mom’s 80th celebration book…or my husband’s life in review book and DVD at the ripe old age of 47…I found that in the end it was the best gift I could ever give, bar none. Nothing else could produce the reaction that gift did. Why? Because when you give people the story of what their life is about, you let them know that not only is their story worthwhile, but they really matter. So does the worth of the outcome outweigh the pain of gathering the content you need to produce a substantive legacy of service? Without a doubt. I’ve been doing this for 6 years, and I have seen plenty of evidence in the faces of those Servicemembers and family members as they see the gift they have been given. A gift they can pass on about who they are, what they did, who they served with, what sacrifices were made, and why they matter so much to the preservation of America’s way of life.
Sharlene