Oral history project gives veterans a聽voice
Spring 2013 · Comment ·
Military veterans have stories to tell, and UT Arlington is listening. The University recently launched Maverick Veterans鈥� Voices, an oral history project highlighting the experiences of veterans and their loved聽ones.
鈥�There isn鈥檛 a lot of attention given to veterans鈥� family members as a primary source of documentation,鈥� says Kimberly van Noort, associate dean of the and architect of the digital humanities project. 鈥淏ut if we can get a soldier鈥檚 wife, widow, or adult children to talk to us about the challenges they鈥檝e faced, then this can really be something special.鈥�
The first veterans interviewed were the 2013 inductees into the Hall of Honor, retired Col. Archie Davis and Al Ellis. The UT Arlington Library will transcribe these and future interviews to create an online repository for scholarly research and the public.
Social work Associate Professor Alexa Smith-Osborne, who consulted on Maverick Veterans鈥� Voices, says the project will spotlight service members鈥� parents, siblings, adult children, wives, partners, and widows.
鈥�The reality of military service is that service members鈥� families serve their country in a complementary fashion to the service members themselves,鈥� Dr. Smith-Osborne says.
UT Arlington has a rich military tradition. The institution was Carlisle Military Academy from 1902鈥�1913 and Arlington Military Academy from 1916鈥�1917. Male students were required to participate in the Cadet Corps until 1954. Today鈥檚 Maverick Battalion has about 120 students, and more than 2,800 military veterans are currently enrolled.