The U.S. Coast Guard’s recent celebration of a historic veteran’s birthday also served as a wonderful reminder that the Library of Congress’ Veterans’ History Project will be celebrating its own 25th Anniversary in 2025.
The Veterans History Project collects, preserves and makes accessible the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans who served from World War I through more recent conflicts and peacekeeping missions, so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand what they saw, did and felt during their service.
Jean Strickland, who turned 102 on Christmas Day, 2024, was the Commanding Officer for the U.S. Coast Guard SPARs. Her career is memorialized in personal narrative video format at the Veterans History Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress Jean Strickland page (AFC/2001/001/119141).
Founded in 1942, the SPARs (short for Semper Paratus, Always Ready) were officially known as the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve. The SPARs opened the door to generations of women serving in the Coast Guard. Though they were demobilized in 1946, their legacy lives on today through the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
During World War II, thousands of women volunteered to serve in critical military shore jobs to support the war effort.
Jean Strickland was one of them. At 21 years old, the then-Los Angeles claims agent heard a radio announcement calling on women to serve. She quit her job and joined the Coast Guard in March 1944. Strickland’s daughter, Gail Hale, recalled her mother’s fierce desire to serve. Strickland told her daughter that serving her country “was something my heart told me I had to do.”
Established in 2000 by Congressional legislation, the Veterans History Project owes its origin to a simple family gathering. While at a Father’s Day picnic, Wisconsin U.S. Representative Ron Kind overheard his father and uncle swapping stories from their service in World War II and the Korean War. Realizing the fleeting nature of these reminiscences, he grabbed a video camera to record his relatives’ accounts for posterity.
This brief experience was the impetus for Congress to create a national, grassroots oral history initiative, which would allow participants to interview veterans in their lives and communities, with the resulting recordings archived as part of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
The Veterans History Project collecting scope quickly grew to include other types of original source materials, such as letters, diaries, and photographs. in 2016, new legislation expanded the scope to include oral histories from “family members of the Armed Forces who died as a result of their service during a period of war.”
Thanks to the generosity of its participants, the Veterans History Project archive includes thousands of personal narratives of individual veterans. These narratives take the form of oral history interviews like Jean Strickland’s, as well as original manuscript material, such as memoirs, letters, diaries, and artwork, as well as original photographs.
Rich in scope and content, these first-person accounts are fascinating primary historical sources that enliven and enrich America’s understanding of the military service experience.
Click HERE to see the Veterans History Project curated resources and discover the vast array of experiences, topics, and materials contained in its collections. Or, dive straight into the collection and conduct your own customized searches!
- To learn more about Strickland’s service, please visit her Personal Narratives page at the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
- To read more about the history of the SPARs and their legacy, please click HERE.
