Beginning in January of this year a growing group of volunteers have been writing stories about WWII fallen buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Completed Stories
These include:
all 97 names from sections 33, 54, 55, 57, 59, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, and 70, which we called Operation Watchtower. A big thanks to Section Director Becky Fox
all 216 names from sections 1, 5, 27, 30, 31, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 51, 52, 53, 81, MA, MB, and MK, which we called Operation Landcrab. A big thanks to Section Director Tricia Castille
all 41 names from section 25, which we called Operation Torch. A big thanks to Section Director Tammy Burrows
all 125 names from section 10, which we called Operation Galvanic. A big thanks to Section Director Christy Johnson
all 24 names from section 23, which we called Operation Husky. A big thanks to Section Director Linda Simpson
all 154 names from sections 6 and 7, which we called Operation Forager. A big thanks to Section Director Tammy Burrows
all 114 names from sections 2, 9, 21, 22, 32, 35, 37, 45, 46, and 48 which we called Operation Avenger. A big thanks to Section Director Karen Marquart
stories from the sections we are working on now
Our goal is to get as many sections 100% done by Memorial Day.
Use this link to find and read any of the completed stories.
Right now we have 75 active writers and another 35 volunteers who have expressed an interest in starting soon. We would really like to have about 300 volunteers helping with one story a week.
What Is Still Left to Do
Complete the remaining stories of the 180 names in section 15. A big thanks to Section Director Linda Simpson
Complete the remaining stories of the 600 names in section 60. A big thanks to Section Director Katherine Rasdorf
Complete the remaining stories of the 289 names in sections 4, 11, 19 and 20. A big thanks to Section Director Tricia Castile
Complete the remaining stories of the 359 names in section 13 and encompassing memorials. A big thanks to Section Director Kathy Harmon
Complete the remaining stories of the 174 names in section 18. A big thanks to Section Director Linda Simpson
Finish the database work to exclude the non-WWII names from our list of 3,200 in sections 3, 8, 17
Begin the database work to exclude the non-WWII names from our list of 4,232 in sections 12 and 34
We think there may be as many as 7,700 total WWII fallen names to write about, but it could be less. We should know for sure in early April as our database team goes through the remaining records we got from Arlington National Cemetery. Thanks to all of those on the team getting our database ready for the writers.
Finding More Volunteers To Write Stories
Current volunteers finding friends is a great way to increase our numbers. We should also get a boost from volunteers who have heard about this project from RootsTech and other media coverage.
For those stories we are not able to complete by Memorial Day, we hope we will have enough help to complete them by July 4.
To find out how to help, email Don Milne don@storiesbehindthestars.org.