Make the news - introduce thousands to write the stories of World War II fallen

How did you first hear about Stories Behind the Stars? Was it a news story? There is a good chance that it was. With Memorial Day approaching, you can help more people to learn about this amazing volunteer based effort to remember all 421,000 US World War II fallen.

At this time of year, news editors are looking for stories to run for Memorial Day. I invite you to contact news organizations in your area such as TV stations and newspapers and invite them to cover this project.  Contacting new organizations is easy, just visit their website and look for the email link for news tips.

I've started a message you can add to and share. Make it personal and include your involvement.

Our volunteers have completed close to 70,000 stories, but with more volunteers, we can compete the remaining 350,000 names much faster. Your assistance in attracting more attention is a worthy endeavor.

MESSAGE FOR THE MEDIA

Are you looking for the most impactful Memorial Day story for this year? What about a project with a goal to make the stories of all 421,000 World War II fallen accessible for free via smartphone at any grave or memorial anywhere in the world?

Memorial Day is a day many Americans visit the graves of those who served in the US military. Although the experience involves the living visitor and the deceased visitee, only the living are actively involved in the visit. 

That has now changed. It is now possible to read the stories of World War II fallen at their gravesites so they can share their stories with those visiting their graves.

This can be a brand new experience for anyone of the 4 million people visiting Arlington National Cemetery each year. Instead of just looking at words and numbers on gravestones, each of the 8,000+ World War II fallen buried at Arlington National Cemetery has a story.

Visitors can go up to any WWII fallen grave, type in the fallen’s name into the FindAGrave app on their smartphone and get a link to the fallen’s story on Fold3.com.

This will work from the youngest WWII fallen buried at Arlington, 18 year old Marine Private Isaac Hashim Alick of Detroit, Michigan, who died at the Battle of Saipan, to 65 year old Marine quartermaster Sergeant Harry Zender from Fredonia, New York, who died when struck by a vehicle in Washington, DC. 

It will work for 23 year old Second Lieutenant Evelyn C. Eckert, a nurse who was killed when a kamikaze plane struck the hospital ship USS Comfort.

It will also work for 19 year old Staff Sergeant George Henry Wells of Wilson, North Carolina, who, had he survived the war and lived a long life, would have celebrated his 100th birthday the week before Memorial Day this year. Instead, he died on June 26, 1944 on an air mission to France.

Your next visit to Arlington National Cemetery can be like nothing else you have experienced. You can visit any of the 8,000+ WWII fallen graves and read that person’s story.

Here is a local connection . . .

This experience is made possible by the hundreds of Stories Behind the Stars volunteers, from all 50 states and more than a dozen other countries, who have researched and written individual stories of the World War II fallen. Not only have they written the stories of every WWII buried at Arlington National Cemetery, they have written the stories of all 2,341 Pearl Harbor fallen, all 2,502 Normandy D-Day fallen, and tens of thousands more, for a current total approaching 70,000.

The audacious goal of Stories Behind the Stars is to make sure that every one of the 421,000 US WWII fallen each have a story that anyone can read at graves and memorials for decades to come.

We welcome more volunteers to help us complete each of the remaining names. It takes less time to write one of these stories than to watch a WWII movie. Free training resources are provided. To find out more, visit www.storiesbehindthestars.org.

To see the smartphone app in action visit: https://youtu.be/zOi7Zocx2MY