On November 11, we take pause to remember and honor the sacrifices of our veterans. In doing so, we hope to provide further avenues for our patrons to do the same. Whether in life or death, we will endeavor to remember.
Fold3 is named after the third fold in many flag-folding ceremonies which honors and remembers veterans for their sacrifice in defending their country and promoting peace. This online resource provides the most thorough collection of military genealogy available. Fold3 allows you to browse military records by military conflict. It also boasts an incredible search feature with results that are unmatched. While there, be sure and click on the memorials page to view the U.S. Honor Wall and Vietnam Memorial Wall among others.
Deerfield Cemetery Tour Online
Deerfield Public Library is proud to offer an online veteran’s tour of the Deerfield Cemetery. This tour is available in audio format with a downloadable guide. Feel free to visit the Deerfield Cemetery on your own and follow along with the audio and guide.
Book Recommendations
Below are a few selections from our collection that highlight the veteran’s experience. Click on the title to place a hold!
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brian
“Winner of a National Book Award in 1979 for Going After Cacciato, O’Brien again shows his literary stuff with this brilliant collection of short stories, many of which have won literary recognition. Each of the 22 tales relates the exploits and personalities of a fictional platoon of American soldiers in Vietnam. An acutely painful reading experience, this collection should be read as a book and not a mere selection of stories reprinted from magazines. Not since Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five has the American soldier been portrayed with such poignance and sincerity.”–Library Journal.
The Lost Eleven: The Forgotten Story of Black American Soldiers Brutally Massacred in World War II by Denise George
Documents the lesser-known story of the Wereth Eleven, African-American soldiers who made heroic contributions during the Battle of the Bulge, drawing on firsthand interviews to trace their deaths after being captured by Nazis and the growing efforts to commemorate their sacrifices.
The Things They Cannot Say: Stories Soldiers Won’t Tell You About What They’ve Seen, Done or Failed To Do in War by Kevin Sites
Compiling the accounts of soldiers, Marines, their families, and friends as well as an unsettling narrative of his own failures during war, an award-winning journalist, presenting real stories of battle, learns that war both gives and takes from those most intimately involved in it.
Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe
Describes the experiences of three women soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq to reveal how their military service has affected their friendship, personal lives, and families, detailing the realities of their work on bases and in war zones and how their choices and losses shaped their perspectives.
Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two by Allan Berube
During World War II, as the United States called on its citizens to serve in unprecedented numbers, the presence of gay Americans in the armed forces increasingly conflicted with the expanding antihomosexual policies and procedures of the military. In Coming Out Under Fire, Allan Berube examines in-depth and detail these social and political confrontations–not as a story of how the military victimized homosexuals, but as a story of how a dynamic power relationship developed between gay citizens and their government, transforming them both.
