A SPECIAL VETERANS DAY MESSAGE FROM REP. BILL SANDIFER

November 21, 2007

Dear Friend,

Earlier this month, I was honored to be part of a Veterans Day parade in my home county of Oconee. That experience made consider how much the brave ones who have served our nation during war times deserve our unending gratitude and appreciation.

My 20 years in the S.C. National Guard have given me a small glimpse at the amazing sacrifices so many men and women have made to protect our freedoms. Ordinary citizens have become heroes and have fought for America during its greatest times of need.

Every one of these remarkable men and women has a story to tell. And whether their service was on the battlefront or the home front, every story deserves to be heard.

We have a great resource in our community that honors veterans for their service— Patriot’s Hall, Oconee’s Veterans Museum. I ask you to partner with Patriot’s Hall on a very special mission, The South Carolina Veterans History Project.

The project, created by the U.S. Congress in 2000, is working to record and permanently preserve the stories of our nation’s veterans for our children and grandchildren. All of their stories will be placed in the Library of Congress so future generations will understand the tremendous sacrifice in the name of liberty and freedom.

This project is vital to recording our state’s history as well as our nation’s. South Carolina is home to 400,000 veterans and about 8,000 of those men and women are citizens of Oconee County. One in three of the families in our community have a veteran in their households. To capture their stories, however, we are in a race against time. Across the country, we are losing aging veterans at a rate of 1,000 a day.

Please join me in honoring Oconee County’s bravest by volunteering to personally interview a veteran. Our U.S. Senator Jim DeMint is helping spearhead this project in South Carolina and I sincerely appreciate his commitment to this great cause. On my website www.billsandifer.com, you will find a link to information prepared by DeMint about how you can help. We need individuals and groups in our community to get involved and help us preserve an important piece of our history and heritage.

Thank you in advance for working with me on this exciting project. Together, we can preserve the first-hand stories of ordinary citizens who have defended our freedom and democracy around the world.

Sincerely,

Representative Bill Sandifer

South Carolina House District 2