View the entire newsletter for more articles: 2018 – NJAC County Biz – August
by William F. Moen, Jr., Freeholder for Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders
On May 23, I was honored and humbled to travel to Washington, D.C. where I was joined by our Congressman Donald Norcross as I delivered interviews conducted with Camden County veterans to the Library of Congress.
It has been said that history is our greatest teacher. I was grateful to present the heroic stories of Camden County’s veterans to our nation’s official repository of history, the Library of Congress. More than 26,000 veterans call Camden County home, and no two share the same story. I thank the Library of Congress for ensuring that their stories are preserved for perpetuity.
Camden County, through our county’s Office of Veterans Affairs, is now one of only two counties in the country to participate in the national Veterans History Project. On that day in May, we delivered 25 of what we hope will be numerous submissions of veterans’ legacies into our nation’s archives. In addition to the first-hand accounts, our submission included interviews with Gold Star families such as Judy Tapper of Waterford Township. Her son, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class David Tapper, a member of the elite Seal Team 6, made the ultimate sacrifice to his country in 2003 in Kabul, Afghanistan.
This first group of interviews we delivered met the exacting criteria set forth by the Library of Congress, and we are in the process of reviewing all of our veterans’ documentaries to identify future submissions. All of the recordings will continue to be a part of our own archives here in Camden County and will never be forgotten.
The Freeholder Board created the Veterans History Project in 2013 to capture the trials, tribulations and triumphs of our local veterans as a lasting memory to their commitment to our country and freedom. The following year, several of those stories were edited into a poignant documentary shown as part of Camden County’s Pearl Harbor Day remembrance aboard the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial.
The film told the story of World War II through the eyes of six Camden County Veterans. Among the veterans featured is J. Domer Zerbe who served as an infantry officer in the 88th Infantry Division in Italy, and Carlo Ginobile, who flew missions as a B-24 Liberator bomber tail gunner with the 15th Air Force.
These brave veterans and their families graciously agreed to share their personal knowledge of the hardships and horrors of battle so that future generations may learn from their accounts. We documented recounts of their stories of service on the land, sea and air, from the kamikaze-scarred Intrepid to remote airbases in Papua New Guinea, and from the enemy-infested jungles of Guam to the bloody beach at Iwo Jima. We thank them for their service to our nation, and for allowing us to document their contributions and sacrifices.
The staff of the Camden County Office of Veterans Affairs conducts the interviews and produces the documentaries to make these videos available to future generations. They are also responsible for authenticating and cataloguing each of the veterans’ stories. All of the work is done in-house, and is truly a labor of love for all that are involved in the process. To date, the stories of more than 150 veterans have been saved for posterity.
On a personal note, both of my late grandfathers served in the U.S. Army during World War II and I wish we could have preserved their memories of fighting fascism and saving the world from despotism. The veterans’ stories we have captured tell of the bravery and sacrifice they all shared, and go to honor all of our heroes.
To learn more about the U.S. Library of Congress Veterans History Project, visit https://www.loc.gov/vets/.