This past weekend, I finished watching the 15 hour Ken Burns documentary on World War II, simply titled "The War." Burns and co-producer Lynn Novick focused on four communities: Waterbury, Conn., Mobile, Ala., Luverne, Minn., and Sacramento, Calif., finding veterans and residents who lived during the war to bring a uniquely personal and firsthand touch, making history come alive.

Burns is a talented documentarian, and the footage used in the series was remarkable, some even shot in color. The firsthand accounts of the veterans were captivating.

According to the series, more than 16 million American men and women served in uniform during the war, more than 400,000 lost their lives. The veterans who were interviewed for the series were eloquent and emotional. It is obvious that six decades of "normal" life have not diminished the intensity of emotion that the memory of battle stirs up. These were, after all, no more than teenagers who went off to help decide the fate of freedom in the world.

Pretty heady stuff. The young men who saw combat were changed forever. The soldiers who fought against young boys and old men at the war's end and liberated prison and concentration camps also saw things that no one should ever have to see.

These firsthand accounts of history are being recorded by the Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress. The VHP was created by the United States Congress to collect and archive the personal recollections of U.S. wartime veterans to honor their service and share their stories with current and future generations. In May, five Le Mars area World War II veterans: Merton L. "Stub' Jessen, Phyllis Freymann Koopman, Kenneth Lubben, Clifford Perry and John Schnepf sat down with an Iowa Public Television crew and Mary Manning Bracken for interviews to record their World War Il experiences.

My late father served in the Army as a medic during the war, seeing action in the Philippines. He never really spoke much about his experiences during the war. After watching this program, I understand my father better and his reasons for not speaking about what he had seen. His generation felt that they were each doing their part and were raised as humble people. I wish now that I would have been able to get him to tell me more about what he experienced.

That's exactly why series like "The War" are so important. The people that lived during this pivotal moment in our history are passing away at the rate of 1,000 a week, according to the series. Their recollections, however painful they may be, will help us understand, in some small way, what they went through.

I was struck by how many times it seemed that the tide could have easily turned the other way, and how much planning the Nazis had done for the conquest of our country and the world. In a chilling moment, Ray Leopold of Waterbury recalled visiting with a German P.O.W. in perfect, unaccented English. The German asked Leopold where he was from and recounted the geography of Waterbury, down to a small creek. The German told Leopold that he had been in training for the administration of territories in the northeast United States.

Seeing this documentary has made me understand how profoundly the war changed our nation. In addition to uniting us as people in a way that has never been seen before or since, the war planted the seeds of change for our society and our nation's place in the world.

The civil rights and women's movements can trace their roots back to the war. It seems strange to us in 2007 to imagine that a wounded African-American soldier could get his wounds treated on a hospital ship, but the barber refused to give him a haircut until ordered to do so by the captain of the ship. The shortage of workers during the war led many women to seek jobs that were traditionally done by men. Winning the war with our allies made us a superpower.

I imagine nearly all of us know someone who served during the war. Let's not wait until Veterans Day or their funeral to thank them for "just doing their part."

That's the least we can do for what they did for us.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.