Many of the services scheduled for Memorial Day that would have honored our fallen veterans were canceled this year.
Many worry those who served will be forgotten and their stories will be lost.
One local library is making sure service members' stories are preserved for all to read about.
Danny Crothers was a Marine in the Vietnam War and was killed in action.
He wrote a poem and sent it to his mom. In one line he wrote: You folks have it easy compared to us across the sea, All any soldier ask of you, is "please remember me."
Doug Stout is the veteran's project coordinator for the Licking County Library. His mission is that none of us forget the names and their stories.
“We have just forgotten and we talk that we will always remember. The veterans themselves say they won't remember,” Stout said.
Stout said the project started in 2015 by creating a database that would capture every veteran that lived in Licking County.
One-by-one, Stout talks to veterans or their families. Then he adds their words to the database.
“People started sharing diaries and pictures from all wars, and all time. It's just grown to almost 5,000 veterans. I'm not close to being done,” Stout said. “This is my day to make sure these men and women aren't forgotten. We simply cannot forget. They didn't get to live their lives."