'We Need to Let Veterans Know That They are Not Forgotten' [video]

Too often, Austin Balarin says veterans’ sacrifices to defend the United States seem to go unnoticed and unappreciated.

Balarin is working to change that.

Balarin, his mother, and a few county officials are heading up a project to document veterans’ stories of serving in the military.

As part of Passaic County’s first Veterans Recognition Event, Balarin will interview veterans about their military service at the Passaic County Veterans Recognition Event at the Nov. 5. The interviews are for the Veterans History Project, a national initiative to document and preserve veterans’ stories in the Library of Congress. The interviews will be transcribed and, along with a recording, sent to the Library of Congress.

“We don’t talk about veterans and we don’t talk to them,” Balarin said. “We see war in pictures and hear about it in generalities, but we need to talk to these people and find out how they feel about what they experienced.”

Then-General George Washington lived in the Mansion for a few months in 1780.

Balarin will conduct the interviews in the same room where Washington used to write correspondence to Congress and orders to the Revolutionary Army.

Tom Miller, director of veterans’ services for Passaic County, said that students are learning less and less about United States history in school. This makes Balarin’s project something that should be embraced by Passaic County’s veterans, Miller said.

Just as soldiers wrote letters to loved ones, the idea of veterans documenting their lives as soldiers is not a new concept, but it is one that needs to be embraced and the constant advancement in technology allows how that is documented to become more alive, Miller said.

“We don’t have movies or sound recordings of veterans from the American Revolutionary War, we have their letters,” said Edward Snky, Passaic County historian. “Now we can use video to tell their stories.”

The Veterans Recognition Event will also feature tours of the Dey Mansion. Vietnam War veteran John Flannagan will sign copies of his book “Born in Brooklyn, Raised in the CAV.”

This is not the first community event Balarin and his mother Maria have spearheaded. They organized the Tunnel to Towers Run held on Sept. 11. The run was held in memory of those who died during the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Money raised from the event went to benefit veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We need to let veterans know that they are not forgotten and that they never will be,” Balarin said.