Undergraduate students will research the lives of 300 veterans buried in Rock Island National Cemetery on Arsenal Island. After digging through military records, talking to historians, and interviewing family members, they'll create a website with detailed biographies. Then they'll distribute curriculum kits and a lesson plan about the veterans to schools across the region.
Natalie Woodhurst is the Co-Director of the Veterans Legacy Project. She says it will memorialize veterans no matter how prominent they were in life.
"When you go to the Rock Island National Cemetery, it's beautiful and it's great to look at, but each of those stones does hold a story. So we want to make sure to research not just the more notable figures, but also some regular, everyday folks."
The project will start with 300 of the 24,000 veterans buried on Arsenal Island. Woodhurst expects that to take around 3,000 hours to complete, giving undergraduates research experience and teaching younger students about those who served throughout American history.
"There's a Navajo code talker, a couple of Medal of Honor winners, and they're kind of spread out through various wars, all the way back to the Civil War."
The project is being overseen by Woodhurst and Dr. Dale Blesz at St. Ambrose University in Davenport.
The final results are set to be unveiled next year on Veterans Day.
