Special to Atmore News
More than 421,000 American military members gave their lives in World War II, including 88 from Escambia County, and the sacrifices they made are sadly and slowly fading out of our collective memories.
Stories Behind the Stars, a project put together by a NASA engineer in Huntsville, has set out to change that.
Stories Behind the Stars is a nationwide, all-volunteer effort with the goal of ensuring that each and every one of the American service men and women who lost their lives in World War II are remembered as more than just a statistic.
Bob Fuerst, a NASA engineer in Huntsville, serves as the Alabama State Director for the Stories Behind the Stars project.
He and a small team of volunteers from across the state have recently completed researching and writing stories about all 6,539 Alabamians who lost their lives during WWII. The group worked from official casualty records, as well as names on local WWII memorials, period newspaper articles, cemetery records, and other references.
The compilation is believed to be the most complete accounting of Alabama’s WWII dead, and some of the stories are being shared on a daily basis via a Facebook page named “Remembering Alabama WWII Fallen.” Just click on the county of interest.
The stories for all 88 Escambia County fallen heroes have been compiled and are available on the Facebook page, Fuerst said.
Plans to expand the project to include all U.S. World War II service deaths represent a much too massive undertaking for one person or small group to accomplish.
Fuerst said volunteers are needed to help tell the stories of the 400,000-plus U.S. service members who lost their lives in World War II. The project, which has been ongoing for four years, has already produced more than 70,000 of the stories, but more volunteers are needed to complete the initiative.
The engineer pointed out that his mission has no commercial ties.
“No one is making money from this; there’s no advertising or clickbait,” he said. “It’s purely being done … to honor and remember these heroes of the greatest generation for the sacrifices they made to keep the world free. We want these folks to be remembered as more than just a marker at a cemetery.”
Anyone interested in volunteering is encouraged to begin by submitting an online form at storiesbehindthestars.org. For more information on the project, contact Fuerst at bob.al@storiesbehindthestars.org.