WWII veteran, Bob Uhl, 1943

 Bob Uhl remembers when he was old enough to enlist in the armed services when World War II broke out. That was six decades ago.

“The old people start the wars and the younger ones have to fight them,” Uhl said. “We were just a bunch of kids fighting in Europe. And likewise, the Germans were the same way.”

But now Uhl is almost 90 years old and he wants younger generations to see what his comrades did to preserve freedom.

“We honor the veterans but the ones we really need to honor are the ones who didn’t make it home,” he said.

As for the ones who are still alive, Uhl is urging them to start talking before all the memories are gone forever.

“When we’re gone, it’s gone. A lot of people are going to want to know about (our stories),” he said. “Old timers like me are getting too old, we’re dying off.”

More than 400,000 servicemen and women were killed during the war.

“That’s a lot of folks. One of those might have been able to cure cancer or one of those might have been able to do fabulous things that will never happen because (they were killed) in the war,” Uhl said.

And since so many stories have yet to be told, one Atlanta man is preserving as many memories as he can. Tom Beaty launched Witness to War in 2002. It is an online library that archives hundreds of short video interviews with veterans. 

“They can hear the veterans themselves, what it was like to be there, why it was so cold,” Beaty said. “How frightening it was to hear the rumble of the German tanks.”

Beaty has completed more than 400 interviews and his goal is to finish 1,000 before the end of the year. 

“A WWII veteran is dying every 90 seconds and anecdotally, it feels like it is really accelerating. By 2014, according to the Veterans Association there will only be about a million WWII vets left,” Beaty said.  

He says the site has caught on and teachers are using it along with traditional text books. He is also starting to capture veteran’s stories from other wars and conflicts such as the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf Wars, and perhaps the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s critically important that younger folks really understand the price that was paid to get all the things that we have today,” he said.

Which is why Beaty has veterans like Uhl coming forward, so no secrets are left untold. Uhl said, it’s the least he can do.

“You almost feel guilty that you’re here,” Uhl said. “I have made it and I have lived a productive life. I finished school went on and I had a child, married… and now enjoying grandchildren and a retired life but these people didn’t have an opportunity. In my own heart, the good Lord has a way of compensating these fellas and what they missed.”

Here is the website: http://www.witnesstowar.org/