The Man on a Mission to Interview as many WWII Veterans as Possible

During World War II, over 16 million Americans served in the military. Today, there are less than 600,000 still alive - and that number is shrinking, fast. And with every day that passes, fewer and fewer veterans live to tell the stories of the war, while more and more history is lost forever.

That is why, ever since 2016, Rishi Sharma has been on a mission to stop that from happening.

It started in Sharma's sophomore year of high school when he heard about Lyle Bouck, a veteran who
had fended off German forces in the Battle of the Bulge - the last major German offensive of World War II.

Before long, this had become a daily occurrence for Sharma, who started biking to retirement homes to interview veterans, even cutting class to do so. He founded Heroes of the Second World War, a nonprofit dedicated to his mission, and now lives off of money he has raised through a GoFundMe. He has interviewed nearly 850 veterans across 45 states and has even conducted interviews in Canada. 

Most of the veterans are more than happy to share their stories and tell their experiences with at times graphic detail. "That was the most godawful thing we've ever had to witness," recalled Don Pullen, who served in the Air Force during the war.

Once the interviews are done, Sharma burns them onto a disk and gives them to the families of the veterans. If the veterans are willing, he also releases the interviews to the public so that the horrific stories of the war are never forgotten and the disastrous mistakes never repeated.

To learn more about or support Sharma's mission, you can visit his website at http://www.heroesofthesecondworldwar.org/

Source:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-one-young-man-made-it-his-mission-to-interview-wwii-veterans/
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/09/us/rishi-sharma-wwii-veterans-interviews-trnd/index.html