YORKTOWN — Andrew Abeyounis, a Grafton High School history teacher, has been selected by National History Day to research stories of Korean War veterans.
“Untold Stories from the Korean War,” sponsored by a grant from the Veterans Legacy Program at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, offers teachers the opportunity to research Korean War veterans.
According to National History Day, selected teachers have partnered with almost 600 students to research the lives of nearly 100 individuals who served in the U.S. military during the Korean War era, continued to serve their community and are currently buried or memorialized in a U.S. National or state Veterans Cemetery. The program prioritizes identifying underrepresented and untold stories.
Abeyounis has chosen to research U.S. Marine Corps Corporal Raymond Nevarro Armstead and U.S. Marine Corps Private First Class Angel Luis Rivera.
From now until January, Abeyounis and his students will meet monthly with a historian from George Mason University to study the Korean War and learn more about the experiences of underrepresented veterans.
Guided by eight research mentors, participants will use NHD-created materials to leverage databases such as Ancestry Classroom, Fold3 and Newspapers.com to research the lives and service of their selected veterans. Connecting with local libraries and historical societies, teams will learn more about the communities where the veterans and their families lived. Finally, teams will analyze Official Military Personnel Files requested from the National Personnel Records Center. After conducting their research, teams will synthesize the information to tell the story of their veteran’s life and service with a profile published on the Veterans Legacy Memorial and NHD’s Silent Heroes website.
After the teachers and students research their chosen veterans’ lives, military service, and contributions to their communities this fall, student-teacher teams will visit their local national cemetery in spring 2025 to honor their veterans and read eulogies at their graves. In addition to the profiles cross-listed on the NHD Silent Heroes website and the Veterans Legacy Memorial, NHD will also select 50 profiles and add video eulogies for the veterans.
The 48 teachers selected for this program represent 35 states and 45 U.S. National Cemeteries.
To learn more about the Veterans Legacy Program, visit cem.va.gov.
