Students from The University of Texas at Arlington are helping the city with research for a new memorial that will honor all military service members from Arlington who lost their lives in service to this country.
It started as an assignment in history Assistant Professor James Sandy's historical methods class. For the research project, students were asked to compile a list of the names of every service member from Arlington who died in a war—from World War I to recent engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It's important for students to be plugged into the community," Sandy said. "This research, combined with the students' interest in military and cultural history, is a way for them to be engaged with the class and with the city of Arlington."
Sandy divided the students into five groups, each with different time periods or wars to search. Bradley Miller's group, for example, looked for World War I service members who died in action, ultimately finding more than 450 from the Dallas-Fort Worth area who died, including four from Arlington.
Clete McAllister, a member of the city's Parks Board and the Veterans Park Foundation, said the city of Arlington was awarded a contract in December 2022 to construct a Memorial to the Fallen, with anticipated completion coming sometime later this year. An official commemoration for the memorial is scheduled for Veterans Day 2023.
"The research work from UTA students has been invaluable," McAllister said. "We simply could not complete the project until we knew the names of the fallen. Most of these soldiers were young men who never got a chance to live their lives. It's important to recognize them, and it starts with knowing their names."
Students visited the Fielder House Museum in Arlington to view service members' pictures, letters, documents and other personal belongings. They also looked through records and documents pertaining to the wars and Arlington in the Special Collections at UTA Libraries. As they researched, they recorded the vets' names, ranks, birth dates, death dates, and places of birth.
UTA's history department will host an online archive connected to the memorial that highlights each name listed with photos, biographical data, newspapers stories and other materials. This site website will be completed this summer and also host other public and digital history projects connected to the department, including Maverick Veteran's Voices, an ongoing oral history project that documents UTA alumni who served in the military.
"Memorials help create a sense of regional and local support and pride," Miller said. "We must remember the people who served and risked their lives for our safety. Honoring them with a memorial of this kind is an excellent start."
Alora White, member of the class who is also majoring in history, said she eventually wants to teach world history to high school students.
"History was my favorite subject growing up, and I would always visit museums and historical sites when I was younger," White said. "This research will help the city with their project, which I think is important to keep people passionate about history."
