The story behind MilitaryHistoryUnveiled and the 18-year-old who started it.
I was 14 years old when I first sat down across from a World War II veteran and pressed record. I didn't have a formal strategy, a nonprofit, or even a decent camera. What I had was a question: What was it like?
What came out of that conversation, the details of training, the fear before battle, the weight of survival, was unlike anything I'd read in a textbook. It was a living record. I knew I had to do it again.
Over the next three years, I traveled across the United States and abroad, conducting in-depth video interviews with 73 veterans, 60 of them survivors of World War II, ranging in age from 92 to 107 years old. I've spoken with men who stormed Utah Beach on D-Day, a Navajo Code Talker who fought on Iwo Jima, a Tuskegee Airman, the first Black Marine, and a Bataan Death March survivor who endured three years as a prisoner of war.
At age 15, I ran a full marathon called "Race Against Time" to raise funds and awareness for the WWII Veterans History Project. I raised over $5,000. The name wasn't metaphorical. Every day, roughly 150 American WWII veterans die. The window to capture their stories is measured not in years but in months. Running 26.2 miles felt like a small thing next to what these men and women endured.
Most people who interview veterans ask only about combat. I believe the most powerful interview captures the whole arc: who they were before the war, what made them enlist, what training felt like, what combat actually was, what homecoming cost them, and how they see it all now, decades later. Every interview follows this structure:
This approach creates something different: an oral history, not just a war story. It's the reason these interviews resonate with 3 million viewers worldwide — people who had never heard of Merrill's Marauders, the Bataan Death March, or the Schweinfurt Raid, and who couldn't look away.
At age 14, conducts first veteran interviews in the Denver area. The channel MilitaryHistoryUnveiled is launched.
At age 15, runs a full marathon to raise $5,000 for the WWII Veterans History Project. First interviews published; channel begins growing.
Interviews expand internationally — UK, Poland, Nepal, South Africa, Australia. Channel surpasses 1 million views. Interviews now span WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
Recognized by former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta for the work. Channel continues to grow, reaching over 5,000 subscribers and 3M+ views. Nonprofit formation process begins.
Launches the "250 Voices for 250 Years" campaign in honor of America's 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. Goal: record 250 WWII veteran voices. Currently at 60. Nonprofit application in progress.
The mathematics of loss are brutal. Every day we wait, the number of veterans who can tell their own story shrinks.
American WWII veterans still alive as of 2024 — down from 16 million who served
WWII veterans die every single day in the United States
America's 250th birthday — and our deadline for the 250 Voices campaign