University keeps vets story project alive

University keeps vets story project alive

By Janese Silvey - The Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune via AP
Posted : Monday Jul 12, 2010 14:47:12 EDT

COLUMBIA, Mo. — As a veteran of Afghanistan and an active member of the Army National Guard, Rep. Jason Kander knows the importance of sharing stories from combat. But he isn’t keen on the idea of doing that on taxpayers’ dimes — 6 million dimes, to be exact.

Kander was one of the state lawmakers who helped scrap $600,000 from the upcoming state budget that had been requested to support Missouri Veterans Stories, a project that records Missouri veterans talking about their war experiences.

Now, he and several other representatives are teaming up with the University of Missouri to recreate that veteran video program in a way that benefits students and saves taxpayer dollars.

Missouri Veterans Stories debuted in 2007 and has since produced about 1,300 videos of men and women sharing their memories from World War II. It has been operated out of Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder’s office and managed by a private video company, Patriot Productions.

When Kander began questioning the allocation during a budget committee meeting this past session, he learned that the state was the company’s only client. Further investigation revealed that those affiliated with Patriot Productions also made campaign contributions to Kinder, said Kander, D-Kansas City.
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University keeps vets story project alive