BRAMA, June 24, 2010, 9:00 AM ET
Press release
UAV appeal to American veterans of Ukrainian heritage
By Anna Krawczuk, UAV Past National Commander
UAV Registration Project Coordinator
Artist's view of the future site of the UAV National Monument
at St. Andrew’s Cemetery in South Bound Brook, New Jersey
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UAV Registration Project
Ukrainian American Veterans, Inc., appeal to American veterans of Ukrainian descent
to come forward and be counted in the UAV Registration Project, which was initiated
in 1998. Volume I of the UAV Registration Project Report 1998–2003 was published
in 2004. Limited copies are still available at $15. The report includes listings
of more than four thousand names of men and women of Ukrainian descent who served
in the US Armed Forces. Three thousand names in this list came from archival
sources (WWII Honor Rolls, church bulletins, plaques, etc.); the rest were gathered
from registrants who submitted a UAV Registration Form and a copy of discharge
paper Form DD214 or equivalent. Most of the individuals listed in the report served
during the wars and conflicts of the 20th century, but those who have served in the
21st century’s war on terrorism are also represented.
Today’s all-volunteer US military includes many Ukrainian American men and women who
were born and/or raised in the United States as well as recent immigrants from
Ukraine. Among our more recent registrants are individuals who are currently on
active duty and have been recalled and deployed to war zones numerous times.
Volume II of the UAV Registration Project is being prepared for release in the near
future. It will include the names of all registrants and information received from
new archival sources. We thank everyone for sending relevant archival information,
including photographs of monuments. We also thank family members of veterans for
registering their loved ones.
Our quest is to register and honor all American servicemen and servicewomen of
Ukrainian heritage who served honorably and with distinction in the United States
Armed Forces. Our mission is to register, honor, and publish the names of Ukrainian
Americans who through dedicated service not only fulfilled their obligation to the
United States of America but also contributed to US military history. Ukrainian
Americans served in all the wars and conflicts of the 20th century and are presently
in harm’s way, fighting the war on terrorism.
Although participation in the Registration Project is a requirement for all UAV
members, you do not have to be a member of the UAV to register yourself or your
loved one. We ask that all registrants submit a UAV Registration Form and a copy of
Form DD214 or equivalent. A brief biography and photo in uniform is optional but
appreciated. You may request a copy of the UAV Registration Form by email at
uav.registration@verizon.net or by writing to:
UAV Registration Project
PO Box 172
Holmdel, NJ 07733-0172
UAV Historic Overview
Ukrainian American Veterans, Inc., was founded in 1948 by World War I and World War
II veterans of Ukrainian descent who served in the US Armed Forces and were
honorably discharged. Although some posts established by Ukrainian American
veterans were formed prior to 1948, they were not organized on the national level.
They were created because these veterans felt the need to be identified as veterans
from a specific ethnic group, thus ensuring that the designation "Ukrainian
American veterans" was represented in the annals of US military history. Most of
these pre-1948 posts became an integral part of the UAV.
UAV National Monument
designed by John Jaciw
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However, such recognition was hard to achieve and ethnic identity was hard to prove.
The complexity of the history of Ukraine, which was marked by occupations and
enslavement by other nations, created an "identity crisis" for Ukrainian immigrants
to the United States, who were haphazardly and inaccurately assigned new
nationalities—Russian, Polish, Austrian, Hungarian, Soviet, etc. American
casualties during WWII were high; more than 400,000 Americans who served on the
European and Pacific fronts perished. But because of the immigration policy of
designating stateless Ukrainians as members of other ethnic and national origin, to
this day, we do not know how many of those who fought and died in the U.S. military
were of Ukrainian descent.
After World War II, many Ukrainians found themselves in foreign countries, often in
Displaced Persons camps in Europe. The United States of America, Canada, Australia,
and countries in South America accepted many post-WWII émigrés. For those
coming to the United States, the dilemma continued – ethnicity was determined by
country of birth (Germany, Belgium, France, etc.), and establishing accurate
statistical demographics of Ukrainian immigrants became a complicated issue. That
issue still exists, which is one of the reasons the UAV Registration Project is so
valuable.
During the Korean conflict of the early 1950s, many of the new immigrants of
Ukrainian origin with permanent immigration status were drafted into the US Armed
Forces. Many were deployed to Korea; others were stationed overseas (in other
foreign countries) and/or stateside. All of them served their new country well and
with honor. More than fifty-three thousand American soldiers died in Korea, many
ethnic Ukrainians among them. We need your help in honoring them.
During the Vietnam War, young men were again drafted, while women volunteered. High
war casualties included Ukrainian Americans. Nearly sixty thousand names are
inscribed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall – USA in Washington, D.C. If those of you
reading this appeal are a relative or friend of a Ukrainian American veteran whose
name is inscribed on this memorial please inform us. You may want to visit
http://www.virtualwall.org/iStates.htm to find the information of your lost comrade
or loved one. Help us! We need to include them in the UAV Registration Project
Volume II.
It was not until the break up of the USSR that Ukraine gained its independence in
1991. New "waves" of Ukrainian immigrants arrived in the United States, this time
carrying Ukrainian passports for identification, which enabled an accurate record of
their ethnicity and/or nationality. The 9-11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York
City, the Pentagon, the heroic and tragic events that led to the crash of United
Airlines Flight 93 in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania in 2001, as well as the
War on Terrorism that followed, saw many Ukrainian American men and women
volunteering and being deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries. We
maintain contact with some of them and would like to know about others. We are
proud of them and would like to tell them so! Please help us in this endeavor by
notifying the UAV about any Ukrainian American currently serving in any branch of
the U.S. Armed Forces. Please email us at: uav.tribune@verizon.net or write to:
UAV Tribune
PO Box 172
Holmdel, NJ 07733-0172
UAV National Monument and Registration Project
A future endeavor of the UAV is to have Registration Project become part of an
Educational Center at the Ukrainian Museum of New Jersey in South Bound Brook, New
Jersey. The UAV Registration Project archives will become an important source of
information to visitors, who will be able to pull the name of a veteran on a
computer and find a brief history of his or her service; only veterans who are
registered will be in the search database.
St. Thomas Sunday April 11, 2010 blessing
Bishop Daniel and Archbishop Antony of UOC USA in the center
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The blessing of the prominent plot of land on which the UAV National Monument will
be erected at St. Andrew’s Cemetery took place on St. Thomas Sunday, April 11, 2010.
We are very grateful to His Eminence Archbishop Antony of UOC of USA for his
continuous support and to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of USA for donating the
land.
Each Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day we stand united with all Americans,
commemorating, remembering, and honoring American warriors past and present. We
must bear in mind that by honoring American veterans – we also honor our own. In
celebration of the 4th of July, let us thank them for our freedom.
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