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The Oregon Chapter started this "memories" project back in the late 1990s. Each member was sent a request to write down their memories of their time served in the Eighth Air Force during World War Two. Some cover from the time they joined, their training, and their combat experiences to VJ day. Some items are just a paragraph. Original documents like log books have been donated.
The documents can be loaned to the chapter to be copied and returned, or donated permanently.
In order to preserve the originals all items have been scanned and saved in the Adobe® PDF format. This allows people to view the original without having to physically loan them out and be lost, damaged or experience general wear and tear of handling.
All items are online. This also allows the military research people to discover and use them as needed. A DVD with all the material scanned at a higher resolution than what is placed on the web site can be purchased.
"Twenty-five doesn't sound like much until you start flying them."
— Capt Robert Morgan, pilot of the "Memphis Belle."
To learn history you have only a few choices: talk to a participant, read their written documents, or read what others have who may - or may not - have talked to people or looked at source documents.
The best is always to talk to the original participants. In learning about World War II some people cannot talk - they were killed in action (KIA) or have died in the ensuring years since the war. This is true for any historical study and not unique to the study of war.
If you cannot talk to a person then seeing original written documents, items that they collected themselves during the war, items that were given to them, or that they obtained during the war but was officially not allowed to be published, provides invaluable insight. Some items included in these archives you will have never seen before - or even knew existed.
History can only be taught to new people by hearing it firsthand from someone who participated - and then stories are passed along verbatim, written down, or recorded in some manner. Black & White film, and from the 1930s onward color, recorded visual and audio details (combat films were usually silent, then dubbed with sound in the studio). However, most events that people participated in which created the history have never been recorded.
Larger than life figures, unique events, are usually well noted - but the everyday things, the "routine" items that occur, daily life really, is seldom recorded. To understand everything about any era the everyday occurrences and routines also need to be recorded. That is why diaries are so highly prized since they are the daily recordings of a person's life.
The 8th Air Force press relation people were quite good - but only in detailing the aerial combat portion of the people and planes. The hundreds of thousands of people that made up airbase,air depot, and supply personnel were seldom recorded and published (in some cases they could not be, that would be giving the enemy valuable information as to operational capabilities).
The stories of these people also needed to be recorded for posterity.
The history of the Eighth Air Force would not be complete if there were no stories from the people of the countries they fraught against: Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. The stories from the people who fought in the air, their base personnel, the air defense people, and the targets bombed, also are needed to be recorded for a complete history.
If you wish to contribute your story and your memorabilia please do so. Send your material along with the authorization form (PDF) as to the allowable uses of the material by others to the chapter secretary. There are many people who would not want to give up their originals so it can be passed along in the family and in those cases they can be sent in, scanned, then returned back.
When sending use FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS (registered and insured) or any shipper that allows positive tracking of material.
Authorized stories sent in will be placed into the archive and onto the web site.
You will need to have a copy of Adobe® Acrobat® Reader
version 6.0 or later in order to view these files. You can download
a copy directly from Adobe. 
A CD with all the same items may be purchased directly from the Society for $10.00 (includes shipping). The CD is organized identical to the online version. The CD version material is not compressed like the online version. Scanning was done at a resolution anywhere from 300 to 1200 DPI to get best scan of the material.
A version of Adobe Reader is stored on the disk.
A complete searchable index of all items is also on the CD. This is accessed using Adobe Reader's built in search feature. This feature allows you to search the CD for any text that has been recognized and indexed by Acrobat.