FOR THE LAST 8 YEARS…

Operation Meatball has worked to connect with thousands of WWII Veterans, share their stories, honor them, and remind them of the days when they were young and in the service of their country.

(Founder, Liberty Phillips, with Iwo Jima veteran Ivan Hammond in 2005 and 2017)

Our motto has been: “Honoring Veterans & Connecting Them With the Youth of Today.” Right now, the average age of the WWII veteran is 98, and this unusual chapter in our lives is rapidly closing. But our work is ongoing, if not just beginning.

With the start of BRIDGE TO HISTORY we are excited to move into this next chapter, not just connecting our youths to the veterans of WWII but equipping them with the toolkit required to preserve our American legacy for future generations.

What is the goal of b2h

A note from Liberty Phillips, President/Founder of Operation Meatball & Bridge to History

During the last decade of my work with WW2 veterans, I have been continually inspired by the Europeans’ integration of their youth into all of their remembrance programs. They take their young children to their cemeteries, to their battlefields, to their war memorials; not just as spectators, but as participants in an experience which stays with the children as they grow, perpetuating a grateful nation that honors and remembers. This is how I was raised, and I can personally speak to the impact it had on me as a child.

I started Bridge to History because I want to give this experience to American children - children who have already shown through personal study and community initiative a genuine desire to learn and remember.

Over the course of our 9-day overseas bootcamp, B2H children will walk the battlefields, feel the sands of Omaha Beach between their fingers, climb in old German bunkers, meet our allied veterans of WW2, learn facets of military life, meet their young French counterparts, pay respects to the war fallen in special ceremonies at the cemeteries, and see how a nation responds to oppression and liberation.

We call the children “Bridge to History Ambassadors” because when the trip ends, their mission is only beginning. When the children return stateside, they will have been commissioned to take what they have learned and apply it to their lives at home. Some of this entails:

Giving presentations to local schools and clubs about their experience in Europe.
Getting connected with local veterans and recording their stories (from the viewpoint of a pre-teen… a completely different perspective than an adult).
Adopting the graves of local servicemen and recruiting 3 schoolmates to do the same.
And generally starting a buzz and generating interest from their peers.

We understand this is a big-ask for pre-teens, and Bridge to History will come along side our ambassadors, training them and helping facilitate these operations and encouraging them along the way.

Our goal is to ignite a sense of honor and remembrance in American children and set the tone for a life devoted to the perpetuation of our American heritage and honor the men and women who helped preserve it.

“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”

― Franklin D. Roosevelt