"Stories Behind the Stars" is a nonprofit initiative that seeks to compile stories of the 400,000-plus fallen in one central database, accessible from a smartphone or other technology device.

It is a monumental task that no one man, not even someone of Don Milne's talent and aspirations, can handle.

To date, volunteers from 47 states and 10 countries, are dedicating time to "Stories Behind the Stars" as researchers and writers. Each volunteer receives training and free access to ancestry.com research tools.

The goal, according to project creator Don Milne, is to allow visitors to hallowed sites such as war memorials and cemeteries the opportunity to scan the names of the fallen with a smartphone and gain instant access to the biographies, and photographs, hosted in the central database at www.fold3.com.

"Stories Behind the Stars" is searching for more volunteers to find more information and to transcribe the data onto the project's online database. All you need is a smartphone and a desire to help.

You can read more about this nonprofit project in an article by Jon Pompia in The Pueblo Chieftain at https://www.chieftain.com/story/news/local/2020/11/11/stories-behind-stars-chronicle-400-000-who-fell-wwii/6249630002/.

You also can watch a video about the "Stories Behind the Stars" project at: https://youtu.be/lW_FN_wHQnA.