Coast Highway Photographys Veteran: Defending Freedom was created to provide a tribute to the men and women who fought for our country, and to provide lasting memories for their family and progeny through portrait photography. Focusing on WWII, Korean, and Vietnam veterans initially, the project hopes to create dignified portraits of veterans of all wars and conflicts. These past 6 months has been filled with the experiences of those Veterans who put their lives on the line to protect ours and we will forever be changed  by their stories. On Wednesday night Kevin spoke for the North County Photographic Society at Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas and was sent this beautiful email from a woman who has created a book dedicated to female veterans. Peg has been interviewing these women for the past six years and understands completely the emotion of meeting these veterans and listening to their untold stories. Below is an image of a few veterans that we have photographed over the past 6 months…to see more please visit: Veteran: Defending Freedom on Facebook 

Below is Peg’s letter:

Dear Kevin,

Your presentation of your “Veteran: Defending Freedom Project” was phenomenal.  It goes without saying that your photography is wonderful, but you also did such a terrific job of telling the veterans’ stories.  Everyone, no matter how young or old, especially needs to hear what all happened to the veterans of World War II.  They have been silent for so long that what ever words they will speak about it now, needs to be heard by as many ears as they can fall upon.

I, like you, could not soak in enough of what they had to tell while doing my interviewing.  And because the women’s stories have not been told, or reported as much as the mens’, I found myself amazed at the things that they had been through.  Of course, I knew my great aunt’s story, but to be able to sit and listen to the other 52 women was truly a humbling experience.  How extremely lucky I was that ‘this project chose me’, just as yours chose you, to be in the right place at the right time to capture their time and importance in history.  I will be 59 on Monday and I studied World War II in high school — that is when I first realized my aunt was a hero.  But I did not learn, or fully understand, the war’s history until I heard it through the women’s voices over the last six years.  The more they told, the more research it led me to.  The more research I did, the more I want to keep interviewing, which I am still continuing to do.  I will never cease to be amazed and heart stuck at their stories.  So many times I have left an interview/portrait session shaking my head in disbelief and haunted for days by what I had heard.  Because of my aunt’s stories and inspiration, I served in the Navy from 1970-1977 (during the Vietnam era), but it was through this ‘greatest generation’ that the phrase “freedom is not free” became our country’s realization.

I want to sincerely thank you for what you are doing for the veterans.  You are thanking them in such a meaningful way and at the same time, giving their families a priceless treasure.  You, too, were in the right place at the right time to record history.  What an honor that is.

 With deep regard,

 Peg Trout