After 10 years, one man's mission to preserve WWII veterans' legacy continues
Rishi Sharma started his journey 10 years ago by driving around his Southern California neighborhood to record interviews with veterans and later expanded his outreach.
Yorktown, New York — For 10 years, Rishi Sharma has crisscrossed the country on a mission to preserve history, interviewing more than 3,000 World War II combat veterans, and he's not done yet.
"For the last 10 years, I've been on the mission to interview every single World War II combat veteran," the 28-year-old said. "And I've quite honestly spent every single day of the last 10 years doing that."
Rishi recently interviewed 100-year-old Marine veteran Nils Mockler of Yorktown, New York. Nils was a combat intelligence scout, and his first battle was one of the bloodiest in Marine history — and one of the most inspiring — Iwo Jima.
"What did it mean to you seeing the American Flag being raised?" Rishi asked Nils.
"Well, the hair on my arms still stands up when I think about how beautiful it was," Nils said.