"After conducting research for DU VLP, I gained a whole new perspective on the ways in which the many stories of our veterans can be told. Our national history is intrinsically intertwined with that of our veterans, meaning that it is critically important that we continue to share historical narratives that highlight their lives and service. VLP showed me just how much we can learn from those who came before us, and I am incredibly thankful to have gotten the chance to be a part of such an ambitious and rewarding program."

- Matthew Kavorkian

“Many members of my family were in the military and I grew up on their stories and historical military mysteries of our own but few outside of such a family are fully acquainted with service members sacrifices or lives. Working on this project meant a considerable amount to me because I felt as though I were giving life and words to headstones that previously only contained a few lines of texts and expanding others’ knowledge. I, my colleagues, and the students were opening the historical book so to speak on these service members lives, which is exactly why I thought the headstones represented more than how they look upon the first, albeit impactful glance, in a national cemetery like Ft. Logan. Hence the title, more than a headstone, because that dash between dates could be expanded into a story, a life, a memory.”

- Morgan Zeigler

Elizabeth Escobedo, PhD

Associate Professor of History,
UNiversity of Denver

Elizabeth Escobedo is an associate professor of US history at the University of Denver. She enjoys teaching a wide range of historical topics, including the US home front in World War II, US veteran history, US women’s history, Latino history, and immigration in the twentieth century US. Her first book, From Coveralls to Zoot Suits: The Lives of Mexican American Women on the World War II Home Front (University of North Carolina Press, 2013), received the Coalition for Western Women’s History Armitage-Jameson Book Prize and the Best History Book—English from the International Latino Book Awards. She has also appeared in two PBS documentaries, "Zoot Suit Riots" and "Latino Americans." Her current book project is a history of Puerto Rican women in the U.S. military during the Second World War, including an exploration of their experiences as members of the veteran population in postwar America. 

Carol Helstosky, Phd

Professor of History,
UNiversity of Denver

Carol Helstosky is a Professor of History at the University of Denver in Colorado, where she teaches courses in modern European cultural, political, and military history. She received her PhD in modern European history from Rutgers University and she was a postdoctoral fellow in modern Italian Studies at the American Academy in Rome in 1999/2000. She is the author of Italian Forgers: The Art Market and the Weight of the Past in Modern Italy (2024), winner of the 2025 Helen and Howard Marraro Prize in Italian History from the Society for Italian Historical Studies; Food Culture in the Mediterranean (2009); Pizza: A Global History (2008); and Garlic and Oil: Food and Politics in Modern Italy (2004). She is editor of The Routledge History of Food (2015) and has authored numerous articles and book chapters on the history of food and culture in modern Italy. At the University of Denver, she works with students documenting the lives and legacies of U.S. veterans, contributing to the National Cemetery Administration’s Veterans Legacy Program and the Honors Burial Project of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Local 1071. She is currently working on a history of United States-Italian military relations during and after World War Two, examining the histories of American military cemeteries (Sicily-Rome and Florence) and the installation and history of U.S. military bases Aviano Air Force Base and Naval Support Activity Naples.