SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — Air Force retiree Greta Hamilton was familiar with the Harlem Hellfighters, a storied all-black infantry regiment that won fame on the World War I battlefields of France only to be virtually shunned by the U.S. military back home.

But it wasn't until she volunteered to help the New York State Military Museum digitize the unit's post-WWI records that she came to know the soldiers better: what they did for a living, where they were born, when they enlisted and for how long.

She and other volunteers have recorded the data from about a quarter of the approximately 10,000 personnel cards of the Harlem Hellfighters for a database that has been posted on the New York Heritage and military museum websites. A$2,500 grant from the Capital District Library Council is helping pay for the project.