Veterans, Native American Stories and Holidays

Wanted to let folks know that I haven't forgotten and I am working on articles. With my illnesses and the holidays it has been a little slow. Holidays are busy and trying for healthy people...they plum wear me OUT!! But I have been working here and there as I can. I'm working on several articles at the same time. I know...I know...folks tell me work on one thing, finish it, then do another. My brain, my body and my system in my house doesn't work that way!! Plus blogger has draft mode and it fits right in with the way I work. I have several in the Native American series ongoing and hope to have one of those up soon.

5th Infantry Division Regimental Cover

I gathered all of dad's war stuff together to do the article for the World War II Daughters Blog and realized, "WOW, we have a lot of stuff!" I found his regimental history book. Which is going to be a big help in putting together his story with the pictures. I also have his DD214 which lists the battles he was in and trying to match those with his photos and the regimental history. I think I could write a BOOK!! And may in the future.

The regimental history has NO index, no table of contents, no page numbers and goes only by dates. Quite fascinating but it's now beginning to be divided by post it notes and book marks. I am about 1/3 of the way through it. I'm attaching a photo of the front of it.

My dad joined the 50th Field Artillery of the 5th Division in 1939 and he went from Iceland to Czechoslovakia i.e. the whole war with this division. Marching just like the men on the cover. I have a story of him meeting the Russians. Plus his interviews I recorded, I'm going back through those and now understanding some of what he spoke of. He was in so many battles, it is amazing he survived.  These are just his Army stories, I have some stories of his Navy exploits that are just as harrowing!  I am so proud to do this though. I want to tell his story. Bravest man I ever knew and so unassuming about it all. But it may be after New Years before I get the first article accomplished.

Preserving Our Veteran's Stories

This Veterans Day, I wrote a blog post about my father and his military service. Since I am the family historian, along with that service comes many stories and photos. As usual I'm always trying to figure out how to tell those stories and what to do with all this family history.

I was going through the Yahoo news page on Veterans day and came across an article about Jane Bartow.  World War II Letters reveal parents untold love story. Jane found her parents letters from World War II and published them in a book.

But she also began a website called, World War II Daughters. On this site is space to tell these stories of our fathers and their experiences in World War II.  I was inspired. I contacted Jane and I've decided that several stories about my dad and his service are a better fit on her site, than here on Appalachian Heart Wood. I will be contributing a few of Dad's World War II stories to that website. I'll be posting on this blog when they are up with a link.  I encourage daughter's of World War II veterans with stories to contact Jane and consider telling their father's tales there.

Jane also told me about the Veteran's History Project through the Library of Congress. I worked as an assistant archivist and archivist beginning with the Holston Conference Archives during and after college and so all these letters, photos, etc. I have of family, I am always thinking about their preservation for the future. None of this hoarding of family mementos means a thing if they don't survive and the stories are handed down with them. Just one look on eBay will show you how some family members kept items for so long only to have another family member care nothing about them and discard them or get rid of them. Many times these items carry our history, not only of ourselves but of our nation.

So I have been in contact with the Library of Congress Veteran's History Project and this Thanksgiving I'm going to talk to my family of finding dad's mementos a permanent home where they can be shared, accessed by anyone and preserved. Better than a box in the closet.  I will scan all the copies digitally and share with the family. That way they can make copies of whatever they want. But to me this is a way that Dad's life will be honored and what he kept and did in World War II, Korea and Vietnam will be preserved.

If you have stories to share and mementos to preserve I encourage you to check out Jane's website and the Veteran's History Project at the Library of Congress. The project is collecting stories from Veterans of all wars including the most recent. Our Veterans and their stories deserve to be remembered.

World War II Daughters Stories

Veteran's History Project

In Honor of Veterans Day 2013