Spotlight: WWII Silhouettes from Kansas City, MO

Link:  http://www.pinterest.com/barbaradenton/lovinas-silhouettes/

Barbara Denton's great-aunt Lovina spent years in the Kansas City Canteen in Kansas City, MO meeting soldiers and their loved ones and creating their silhouettes.  She kept the negatives, and now over 70 years later they have found a new project on the internet.  Barb has spent hours scanning and tagging these silhouettes in an attempt to connect them with their owners.

Do you know any of these soldiers?  Check Barb's pinterest page above to see hundreds of them.

What I Learned from Listening to Nonagenarians

I posted my first article ever on LinkedIn.  If you're interested in learning more about listening and business skills, it might be a good read for you.

What I Learned from Listening to Nonagenarians

Gaming and WWII Vets: War Thunder helps reunite pilots with their planes

Source: Reddit /r/Warthunder forums

This project is a fantastic idea.  All the pilots I have interviewed loved talking about their planes, and this project helps pilots who can no longer fly simulate their plane experiences.

It reminds me strongly of an interview I performed with Asa "Ace" Whitehead .  Ace is a pilot and he had some really great memories of flying his plane (and was very animated when we discussed his missions and the actual sensation of flying).

Enjoy the picture and thanks for sharing, jwsimmons!

Adm. William H. McRaven gives great life lessons at the University of Texas commencement

I may be a bit biased because UT s my alma mater twice-over, but it's nice to see some outstanding "life lessons" from the commencement speaker this year (who just happens to be commander of U.S. Special Operations Command).

At the end of each interview, interviewers ask for life lessons.  Sometimes they are lengthy; sometimes they are not needed.  These are well-deserved.

Jim "Pee Wee" Martin parachutes into Normandy again at 93

Source

On this 70th anniversary of D-Day (and also my 5-year anniversary - save the heckling for later), Jim Martin is doing something I would never, ever dream of doing:  he is parachuting into Normandy once again.

"It didn't (compare)," Martin said, "because there wasn't anybody shooting at me today."

Congratulations on your successful jump, Jim!

Branching Out

A few posts ago, I wrote about how difficult it has been lately to find World War II veterans who able and willing to speak about their experiences as the population is quickly aging.  I went to one of my favorite greasy spoons for breakfast today and happened across not one, but four, WWII veterans who are potential candidates!  I had a couple of business cards for the Red Cross left over in my purse, and did my best to explain the project.

I'm hopeful that I will get at least one call back from them; they seemed like really funny and nice people.

In the meantime, I am starting to branch out to my network and interview where I can.  I recently finished an interview with one of my connections who served in Vietnam and at the same time sent off an interview with a lovely young woman that interpreted submarine signals through the Cold War into the Gulf War.  This week, I am setting up an interview with a friend that should be really interesting.

If you know any veterans in the Austin, Texas area that might like to speak about their experiences, or if you are a veteran who would like to tell your story, please get in contact with me by leaving a message or emailing me at my name at gmail dot com.  I would be delighted to speak with you further about the project.

Stolen Valor

I wanted to pass on a book recommendation that was given to me by a veteran I am interviewing this weekend.  He is a professional career advisor at my graduate school and we reconnected at an event at the iSchool a few weeks ago.  As a Vietnam veteran, he experiences frustration at the dissonance between his service and his professional career as they are intertwined in his particular experience.  He recommended I read Stolen Valor as a precursor to our interview.

As an information professional, I found this book illuminating.  It showcases the power of the Freedom of Information Act and a highly determined veteran.  In the book, B.G. Burkett goes to great lengths to reclaim the rightful honor of his fellow Vietnam veterans by researching common claims and exposing exaggerated or completely falsified stories.

What strikes me as interesting is that the VHP is not a group that sets out to tell the "truthful" story - as stories can be dissonant depending on who experienced what.  However, falsifying war records is dishonorable and falsifying medals can now be a criminal offense if done for profit.

Now, a note on oral history vs. factual claims.  As an oral historian, my job is to capture the essence of the story on tape and it is the job of my interviewee to abide by the truth when relaying their experiences.  However, I heavily emphasize that my interviewees give me stories, not dates, for this exact reason.  When older veterans get caught up on what date a particular event happened, or who did what where, their stories skip a beat and they lose concentration.  Sometimes, especially with interviewees that have memory issues, I nudge them on so that instead of feeling frustration they feel as though their experience was a positive one in the end.

At any rate, I would highly recommend Stolen Valor for anyone working with the VHP who up until now may have been hesitant to interview veterans of war in the Vietnam era.  This book has reframed the discussion for me and I now have two Vietnam-era interviews in the works.

How Monopoly helped WWII POWs escape

And now for something completely different: Monopoly games that helped American POWs escape German camps:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-12-inside-monopolys-secret-war-against-the-third-reich

"What he found out along the way is that the tools that most likely would have been used in this set would have been a very small compass, maybe an inch in diameter, and they also would have had files - two different types to get you through fencing material, and probably a folding pair of shears, a very small set of shears that would collapse on a pivot, and then of course a silk escape map that would have been appropriate for whatever camp the delivery was for." Skilled technicians at Waddingtons would have cut precise openings for the tools in the cardboard liner of the game boards, while foreign currency money pads would have been assembled with a few Monopoly bills on top for disguise. Orbanes also says that one of six possible area maps would have been added to each game, and printing marks - a seemingly errant period after a specific location on the board itself that would pass as a production gaff - would have disclosed the kind of map that was inside. A period placed after Mayfair would signal a map of Scandinavia and upper Germany, say, while one after Free Parking referred to Northern France.

What ingenuity that took!