Vietnam veteran Ed Blanco has placed a short video of his 1966 birthday party on YouTube. It is a wonderful visual reminder of the fashions of the mid-1960s.
In 1967, when Blanco was 19, he volunteered to be drafted.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Missing Airman Accounted For
Airman Missing from Vietnam War Accounted For
Published December 09, 2013 (by the US Air Force)
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, or DPMO, announced today that the remains of an Airman, missing from the Vietnam War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.
Col. Francis J. McGouldrick Jr. of New Haven, Conn., will be buried Dec. 13, at Arlington National Cemetery. On Dec. 13, 1968, McGouldrick was on a night strike mission when his B-57E Canberra aircraft collided with another aircraft over Savannakhet Province, Laos.
The Greatest Generation is Disappearing / St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 9
Reply
“More than 16 million American service members were involved in World War II, with the vast majority of them surviving it. As of May, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that about 1.7 million of them are still alive.”
Oral History in Museums Under Attack
Rob Perks, Oral History Curator/Director of National Life Stories at the British Museum in London has written a commentary for the British publication Museums Journal, entitled “Oral history in museums is under attack.”
In it he notes that the Museum of London has eliminated the post of oral history curator, at the same time that other institutions throughout Great Britain are doing similar things. Now, he asserts, no museum in the UK currently has an oral history curator. He attributes this to tightened museum budgets eliminating “extraneous” posts and reducing outreach efforts.
Military families bear invisible burdens
Their communities are often fractured, their concerns invisible, their lives misunderstood.
With the advent of the all volunteer military in 1974, the general American public is no longer forced to deal with the realities of military service. Today, less than .5% of the United States population serves in the armed forces. Writing in the New York Times Karl Eikenberry and David Kennedy today’s Armed Forces as
New York Veteran History Series: Women Warriors
Saturday, December 7, 2013, 4 – 6 p.m.
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (42nd and 5th Ave.)
South Court Auditorium
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (42nd and 5th Ave.)
South Court Auditorium
(http://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2013/12/07/new-york-veteran-history-series-women-warriors-0)
Women veterans
Rudy Thomas
Rudy Thomas, a friend featured in the 2007-2011 Brooklyn Historical Society show “In Our Voice,” and quoted in the introduction to my book Bringing It All Back Home, passed away this weekend.
(photo credit: alexaguslaou.com)
Rudy fought with the symptoms of PTSD. In my 2007 interview with him he told me:
I have a patch on my jacket that says, not all wounds are visible.
His Living Room’s a Jungle
Victor Giannini, son of Marine Lieutenant Joseph Giannini (who is profiled in my book), writes about the impact of Vietnam decades later. He begins, “We all live in storms of varying strength and speed, with moments that bring intense pain, and at times, vital cleansing. In our case, my father
Channel 13
Channel 13 has placed a video of my interview with
Veterans Day Weekend in DC
I spent Veterans Day Weekend in Washington D.C. with Anthony Wallace, who is a “Yellow Hat” volunteer at the Vietnam Memorial, sometimes called The Wall.
I enjoy taking photos of the city’s monuments and tourist attractions.
Here is a link to most of the images I took this weekend, including a few taken at Arlington National Cemetery.