Union County Historical Society and Museum

My research into Donald Davis, the tail-gunner on the Hetzler crew that was shot down over Germany during WWII had come to a dead end. Because of his fairly common last name, I was having no luck finding any of his family members in southern Illinois. Then I called the Union County Historical Society and spoke with Pat Meller (pictured). She said she would ask around at church and other places. A few weeks later she called me with the name and address of Donald's brother William. She has also facilitated two meetings with me and Donald's family as well as helping to set up my speaking engagement this fall. Local historical societies serve a valuable function for researchers. This isn't the first time that I have been helped by historical societies. Linda Price of the Onaga Kansas Historical Society helped me do some of my research on Harold Hetzler and helped set up my speaking engagement last summer. The Union County Historical Society also has a museum that has a lot of interesting artifacts. The museum is located in Cobden, IL. Phone for hours: (618) 893-2865

Friends of Jefferson Barracks Park

Yesterday evening, I was invited to speak at the monthly meeting for the Friends of Jefferson Barracks Park. I gave my Harold Hetzler speech and presented the story of how I researched Harold. I also spoke about my current historical research on Ulysses Tebbs. The members, about 25 of them, asked me a lot of really good questions and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share Harold's story. The members are very interested in historical research and they gave me lots of ideas and resources to advance my research. I would also like to thank Al Katzenberger for taking photos of the event. Some of the members were kind enough to share their thoughts on my presentation:

"Extremely interesting & imaginative, as well as entertaining. I highly recommend Mr. Kirby."
Marc E. Kollbaum, Curator, Jefferson Barracks Park

"Excellent speech, amazing research, so thorough, a great historian."
Ann Thoma, member: Friends of Jefferson Barracks

"His talk was very well done, moving and based on research."
Jack Grothe, Fellow and Governor: Company of Military Historians

"Alan's reflections on the pilot's life and the efforts he has made to keep the history of World War II alive are much appreciated."
Charlotte Pisoni

"Alan's talk was interesting and informative. It was amazing how much he found out about Harold."
Louise Drescher

"The presentation was informative and also very inspiring!"
Mary Hauck, member: Friends of Jefferson Barracks

Regret To Inform

This week we watched this excellent documentary about women who had lost their husbands in Vietnam or because of Vietnam. The documentary followed the filmmaker, Barbara Sonneborn, as she traveled to Vietnam to find the place where her husband had been killed decades earlier. She also interviewed Vietnamese women who had also lost their husbands in the conflict. This was an emotion evoking film, which in part, convinced me that Dad and I would benefit from taking a trip together to Vietnam.

Rollo-Calcaterra American Legion Post

Last Wednesday evening I gave my Harold Hetzler Speech to the Rollo-Calcaterra American Legion Post, Number 15 on the Hill (an Italian neighborhood) in St. Louis. I spoke to about 50 veterans and I had a really good chicken dinner afterwards with the members. A colorful group of guys, very patriotic and full of history. It was a real honor to be invited to spend an evening with them. To the left you see me pictured with Skip Berger, the Commander of the Post.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

Here is Teddy on top of Monk's Mound. This mound is 92 feet tall and was made by Native Americans about a thousand years ago. Teddy considered the climb up the mound a race, which he, of course, won. This park is just across the Mississippi from St. Louis. There is also a nice museum, gift shop and trails around the smaller mounds. Amazingly, according the their website, in the year 1250 AD Cahokia was a larger city than London! Click the picture for a link to the official website.

My Grandmother

My Grandmother passed away this afternoon after a long illness. She was 82 years old and was born in 1927. My cousin found this old photo a few months ago. It must have been my grandparent's wedding day or shortly thereafter. Marie Theresa Plante was born in Rhode Island. She was part of the Greatest Generation and did her bit by moving to Boston to train as a nurse. In Boston she met my grandfather, who was a sailor stationed in Boston in 1945. I only had one grandmother, as my paternal grandmother died before I was born, but I lacked for nothing in that quarter and I couldn't have picked a better grandmother for myself.

Bomber Pilot, by Philip Ardery

Ardery was a young, Harvard educated lawyer who had just begun his own practice in his home state of Kentucky, when he left home without saying good-bye to his mother to join the Air Corp. Like me, he always wanted to fly, but couldn't afford it. In the months leading up to WWII he saw an opportunity to get flight training for free and took advantage of it, but he was lucky, very lucky to have lived through the war. He was on the deadly Ploesti raid from Northern Africa and flew several dangerous missions from Europe as well. After completing his combat tour, he became a wing operations officer for General Ted Timberlake and I am guessing because of his Harvard connections met many notable personalities of the times while on leave in London including Ed Murrow and Robert Capa. Ardery truly saw it all in the European air war and this is an important book that is often used as a source for other books, especially books about the Ploesti raid.