Military History Commons^™

“The Irishmen – Immigrants, Soldiers, And The Spark Of Revolutions”, Joshua Hanscheck

History Theses

The Irish, as a people and a revolutionary inspiration, have been the subject of research and discussion for much of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A trope has emerged that the Irish could take over the world, if they were not so busy chasing the bottom of their pub glasses, but the trope – stereotypes about Irish drinking aside – is grounded in some truth. The diaspora encouraged many things: a revival in Gaelic culture, a general disdain among outsiders for the Irish as a people group, and, most importantly, a revolutionary fervor that seemed almost infectious. This fervor …

Biographies For The Cadets Who Rest At Oak Ridge Cemetery, Jenifer A. Harding

5BFTS Announcements - What’s New

Remembering the 21 RAF cadets from 5BFTS (British Flying Training School) and the 2 RAF cadets on the Arnold Scheme who died in Florida during WW2 and are buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Arcadia, Florida.

Read their biographies written by Chandler Mock and Renny Lloyd Prhys. Now on the 5BFTS Digital Archive.

https://commons.erau.edu/bfts-british-cadets-oak-ridge-cemetery/

2026 April - What's New, Jenifer A. Harding

5BFTS Announcements - What’s New

Details of new items published in the 5BFTS Digital Archive between January and April 2026 including Newsletters, Audio files, Biographies of cadets who lie in the British Plot, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Arcadia, Florida and Images of Jim Watters and WW2 postcards of Florida.

5bfts Grove At The Nma 08 Service Of Dedication And Tree Planting 22 September 2002, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in October 2002. Document 08 ‘Service of Dedication and Tree Planting September 22, 2002’, part of the 5BFTS Annual Reunion 2002 in September 2002. The Dedication of the 5BFTS Grove was held at the NMA.

5bfts Grove At The Nma 14 Dedication Of The Falcon Field Association 4bfts Plaque At The 5bfts Grove In October 2024, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in September 2002. Document 14 ‘Dedication of the 4BFTS Plaque in the 5BFTS Grove’ is an account of events leading up to the Dedication of a plaque to remember cadets from 4BFTS Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona, in the 5BFTS Grove and details of the Dedication service at the NMA on October 19, 2024.

“I Am A Refugee Direct From Mississippi:” Drafting And Substitution As Muster Methods In Shaping Black Participation In The Union Army, 1863–1865, Carson R. Maschmeier

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Historians have frequently emphasized voluntary enlistment as the primary means through which Black men entered military service, portraying military participation as an expression of autonomy and a pathway toward freedom and citizenship. Within this scholarship, few historians have examined how Black participation in the Union army as draftees and substitutes impacted Black men and their families. This thesis examines the role of drafting and substitution in shaping Black military participation in the Union Army during the American Civil War. By focusing on Pennsylvania's 8th United States Colored Troops (USCT), this study argues that drafting and substitution complicate the commonly accepted …

Ft Lt George William Nickerson Mm - Cwgc Certificate, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents: George William Nickerson

Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Certificate for RAF Flight Lieutenant George William Nickerson MM, Administration Officer at 5BFTS, who died in Lawson Hospital, Atlanta on July 31, 1943. He is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Plot at Oakwood Cemetery Annex, Mongomery, Alabama.

Ft Lt George William Nickerson Mm - Biography, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents: George William Nickerson

Biography of RAF Flight Lieutenant George William Nickerson MM, Administration Officer at 5BFTS, who died in Lawson Hospital, Atlanta on July 31, 1943. He is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Plot at Oakwood Cemetery Annex, Mongomery, Alabama.

Forbes M Robertson - Cwgc Certificate, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents: Forbes McKenzie Robertson

Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Certificate for RAF cadet Forbes Mckenzie Robertson who died on April 24, 1943, while training to be a pilot at 5BFTS. He is buried in the CWGC British Plot. at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Arcadia.

The Long Shadow Of The Boys In Blue: Civil War Memory & The Evolution Of Veteran Identity In Twentieth Century Pennsylvania, Alexander L. Barbolish

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a case study of the transformation of veteran identity and civic culture in Northeastern Pennsylvania, tracing the profound shifts in the way Americans remembered war, commemorated sacrifice, and defined what it meant to be a veteran, from the turn of the twentieth century to the dawn of World War II. By examining the complex interactions and relationships between three distinct and overlapping generations of veterans—those of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I—this study argues that veteran identity was neither static nor monolithic, but was continually renegotiated through commemorative practice, organizational culture, and public …

Anthony John Oakley - Cwgc Certificate, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents: Anthony John Oakley

Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Certificate for RAF cadet Anthony John Oakley who died on January 14, 1944, while training to be a pilot at 5BFTS. He is buried in the CWGC British Plot. at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Arcadia.

The Ones Who Watched: Technology, Proxy Warfare, And The Testing Ground Hypothesis, Sean J. Oliver

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Great powers need laboratories for war. This thesis argues that great powers find these laboratories in proxy forces. Proxy warfare is not just a tool for strategic influence. It is a machine for experimentation. This study posits a central testing-ground hypothesis. It contends that great powers deliberately use surrogates to vet emerging technologies, doctrines, and mobilization schemes under the pressure of real combat. The analytical methodology is historical. It traces patterns from the ancient world's proxy forces and the innovations of the Crusades to the Cold War and the digital age. The thesis examines enduring patterns, including the tension between …

Confucian Thought As A Strategic Veil: How Western Strategy Should Correctly Compete With China, Owen Miller

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The rise of the People's Republic of China as a peer competitor to the United States constitutes the defining geopolitical challenge of the twenty-first century, but even so, Western strategic analysis has consistently failed to engage China on its own terms. The recurrent pattern of Western misinterpretation results from projecting Western assumptions onto a state whose institutional and cultural drivers operate under fundamentally different premises, where key elements of Chinese strategic culture and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) instrumentalization of Confucianism as a moral veil are instruments of domestic legitimacy and external strategic narrative. The United States must recognize that …

Divided Loyalties: Military Recruitment And Emancipation In Kentucky, Jacob Joseph Klinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores how Unionist Kentuckians leveraged their military recruitment to negotiate the scope of federal emancipation during the American Civil War. By 1863, the War Department’s need for troops superseded the racial sensitivities of inhabitants in loyal slave states like Kentucky by promising to free and enlist Black men if white recruits failed to fill the quota. Kentucky’s proslavery Unionists responded and white volunteerism surged by 23 percent, 10 percent more than the national average, to fill the quota and negate military emancipation. Kentucky leaders heralded the recruiting effort but struggled to sustain it alongside an uncredited militia which …

G Willis Tyson - Interview About His Aviation Career Reported In Fly Paper 17.09.1942, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents: George Willis Tyson

Interview with G Willis Tyson, General Manager, 5BFTS, Riddle Field about his aviation career reported in Fly Paper September 17, 1942. Mr Tyson died on August 19, 1943, after a plane crash in Tallahassee.  He is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.

G Willis Tyson, Report Of Death In Clewiston News August 20, 1943, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents: George Willis Tyson

Death of G Willis Tyson, General Manager, 5BFTS, Riddle Field, who died after a plane crash in Tallahassee on August 19, 1943. He is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California. Reported in The Clewiston News, August 20, 1943.

G Willis Tyson, Report Of Death In Fly Paper August 27, 1943, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents: George Willis Tyson

Death of G Willis Tyson, General Manager, 5BFTS, Riddle Field, who died after a plane crash in Tallahassee on August 31, 1943. He is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California. Reported in Fly Paper, Vol VI, No 19, August 27, 1943.

G Willis Tyson, General Manager 5bfts - Biography, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents: George Willis Tyson

Biography of G Willis Tyson, General manager, 5BFTS, Riddle Field, who died after a plane crash in Tallahassee on August 19, 1943. He is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.

1941 Manchester University Air Squadron Group 15 April To 15 October 1941 Record Of Names In Book Of Remembrance, St Clement Danes, London 1993, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

Record of those pilots who joined the Manchester University Air Squadron (MUAS) on April 15,1941 for a six-month short course for the RAF and are included in the Books of Remembrance held by the Church of St Clement Danes, The Strand, London, the central church of the Royal Air Force. Written in 1993 by Dennis Luke, MUAS 15 April – 15 October, 1941 and 5BFTS Course 5.

5bfts Grove At The Nma 03 Newsletter July 2001, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in October 2002. Document 03 ‘5BFTS Association Newsletter July 2001’ informs members of the amount donated by the Association and individual members towards a 5BFTS memorial at the NMA

5bfts Grove At The Nma 05 Plans For Annual Reunion 2002, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in October 2002. Document 05 ‘Plans for Annual Reunion 2002’ informs members about the proposed weekend in September 2002 which will include the Dedication of the 5BFTS Grove at the NMA.

5bfts Grove At The Nma 01 Planting For The Millennium, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in October 2002. Document 01 ‘Planting for the Millennium’ explains how the NMA was conceived and the design for the RAF area.

The Symbolic Language Of Militarized Orthodoxy In Patriarchal Sermons, Architecture, And Pseudo-Historical Memory, Oleksandr Lukyanenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to a comprehensive cultural and religious analysis of the processes of militarization of religious worldview in modern Russia using the example of public speeches of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, as well as the symbolic space of the Main Temple of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Particular attention is paid to the study of the mechanisms of sacralization of war through the integration of historical memory, Orthodox rhetoric and the state ideology of the “Russian world”. The study analyzes the peculiarities of the interpretation of World War II as the sacred foundation of modern Russian …

The Birth Of Afghanistan: From Ancient Persia To A Modern-Day Multiethnic And Linguistic Country, Tyler A. Worm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis offers a comprehensive historical analysis of the formation and evolution of Afghan identity from antiquity through the early medieval period, emphasizing the region’s role as a dynamic crossroads of civilizations. It traces the origins of Afghan populations to Indo-Iranian pastoralist migrations and examines the successive influence of major imperial formations, including the Median and Achaemenid Persian empires, the conquests of Alexander and the Seleucid period, and the rise of the Kushan, Parthian, and Sasanian states. Through this longue durée approach, the study demonstrates how Afghanistan’s geographic position facilitated continuous cultural interaction, economic exchange, and political contestation, producing a …

The Origins And Expansion Of The Soviet Union’S Military-Industrial Complex, Noah B. Heminger

All Master's Theses

This thesis explores the way in which the “Soviet Military-Industrial Complex” that dominated the Soviet Union’s economy in the latter half of its existence came into existence and what forces caused its expansion. The first force was the ideological and strategic beliefs and assumptions of the leadership and military planners which held that the USSR would always be in existential danger. The second was Stalin’s “Revolution from Above” which broke down the barriers economically and politically that resisted the militarization of politics, economics, and society. And the final force was the stresses of World War II which caused the Soviet …

5bfts Grove At The Nma 11 A New 5bfts Plaque At The Nma, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in October 2002. Document 11 ‘A new 5BFTS Plaque at the NMA’ recounts a visit to the NMA in 2014 when the five birch trees in the 5BFTS Grove were found to be flourishing but the plaques needed renovation, and the subsequent placing of a new 5BFTS plaque in the 5BFTS Grove at the …

5bfts Grove At The Nma 06 Attendees At The 5bfts Annual Reunion September 2002, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in October 2002. Document 06 ‘Attendees at the 5BFTS Annual Reunion 2002’ in September 2002 which will include the Dedication of the 5BFTS Grove at the NMA.

5bfts Grove At The Nma 02 Newsletter March 2001, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in October 2002. Document 02 ‘5BFTS Association Newsletter March 2001’ introduces members to the idea of a 5BFTS Grove.

5bfts Grove At The Nma 12 1bfts, 4bfts And 5bfts – Working Together At The Nma, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in October 2002. Document 12 ‘1BFTS, 4BFTS and 5BFTS – working together at the National Memorial Arboretum’ explains how the idea to install a plaque to remember RAF cadets who were at 4BFTS in Mesa, Arizona, in the 5BFTS Grove at the NMA was conceived in 2023.

5bfts Grove At The Nma 09 Newsletter November 2002, Jenifer A. Harding

Documents

The UK National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) is at Alrewas, Staffordshire. The 5BFTS Association gave donations to the NMA which provided a Grove of five trees (five for number 5) comprising two English Birch trees and three American Birch trees and a Plaque. The Grove was dedicated in October 2002. Document 09 ‘5BFTS Association Newsletter November 2002’ provides a summary of the 5BFTS Annual Reunion 2002 including the Service of Dedication and Tree Planting on September 22, 2002 at the NMA.