Military History Commons^™

Flaherty, Terah Leonard, 1914-1983 (Sc 1750), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1750. Forms and correspondence related to Terah Leonard Flaherty's World War II service in the U.S. Army; his wife's Red Cross certificate; and a humorous "Confederate" army commission.

Frashure, Sherri (Troutman) (Mss 172), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 172. Oral interviews, including cassette tapes and transcripts, with sixteen World War II veterans conducted by Frashure for her Honors thesis at Western Kentucky University. Also includes her completed paper titled: "Kentuckians at War: A Soldier's Perspective of World War II."

Moore, Earl Austin, 1892-1978 (Sc 1747), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1747. Poem "Graduations" written by Earl Austin Moore, Western Kentucky State Teachers College faculty member, in memory of a young American pilot killed in a bomber crash.

Cole, Marshall (Sc 1726), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1726. Copies of two letters from Marshall Cole, one dated 25 December 1944, written to family members while he was serving in the military during World War II. He describes his Christmas in the Philippines and his return to a base in the United States.

Franks Collection (Sc 1731), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1731. World War II military correspondence, chiefly Christmas greetings, to Union county, Kentucky native Harold Franks. Also certificates, news clippings, photos, and funeral notices of Franks and his wife Anna Louise (Schaaf) Franks. Includes an unusual rolled letter sent to Franks containing notes from 64 Morganfield, Kentucky citizens.

Akers, Sammie D., 1918-2002 (Mss 229), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 229. This collection consists almost exclusively of World War II correspondence of Sammie D. Akers, a Logan County, Kentucky native. Approximately two-thirds of the correspondence is with his mother, Betty A. Akers, with whom he discusses the home farm, potential land purchases, church news, and local events.

Mcgown, Thomas Neal, 1909-1966 (Sc 1708), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1708. Post cards, Christmas card, and telegram from Thomas Neal McGown, serving with the U.S. Marine Corps, to his wife Marguerite, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Includes other items and news clippings related to his World War II service.

The Construction Of Airfields During The New Georgia Campaign Of 1943-44: Lessons Learned By The United States Naval Construction Battalions., Joseph Christopher Zimmerman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prevalent depictions of United States Naval Construction Battalions (Seabees) were engendered by John Wayne in The Fighting Seabees and the musical, South Pacific. While capturing the ingenious determination that birthed their motto '˜Can Do', these incomplete pictures don't portray the complexity of construction under combat conditions in a harshly unforgiving and demanding environment.

The Seabee's first combat landing was New Georgia. In six months, these battalions built five airfields, granting Allied forces air superiority over the Solomon Islands and Rabaul. Battalion records stored at the Naval Facilities Command Archives, Port Heuneme, California, combined with documents from the National Archives, …

Duncan-Ponvert, Annie Franchot, 2001-2004 (Mss 218), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 218. Duncan-Ponvert's thesis "The Stories of Eleven Who Served in World War II from Lewisburg, Kentucky" and the cassette tapes of the interviews she conducted as part of the research.

Civil Defense - Ordinance - Kentucky, [1943] (Sc 1643), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1643. Template for the use of municipal governments in adopting a Civil Defense ordinance in Kentucky during World War II.

Kleiderer, Charles W., D. 1999 (Sc 1628), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1628. Letters from Henderson native Charles W. Kleiderer, Silver Spring, Maryland to his aunt Mary Moore, Bowling Green related to his development of the Variable Time (VT) Fuze. Accompanying photographs show how this fuze, used in artillery shells, contributed to the Allied vicotry in World War II.

Stone, Eva Mae, 1918-1977 (Sc 1639), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1639. Letters sent to Bowling Green, Kentucky native Eva Mae Stone by cousins George and Charles Shanks and friend John Mullins who were serving in the armed forces during World War II. Includes photograph of Mullins in uniform standing before the U.S. Capitol.

Interview No. 1624, J. Halbert Gambrell

Combined Interviews

In this interview, J. Halbert (“Hal”) Gambrell shares his memories of his colorful family, early El Paso, and his military experiences during both World War II and the Korean War. Born in El Paso in 1920, Gambrell entered this world in the family home due to his physician father’s decision to avoid local hospitals overflowing with Spanish Influenza patients. His father had recently returned from service in France during World War I; earlier he had served under General Jack “Black” Pershing during the latter’s 1916 punitive expedition into Mexico in Pershing’s ill-fated attempt to capture Pancho Villa. Gambrell continues to …

Interview No. 1637, Louis B. Mckee

Combined Interviews

Louis B. McKee is the son of Robert E. McKee, founder of the R. E. McKee General Contractors in El Paso, TX; he was born in El Paso in 1933; and graduated from Austin High School; he explains why he went to University of New Mexico, and studied civil engineering; he mentions completing Navy ROTC, being a Marine Corps Officer a few years; he recounts his family, working for the family’s construction company; he reveals why he later quit the company, disagreed with the direction of new non-family leadership that didn’t have the experience; he mentions the company was moved …

87th Depot Repair Squadron (Sc 1596), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1596. Humorous skit prepared for the second anniversary of the 87th Deport Repair Squadron's formation, celebrated at the Enlisted Men's Club, Foggia, Italy.

Hills, Sallie (Holland), 1875-1945 - Letters To (Sc 1598), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1598. World War II letters sent to Sallie Hills, Bowling Green, Kentucky, from her son Henry Hills, nephew and ward William Perry Stamps, Jr., and friend George L. Smith. Includes a silhouette of Stamps.

Moss, C. Mcelroy, 1900-1965 (Sc 1583), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1583. Letters, photos, and newspaper clippings documenting Moss's U.S. Navy career. Includes news clipping related to educator, Mary Dishman, and a news clipping about Moss's father John McKenzie Moss.

Brown, Claude M., 1905-1978 (Sc 1579), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of letters (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1579. World War II letters from Kentucky native Claude M. Brown, stationed in Italy, to Elizabeth Propes, Louisville and Hodgenville, Kentucky. Letters to Brown from friend Ralph Hurley and Brown's 1945 travel itinerary from Italy to Kentucky.

Tinsley, Warren Landrum, 1922-1987 (Sc 1549), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text (click on "Additional Files") for Manuscripts Small Collection 1549. A typescripted reminiscence about Warren Landrum Tinsley's World War II experiences in the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a typescript of a diary kept during his military service , and a typescripted reminiscence about his early church experiences in Logan County, Kentucky.

Honaker, Marion Earl, 1914-2006 (Sc 1510), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1510. Letters, 1985-1997 (19); military papers, 1942-1990 (14); photos (21); newspapers clippings, 1942, 1992-2006 (5); of Marion Earl Honaker, Bowling Green, Kentucky, a Navy pharmacist mate stationed in the Pacific Area during World War II.

Hills, Henry E., 1917-1975 (Sc 1511), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1511. World War II letter written by Henry E. Hills from Italy to his cousin, William P. Stamps, Jr., in which he describes a battle that took place in Sicily. He makes some deprecatory remarks about the Italians and notes the fierce and smart fighting of the Germans.

Strahm, Victor Herbert, 1897-1957 (Mss 27), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 27. Correspondence, clippings, photographs, etc., covering Bowling Green native Victor Herbert Strahm's U.S. Air Force career. There are over 100 letters written to his parents in Bowling Green, Kentucky, describing his World War I activities and 27 letters to his mother detailing his participation in the early days of World War II.

Settle, Margery Lucille, 1899-1980 (Mss 7), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 7. Letters written by various armed forces personnel during World War I (7 items), World War II (77), and police duty afterward (6). The letters were written to Margery Lucille Settle, a secondary teacher and administrator in the McLean County and Daviess County, Kentucky school systems.

Vanmeter, Wilburn S., 1920-1996 (Sc 1528), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1528. Letters from Wilburn S. Vanmeter, while serving in World War II, to his mother Emma Vanmeter in Bee Spring, Kentucky, and his brother, Junior Vanmeter of Annetta, Kentucky. Also includes several typed reminiscences (6 p.) of Vanmeter's World War II experience.

Learning To Fly: Military Aviation Training At Middle Tennessee State University And The Transformation Of Southern Higher Education In World War Ii, Christopher T. Crawford Jr.

History Theses & Dissertations

In December 1942 the Army Air Forces created the Army Air Forces College Training Program (AAFTP) to reduce the backlog of aviation recruits. This program, designed to provide recruits with basic flight instruction and education, established 153 units known as College Training Detachments (CTD) on college campuses throughout the U.S. This thesis provides a history of the AAFTP and examines the wartime role of universities and the effect of military training on colleges in the American South. The first chapter examines the AAFTP from the military perspective, the state of the AAF leading into WWII, and the forces that drove …

Brown, John David, 1883-1961 (Mss 170), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 170. Letters to Brown, of South Hill in Butler County, Kentucky, from family. Includes letters sent by his son while serving in the Navy during World War II and in subsequent military service; also includes letters from his daughter, Emma Martin. Some business correspondence and materials concerning the Mammoth Cave Production Credit Association are also part of the collection.

Beasley, Robert, B. 1926 (Mss 162), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Mansucripts Collection 162. Letters written by Robert Beasley, Sr. to his wife, Louise (Buckles) Beasley while he is serving in the 84th U.S. Infantry Division during World War II. Beasley served chiefly in Germany, but also saw action in Belgium and France. He discusses Army life and relates war news to his wife in Caneyville, Kentucky.

Schenck, Martin B., 1921-2004 (Mss 163), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 163. Correspondence, clippings, oral interview, personnel records, etc. related to the military career of New Jersey native, Martin B. Schenck, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He served on the U.S.S. Helena and on submarines and was a Pearl Harbor survivor. He later served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Stamps, William Perry, Jr., 1914-2006 (Sc 1470), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1470. Chiefly incoming letters to William P. Stamps, Jr., while he served in the Air Force during World War II. Included are report cards, sympathy letters written to Stamps on the death of his aunt and guardian, Sallie Hills, letters from friends serving in World War II, and a small notebook of flower orders kept by Stamps while in the Air Force.

Cox Family Collection, 1919-1945 (Mss 161), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 161. Correspondence, legal papers, and farm records of the Cox family of Hart County, Kentucky. Consists chiefly of letters sent to John Howard Cox, Sr. from his children and in-laws. Includes World War II letters from John Howard Cox, Jr. to immediate family members.