WELCOME
to the Black Hills Veterans Writing Group which meets at 9 a.m. (until 11 or so) on the second Saturday of each month. The next meeting will be at Western Dakota Technical Institute in Rapid City (left on first light past Campbell on Omaha). Main door. Can't miss it. Lots of close parking. All meetings are open to the public. You are invited.
On March 10th, LTC Tom Oliver will talk about his experiences as a B-24 pilot in World War 2. A West Point graduate, he was also the son of an army general. Oliver will talk about being shot down over German-held Czechoslovakia, right into the hands of partisans with whom he engaged in escape-and-evasion tactics until his repatriation with American forces.
Oliver later became professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
Oliver will be joined by Lt. Justin Cassidy, USAF munitions flight commander, now at EAFB, who will reflect on his recent deployment to South West Asia.
On April 14th, LTC Chuck Childs will visually present his experiences during World War 2 as a B-17 pilot in the European Theater with 37 combat missions, earning 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses for heroism.
"I could see omens of the war's end almost every day in the blue southern sky when, flying provocatively low, the bombers of the American Fifteenth Air Force crossed the Alp from their Italian bases to attack German industrial targets," said Albert Speer, Hitler's Minister for Armaments
I Flew the Big One: B-17, Queen of the Skies and A Combat Diary of Thirty-Seven Missions through Hell are his books about that experience. Childs went on to fly in the Berlin Airlift and later fought in the Korean War.
On May 12th,
Victor Weidensee will talk about his World War II paratrooper combat against the Japanese in the Phillipines as part of a Special Operations guerilla unit behind enemy lines. Weidensee lives in Rapid City and is a retired music professor from Black Hills State University. He has recently written up his wartime story, so look for it soon.
On February 11th (in case you missed it), LTC Lester Snyder talked about his harrowing WWII experiences as navigator/bombardier aboard a B-29 as it made bombing runs from Tinian Island to Tokyo. Once, his crippled bomber, shot to pieces and aflame, barely made it to the just-captured island of Iwo Jima. Snyder went on to fight in the Korean War and later became professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Read quick excerpt
Vacation in Barry, Wales, June 2012 ?
Rapid City Coastguard veteran Gordon Lease was in Barry during WWII. Glenn Booker continues to send us installments of the publication he puts out from Barry which tracks GIs and their Welsh brides. He's organizing an event that might be a good excuse to travel to Barry next June. The town is full of history and has excellent accommodations.
The event will feature an Allied encampment and civilian homefront living history areas, appropriate themed stalls and entertainment.
Barry at War Group, in partnership with stakeholders will be holding a ‘Barry Wartime Weekend’ living history event in Barry, on June 15-17 2012. The event will commemorate the 70th anniversary of US troops coming to the town as part of the build up for the liberation of Europe.
Send us a message to be on confidential email list to receive monthly notices of meetings. Do you have a story about your military service that you'd like to share and possibly write down? We'd like to hear from you.
Contact us at veterans@battlestory.org