by Rona Simmons | Jun 16, 2021 | Military, Military History, WWII
Can you name a film from the 1940s or 1950s where the actors did not smoke, sometimes throughout the movie? Probably not. Besides giving characters something to do with their hands, Hollywood considered smoking to be sophisticated and sexy. Thankfully, today, with...
by Rona Simmons | May 31, 2021 | Military, WWII
Memorial Day is often thought of as the beginning of summer, although the official start is still three weeks away. And this weekend, after the long months of pandemic-induced isolation, many Americans will gather the kids and head to the beach or the mountains with...
by Rona Simmons | Dec 7, 2020 | Military, WWII
Hubert Charles Titus Aaron and Michael Zwarun, Jr. Aaron, Hubert Charles Titus is the first name listed on the memorial at Pearl Harbor. Zwarun, Jr, Michael. is the last. Two very different men, as no doubt all 1,177 who perished aboard the USS Arizona on...
by Rona Simmons | Dec 7, 2020 | Military History, WWII
At 0300 on June 25, 1943, a jeep crept quietly through the dark to one of the Niessen huts at Thorpe Abbotts airfield. The sergeant on board, entered, reached the bunk of Lt. Stanley O. Morrison placed a hand on Morrison’s shoulder and nudged him awake. Not that...
by Rona Simmons | Oct 16, 2020 | Military, Veterans, WWII
“All in all I would like to be appreciated as a man” Recently Virginia Tech and the National Endowment for the Humanities launched a project to transcribe the handwritten comments of a thousands of soldiers who responded to a survey during and in the aftermath of...
by Rona Simmons | Sep 18, 2020 | Books, Military, Military History, WWII
By now I imagine and, having done my part, fervently hope, everyone knows 2020 is the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. If not, there’s one more opportunity to catch up on the events, the issues, and the ordinary and extraordinary people who...
