The National WWII Museum New Orleans

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NEWS:

The National WWII Museum Voted TripAdvisor® Travelers’ Choice® Attraction

TripAdvisor®, the world’s largest travel site, has announced the winners of its Travelers’ Choice Awards based on feedback from millions of TripAdvisor travelers. The National WWII Museum, currently ranked #1 of 150 New Orleans attractions on the site, was named #4 museum in the United States and #11 museum worldwide — up three spots from our rankings in both categories in the 2013 poll!

Plan your visit to the Museum today.

Follow us on Twitter @wwiitoday for regular updates on 70th anniversaries in America’s WWII story featuring images, oral histories and artifacts from the Museum’s collection.

Visit our calendar for information on upcoming programs and events at the Museum or sign up for our email list to receive regular updates.

FEATURED EVENTS:

Lunchbox Lecture Wednesday, September 24, 2014 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Tom Gibbs presents "The 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Peleliu." Pre-order your lunch and pick it inThe Soda Shop before the next lecture. Call 528-1944 x 210 for the daily soup and sandwich special and to place your order!

Meet the Author Thursday, September 25, 2014 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm The Art of Gaman by Delphine Hirasuna The Art of Gaman relates how the internees practiced the discipline of gaman enduring the seemingly impossible with patience and dignity by creating objects of beauty and utility out of scrap and found materials. Author Delphine Hirasuna presents. RSVP now.

Smithsonian Museum Day Saturday, September 27, 2014 9:00 am – 5:00 pm As a Smithsonian affiliate, The National WWII Museum is proud to promote local culture and education with free admission on Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live. Advance tickets required. Reserve your tickets today.

TAKE ACTION:

WHAT'S ON:

September 24, 2014
White Glove Wednesdays 
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Louisiana Memorial Pavilion

September 24, 2014
Teacher Appreciation Happy Hour 
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Stage Door Canteen

September 24, 2014
Pub Quiz 
6:00 pm ‐ 8:00 pm
Stage Door Canteen

September 24, 2014
"America's Wartime Sweethearts: A Tribute to The Andrews Sisters" 
11:45 am buffet seating
Stage Door Canteen

September 25, 2014
Meet the Author - "The Art of Gaman" by Delphine Hirasuna 
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Stage Door Canteen

September 26, 2014
"Thanks for the Memories: Bob Hope and His All-Star Pacific Tour" 
6:00 pm dinner seating, 8:00 pm show only ticket
Stage Door Canteen

CONNECT:

MUSEUM BLOG:

“Your Job Now” – High School During WWII Between 1941 and 1945, WWII touched and shaped every aspect of American life. For the average high school student, there were more questions about their future than answers. Many joined the service before they even graduated; others were drafted or joined upon completing their education. Those who remained on the home front often put aside […] Read More

The Ofuna Roster: “Every man who was there has a unique story to tell” Today is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. In recognition of those who suffered as POWs in WWII, we would like to highlight a special recent addition to the Museum’s collection and the wonderful connections that the donation of this material set into motion. We are contacted daily by families of those who served in WWII with questions about artifacts in their possession. […] Read More

COUNTDOWN TO ROAD TO BERLIN: BATTLE OF THE BULGE As we continue our journey through The Road to Berlin, we stop next at what will be an extraordinary immersive gallery space, the month-long Battle of the Bulge – the US Army’s largest battle of World War II.  Grappling with bitterly cold weather, more than 30 divisions and 600,000 men fought desperately to halt the […] Read More

FEATURED ARTIFACT:

High School Yearbooks from WWII

“Every day many men in the flower of their manhood die in battle.” So begins the introduction to ten pages of memorials to former students and alumni in President William McKinley High School’s Class of 1944 yearbook. Yearbooks from the WWII era offer a perspective on a world in upheaval that is both rich and uniquely personal. Of special note is alumnus Shigeo ‘Joe’ Takata, the first Japanese American to die fighting in WWII. Sgt. Takata, a member of the 100th Infantry Battalion, was killed in action on 29 September 1943 in the Salerno to Cassino Campaign.

View the yearbook in the Museum’s online collection, See You Next Year: High School Yearbooks from WWII, to find out more.

FOCUS ON:

D-Day Timeline

For over two and a half years the Allies planned and gathered their military strength to hurl into the decisive amphibious invasion of northern France and strike a mortal blow against the empire of Nazi Germany. In anticipation, Adolf Hitler stockpiled reserves across French coastlines into the Atlantic Wall defenses, determined to drive the Allied forces back into the sea. There will be no second chance for the Allies: the fate of their cause hangs upon this decisive day.

Here are pieces of the story of D-Day, told through the words and eyes of those who were there.

Record Setting Green Amphibious Monster Captured by a Green Amphibious (Marine) Monster

Record Setting Gator

Record Setting Green Amphibious Monster Captured by a Green Amphibious (Marine) Monster

Watch out for this guy when we go to Louisiana


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20140918/OFFDUTY04/309180045/Marine-sergeant-friends-bag-record-setting-alligator

Air War Photos

 

Great pictures, lot of effort to put this together.

Follow this link to view, full screen.Put your cursor over the picture and it will tell you what/where it is.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/aviatorr727/sets/72157625615256098/

 

All Hands Conference at 2nd Battalion

Frigatefire, a New Novel by John Wilkes

Dear Friends,

For those of you who might be interested, I would like you to know that my second novel, Frigatefire, is now available along with the reprinted Raventross. Frigatefire is a sequel to Raventross, so if you have not read Raventross and want to do so, I strongly recommend you read it before reading Frigatefire. Writing these novels has been a source of great enjoyment for me. While they will soon be available through distribution sources like Amazon, if you want to order any books, I would appreciate it very much if you would do it through my publisher’s web site,www.cdespublishing.com or my web site www.johnburwellwilkes.com. The cost would be the same to you, but Amazon, like all book distributors takes a huge chunk of the proceeds on the books they sell. If you should decide you really like either of them, I would also be much obliged if you send a testimonial to the publishing company for posting on their web site and also tell everyone you know about it.

The reason for this is that in today’s environment it is virtually impossible to make much money selling books, and I have no expectation of getting large royalty checks. The distributors like Amazon and Barnes & Noble take so much of the purchase price; there is nothing left after publication and printing expenses. The publishing company and I can make a modest profit with books sold by the publishing company. With the new “print on demand” logic, we hope the profit we make from in house sales will finance the large scale printing of books to go to the big distributors who can sell worldwide.

Instead of making money, my real dream is that we can sell enough books and generate enough interest that it will excite some movie maker into taking up the project. I have been able to retain all movie rights to my books. I know my dream is a real long shot, but I also remember that the most common early reaction I received from readers of Raventross is the opinion it would make an outstanding movie. I can’t think of anything that would be more fun than being an author/advisor on a movie set.

It is my understanding that the printed versions are $12.95 plus postage and the kindle versions are $9.95. There is a planned Audible.com release of the audio book version of Raventross; it will also be available via Amazon, and iTunes. If things go according to plan, that should be available within the next week or two, but we haven’t been given a price yet. 

You can listen to the first audio chapter on the www.raventross.com web site. Eventually there will be an audio version ofFrigatefire, but that is still a few months down the road. By the way, you might also get a laugh out of listening to me sing a couple of old Irish tunes on my web site,www.johnburwellwilkes.com.

In any case, if you have a desire to read my books, I hope you will enjoy them, and I will be anxious to know what you think about them.

Very best regards,

JOHN WILKES

World War I Photos

Click to see more photos

Memorial, Day Parade Beverly, Morgan Park, Mount Greenwood, Chicago

Fun to watch the Memorial Day Parade back in my old neighborhood in the south side of Chicago.

Video of the Start of the parade.

The parade kicked off from 110th and Longwood Drive and proceeded north. The Color Guard was from 2/24, the Marine Infantry Battalion on the west side of Chicago.  I marched in a parade on Longwood Drive leading a platoon of Marines in 1973.  I spotted my MPHS Russian teacher Miss Petrus. We were trained to greet her, so I belted out
Strastvooey te, Soyia Sergeevna, a kok vi pushaviatee!!

Soyia Sergeevna frantically looked around trying to find who was calling her, clearly one of her former students. But she did not see me and I had to keep marching in front of the platoon. Dosvedanya, Soyia Sergeevna.

Click to see the Video of The Jesse White Tumblers

The Model A Roadster above looks like the Model A Roadster I drove on Longwood Drive to MPHS in 65, although the one in the photo is in much better condition.

My Model A at modelahullinger.blogspot.com

Click for a Bagpipe Video

My personal favorite - this bus from Smith Village carried a number of World War II and Korean Veterans, including my father Clif Hullinger. 

Video Introductions of the Smith Village Veterans

More about Clif's service in North Africa and Italy at: 

hullingerwwII.blogspot.com

109thengineers34thdivision.blogspot.com

The group above are the Southsiders for Peace.  They were on the sidewalk and told us they had been prevented from marching in the parade

southsidersforpeace.org


The dance group below showing some energetic moves.

I'm getting in just under the wire here for this holiday-related blog,
which deals in part with the Memorial Day Parade down Longwood Drive.  I'd love to hear what memories of that event others have, to see how they do or don't jibe with my own.

Thanks to all who have served, and absolute gratitude to those who paid for our freedoms with their lives.

Taffy Cannon, June '66
Carlsbad, California

Click below to read a blog post written by Taffy about Decoration Day:

thaliapressauthors.wordpress.com/2014/05/26/decoration-day