Stories from the Collection
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Stories: Connecticut Servicewomen
The 20th century saw the United States military undergo rapid transformation, implementing a variety of newfangled equipment, modern tactics, and developed new doctrine. One such change was the integration of women in the U.S. armed forces. Transcending Apple Pie and Motherhood: Women in the Military Recent historiography has delved into the adoption of women in the military. From the Second World War to the Invasion of Iraq, historians have spoken of the military’s utilization of women as a (wo)manpower resource, the military integration policies of the Cold War, and the prohibition of women from direct combat. This presentation contextualizes the service of Connecticut’s female veterans, showcasing the veterans’ individual roles…
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Stories: Albert C. Stewart
Albert C. Stewart was one of only a handful of Black officers in the Navy during the WWII era. He served as a Lieutenant at the tail end of the war in the Pacific Theater on the fleet oiler USS Sabine. Initially, Stewart was drafted to be a weatherman for the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots and airmen who fought in WWII as part of the Air Force. However, the military already had the two Black soldiers who would serve as weathermen, so Stewart was put back in the general draft list. In the meantime, he graduated from the University of Chicago. Unlike white college graduates, who…
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Stories: No Interview? No Problem!
The Veterans History Project boasts hundreds of interviews of veterans in America. However, not every person within the collection has an interview. The lack of interviews can be for a number of reasons such as they passed away before an interview was conducted. However, this does not mean they cannot provide insight into the past. In many cases, their relatives were able to provide documents and pictures of that person. Jerome Glaser, born on the 22nd of May, 1898, and died on the 6th of April 1985, left an abundance of documents behind after his death. While he was not a veteran of the Second World War, his documents show…
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PTSD Series: Modern Warfare
Veterans of Middle East Wars I put my arm around and talk to him when ever I could. Kevin brown In the Middle Eastern Conflicts of the twenty-first century, soldiers face the same stressful, traumatic experiences as the previous veterans. As with the previous wars, soldiers relied on each other, they aided one another and helped to cope with the circumstances. In his interview, Colonel Kevin Brown, a veteran of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Persian Gulf described an encounter with a soldier who was part of a traumatic event. A bullet hit a soldier’s femoral artery, ricocheted out, and hit the Platoon Sergeant in the chest. The medic save the…
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PTSD Series: Vietnam
Vietnam War Veterans In the second part of this series, we will look at the Veterans of the Vietnam War. Vietnam veterans were the first applied with PTSD. The term was coined in 1980, five years after Vietnam, by the American Psychological Association because there was an increase in attention to mental health in academia. Studies of holocaust survivors, world war accounts, comparisons of Homer’s Iliad and Shakespeare’s Henry IV to modern examples of PTSD, and 1800’s psychiatric journals were the focus of the 1980s to the 1990s, and have become more relevant for veterans overseas since 9/11. In the collection, the Vietnam veterans tell their stories of returning home…
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PTSD Series: Second World War
Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder This is the first post of this 3-part series of veteran-related PSTD. The twentieth century saw millions of Americans, men women, and children, mobilizing for war. Unlike previous centuries, the wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries were a marriage of combat and industry, nations built bigger and bigger guns, armed millions of their citizens, and new technological advancements lead to new armament innovations such as tanks and planes. Returning veterans came home changed, their previous personalities and lives were altered by their experiences overseas. The constant traumatic, stressful, and deadly circumstances afflicted the mental state of millions of men and women with what is now known as Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder…
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Stories: Phout Chamleunsouk
Within the Connecticut Veterans History Project, Vietnam Veterans are the most numerous oral histories present. The men and women served in all branches from marching through the jungles in the army to flying jets and bombers over North Vietnam to aiding and comforting the wounded in the rear hospitals. Americans of all creeds participated, over the course of the Vietnam War, approximately 2,700,000 Americans served in South East Asia; Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Most of the veterans in the archives were born and raised in America. While America sent millions of soldiers, there were also those native to South East Asia who fought alongside the Americans or with American support.…
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Stories: Germany During the Cold War
When the Second World War ended in 1945 with the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, the world did not experience long-lasting peace as the Western Allies and the Soviet Union prepared for yet another war, this time against each other. The end of the war resulted in Europe being divided into two, the West and the East. Both countries formed alliances to bolster their armies, as a result, the largest militaries ever formed posed to fight each other. There were two major alliances during the Cold War. In 1949, the Western nations in Europe signed a cooperative, defense treaty called NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). In response to…
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Stories: Lawrence Davino
Millions of men and women served in the United States military throughout the 20th century. Connecticut is home to veterans from the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. But from the end of the Second World War in 1945 to the fall of the Societ Union in 1991, millions of men and women served during what is known as the Cold War. The Cold war was fought through the proxy wars such as Korea and Vietnam but no official declaration of war was declared between the Soviet Union and America. While the men and women who joined the American military during the Cold War…
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Stories: Leslie Hardin
CONTENT WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS REFERENCES TO SEXUAL ASSAULT AND VIOLENCE. Leslie Hardin is one of many veterans from a military family. Her father served in WWII, and after high school Leslie followed his footsteps into the Army Reserve in 1980. Leslie’s experience in boot camp was everything she’d hoped for. Camaraderie, challenges, and exciting work. She describes the joy of teamwork, being pushed to achieve her best. The experience was so positive that after basic training Leslie enlisted in active service, ready to make a career in the Army. But among Leslie’s many positive experiences, there was also a terrible crime. One night off-base, two men in uniform raped…
