New Exhibit Opens at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum
(see pages 7-8)

 

2006 Annual U.S. Army Museum System
Training Course Review
Col. (Ret.) Robert S. Voyles, U.S. Army
Fort Douglas Military Museum
Fort Douglas, UT

describing the work done by a provisional recovery team from Illinois and Pennsylvania. Another highlight of the course was the general session presented by Corine Wegener, Assistant Curator, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. She gave her perspectives on collections management applicable to Army museums and useful information from her work at the National Museum in Iraq in 2003.

The 2006 Annual U.S. Army Museum System Training Course, held at the Hilton Salt Lake Center, Salt Lake City, UT, 11–16 June, was an overwhelming success. Over one hundred and sixty attentive and enthusiastic museum professionals gathered to exchange ideas and learn ways to refine their collections. The course theme, Collections Management: Refining Your Collections with Helpful Insights and

The opening reception at the 2006 training course. All photographs courtesy of John Paschal

The Army Historical Collection Accountability System (AHCAS) was a big success. Participants said it is now more user friendly and a great improvement to the automation process the Army Museum System uses for artifact accountability. The field trip to Fort Douglas was very interesting, especially the dinner presentation by Geoffrey Panos, co-producer of Saints and Soldiers, an

Best Practices, focused on new ideas in collections management. Participants were from the Army, Air Force, National Park Service, FEMA, National Guard museums, and museum activities and private organizations. Instructors came from the Army Museum System and private sector museums and organizations.

This year’s course was hosted by the Fort Douglas Military Museum and the Utah National Guard in Salt Lake City. The training course consisted of lectures and interpretive tours at the Museum of Church History and Art; Family History Library; Hill Aerospace Museum; Fort Douglas Military Museum; Utah Museum of Fine Arts; and the Utah Museum of Natural History. The interpretive instruction was designed to provide and to promote the exchange of ideas with the opportunity to expand the scope of collections management techniques used by the Army Museum System staff. The presenters shared their best practices for refining collections and provided the participants with a unique, behind-the-scene view of the museums. We extend a special thanks to all of them.

The over thirty-five sessions focused on the theme of collections management. Guest speakers addressed key museum concerns and offered ways to share expertise and ideas. The disaster planning and restoration sessions gave participants practical and real experience in disaster management. The amazing recovery efforts at Jackson Barracks (New Orleans) was presented by a team of professionals who demonstrated how the museum community can pull together to assist one another. Especially noteworthy, was the presentation by Maj. Mark Whitlock, Director, Illinois State Military Museum,

award winning World War II film. Following the dinner, the 96th Regional Readiness Command, under the command of Maj. Gen. Peter Cooke, conducted a flag retirement ceremony, followed by comments from the Governor of Utah, Jon Huntsman.

Updates on the National Museum Project were given by Judson E. Bennett, Jr. Director, National Museum, Fort Belvoir, VA, and Col. Robert J. Dalessandro, U.S. Army, Director, U.S Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, PA, who provided status reports of their respective museum projects.

Many thanks to everyone in the Fort Douglas Military Museum and the Utah National Guard, the CMH Museum Division, the museums in Salt Lake City, the staff at the Hilton Salt Lake Center, guest speakers, and volunteers who helped make this a very successful training course.

Next year’s training course is scheduled to be hosted by the Casemate Museum at Fort Monroe, VA.

 

Fort Douglas Museum’s outside display area.

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Flag retirement ceremony at Fort Douglas.

 

Hill Aerospace Museum, Hill Air Force Base, UT.

 

2006 Army Museum Training Course group photograph.

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funding for the new Resource Center.

The Resource Center is divided into two areas: the front area includes the offices of the museum staff, work stations for volunteers and an open conference area for researchers, and the back area, referred to as “the stacks” houses the museum’s resource holdings. Three additional rooms within the Resource Center serve as a supply closet, a storage room for archival and exhibit supplies, and a break room used for meetings and lunches.

Renovation of the space was completed in January. Once the renovation was finished, four months were spent relocating the museum’s resource holdings from several storage rooms in both the basement and attic. Careful planning and layout before and after the move provided an opportunity to better organize the holdings. Future plans include a searchable database that will prove invaluable for both inventory and information requests.

The resource holdings include over 100,000 historic photographs; glass plate negatives; 10,000 technical manuals; 1,300 standard nomenclature lists; 2,500 book reference library; annual histories; maps, drawings and blueprints of the Arsenal Island and its historic landmark buildings; monthly periodicals from World War II to present; microfilm copies of Rock Island Barracks records; microfilm copies of historical correspondence; and World War II green book series.

Recent projects, which have utilized the Resource Center’s holdings, include digitization of 240 pages of the Surgeon General’s Weather Report at Fort Armstrong for an Illinois State climatologist; digitization of work diary entries from 1877 to 1883 belonging to John Gamble, a guard stationed at Rock Island Arsenal; and scanned historic photographs provided to create a graphic display for the newly restored garrison headquarters building, originally built in 1873 as a Soldiers’ barracks. A long

The Resource Center under construction, 21 Dec 2005.

term project in progress is the conversion of approximately 380,000 early 20th century ordnance drawings from microfilm to digital format.

To help ensure the longevity of the resources for future researchers, a specially designed climate control unit was installed to maintain optimal temperature and humidity. As an added layer of protection, a state-of the art Sapphire fire suppression system was installed in the back area of the Resource Center. The Sapphire system houses a non-toxic chemical suppressant that looks and feels like water but dries completely within thirty seconds, causing no damage to paper or electronics. The Resource Center is the first facility on Rock Island Arsenal to have a Sapphire system installed.

The Rock Island Arsenal Museum’s Resource Center is open for researchers Tuesday through Friday, 0800 to 1500. The Resource Center closes at 1600. Since it is a closed stacks facility, appointments can be scheduled by calling 309-782-5021 (DSN 793-5021). The staff also welcomes information requests via phone or email. Email requests should be forwarded to leinickek@ria.army.mil.

 

New reception area in the Resource Center.

 

 

 

 

Editor’s Note: The next issue of the Army Museum Memo will feature an article on the Sapphire fire suppression.

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Ribbon-cutting ceremony for two Navy weapons in the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) Museum’s Missile Park to celebrate the Desert Navy’s sixty years at White Sands Missile Range. Museum Director, Terrie Cornell is second from the left. All photographs courtesy of Miriam U. Rodriguez.

Desert Navy at White Sands Missile Range
Turns Sixty
Miriam U. Rodriguez, Assistant Editor
WSMR Missile Ranger
White Sands, NM

The Navy celebrated its sixtieth anniversary at White Sands Missile Range with the dedication of two museum additions in a ceremony at Missile Park on 14 June.

Dr. John Foulkes, Director Defense Test Resource Management Center Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, was the guest speaker.

The Navy installed an MK5 missile launcher and a 5–inch 38–caliber gun mount in the museum’s Missile Park in honor of its sixtieth anniversary at the missile range.

After giving a brief history of the detachment and its role in the missile range, Foulkes said the detachment was selected as the place the Navy will test its new fire control system and said this testing would move them in the right direction in providing joint capabilities.

“These integrated systems of systems will fight as one unit, making decisions as a system,” he said. “This remarkable interoperability will be tested by this small detachment here in the desert. I can think of no better organization than this detachment to lead this change,” he said.

The mission of the detachment includes land-based testing of naval weapon systems, missiles and gun munitions as well as launch operations for sub-orbital space systems and research rockets.

The Navy has been a part of the range test community since 14 June 1946, when this naval activity

was established to participate in research and testing of captured German V–2 rockets. During the 1940s and 1950s, White Sands continued to launch rockets for atmospheric research. In the 1950’s, the Navy’s responsibilities at White Sands expanded from rocketry into the testing of surface-to-air missile defense systems. The Navy’s Desert Ship test facility was built in 1953 to support testing and military training requirements.

Today, the White Sands Desert Navy is part of the Port Hueneme Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center as the White Sands Detachment.

Dedication of the Navy weapons in the museum’s Missile Park.

 

Fort Sill Museum Celebrates Baseball

The Fort Sill National Historic Landmark and Museum, Fort Sill, OK, hosted a special exhibition of a 19th century baseball game on 8 July. This event was straight from the history of this frontier Army post where the first recorded baseball games were played in Oklahoma. From January to March 1869, the 7th Cavalry under the command of Gen. George A. Custer played ball routinely with the 19th Kansas Volunteers. Maj. Gen. David C. Ralston, Commanding General of Fort Sill, was the pitcher in the re-enactment game and an enthusiastic participant.

Congratulations to Towana Spivey and his staff on this outstanding educational event.

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The U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum
Opens New Exhibit
Tim O’Gorman, Director
U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum
Fort Lee, VA

The sounds of war have always included music; drums and bugles to signal commands and bands to provide inspiration and entertainment. An exhibit, Bands of Brothers: The Army’s Musical Heritage, opened on 27 July 2006 at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum to honor the contributions of Army musicians and Army bands, and relates the history and importance of the use of music in the American Army. The exhibit is done in collaboration with the 392d Army Band (Fort Lee Band) along with assistance from Darcie Fouste, Director, Adjutant General Museum, Fort Jackson, SC.

Soldiers throughout history have loved their bands, whose music whether it be marches, jazz, big band swing, or rock and roll, have helped to lighten their load. By

The museum possesses a number of vintage band instruments supplied to the Army by the Quartermaster Corps. This case contains a Civil War-era E Flat bass horn over the shoulder model and a selection of trumpets dating from 1885 to the 1950's. All photographs courtesy of Tim O’Gorman.

The exhibit honors the musical legacy of Army bands and those Soldiers whose mission is to provide morale-sustaining music for the Army.

using uniforms, vintage musical instruments, images, and music, the exhibit traces the Army’s musical history beginning with the drums and fifes of the American Revolution to today’s Army bands that provide morale-building entertainment, support for ceremonies, and who often deploy overseas.

The exhibit explores the distinction between field musicians, the drummers and buglers whose role was to communicate commander’s orders to soldiers during battle and to announce when to conduct daily duties, and Army bandsmen. When a regiment’s field musicians combined into a single group they formed a drum and bugle corps. Today’s drum and bugle corps are descendants of this practice. The role of bands was, and
is, to provide entertainment and lift morale of Soldiers. During the Civil War, bands were sometimes placed in the front lines to provide this inspiration directly and they often suffered casualties. Between 1863 and 1900, thirty four musicians and bandsmen were awarded the Medal of Honor.

The collections of the Quartermaster Museum contain a wide variety of musician’s and band-related artifacts including a selection of bandsmen uniforms ranging from an 1890’s Drum Major’s uniform to a 1930’s Army Band uniform (Pershing’s Own), and a collection of band headgear that includes one worn by a member of John Phillip Sousa’s Band in 1902. Also among the artifacts is a collection of fifes including one that was used at the Battle of Bunker Hill; a Civil War field drum; Civil War-era brass instruments called Saxhorns, and a variety of bugles. A “Military Melodies” touch and play kiosk, offers a selection of Army band music and bugle/drum calls from the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War using instruments of those periods, and marches and other

View of a re-created bandstand containing a mannequin depicting a ca. 1900 Drum Major along with a collection of drums.

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musical selections played by a variety of contemporary Army Bands.

A Union Soldier writing home in 1862 said, “I don’t know what we should have done without our band.” Soldiers today share the same opinion.

Bands of Brothers: The Army’s Musical Heritage will run through May 2007, at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum, Building 5218, Fort Lee, VA.

Capt. Dave Hanselman (left) and Lt. Col. Phil Govia (right) talk with John Bagosy in front of a UH–1H, number 852, the one on which he served as a gunner in Vietnam. All photographs courtesy of the museum staff.

U.S. Army Transportation Museum Hosts the Gathering IV
David Hanselman, Director
U.S. Army Transportation Museum
Fort Eustis, VA

The U.S. Army Transportation Museum hosted their fourth annual Gathering from 12–17 June. The event is held every year to honor Transportation Corps Soldiers, past and present. This year’s event was the biggest one to date and played host to over 200 veterans from Vietnam, Korea, Desert Storm and current operations. Encampments covered the grounds of the museum with living historians representing World War II, Korea, Desert Shield/Storm and Vietnam. Static displays included modern vehicles from the 7th Transportation Group, a Livermore gun truck from the 8th Brigade and two Vietnam era helicopters from the Aviation Logistic School. The participating veteran groups brought two five ton Vietnam-era gun trucks, a M–37 gun truck and a V–100.

Veterans met in the auditorium to exchange stories and look at photos and videos.

Events throughout the week included tours of the port facilities, the flight facility and a bus trip to Washington DC to visit the Vietnam Memorial, as well as a harbor cruise on the Miss Hampton. Other activities included a tactical trail ride on a 10K tactical road on post. Several vintage vehicles participated in the convoy along with living historians. A barbecue was held Friday night and included a free concert by the Enduring Honor Choir, a school performance band dressed in World War II period uniforms that played songs from the era to an appreciative crowd.

The event was a huge success and brought veterans of past wars together with Soldiers of today’s operations. The 305th Military History Detachment, (my detachment), along with Rich Killblane, the Transportation Corps (TC)

 

A great Korean War display was provided by living historian Tim Kress.

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Command Historian, conducted an oral history program. The Soldiers of the 305th captured over thirty-one hours of interviews with TC veterans which will be used by Rich for the written history of the Transportation Corps.

Although the event is an exhausting week for the staff, they did a superb job welcoming and hosting the veterans and this event reaffirms the very reason we do what we do in the Army Museum system.

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM veteran Soldiers who served on this very gun truck, the Ace of Spades, in Iraq discuss their experiences with Vietnam veterans.

 

 

 

Vietnam veteran, Dave Willett, inspects a 7th Transportation Group Rough Terrain Cargo Handler (RTCH). Dave, a master modeler, has supplied several models and dioramas to the museum.

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course on leadership and military history at the college. While in north Georgia they attended a student day at the Army Ranger camp. USARC, FORSCOM, and the Third Army provided active Army exposure and briefings on today’s Army, and Army current events and history.

FORSCOM’s Deputy Commanding General and Chief of Staff, Gen. Dan K. McNeill and the Third Army’s Commanding General, Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb personally briefed the students.

LeadAmerica is a national youth leadership organization based in Washington DC. They transform our world’s next generation of leaders by educating, inspiring and instilling in them ethical and principled leadership values, attitudes and skills. During their summer at Fort McPherson they were introduced to the Army Values and the Army story.

Based on the enthusiastic student response, it appears

The Iraq exhibit at the USARC Museum.

Afghan National Military Museum
Reconstruction Effort

Raymond Lutz, Command Historian with the Chief of Staff, Transportation Corps at Camp Eggers, Afghanistan, is working with the Director of Religious and Cultural Affairs, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Amin Naseeb, and Brig. Gen. Ameen Wardak, Commander of the Kabul Military Training Center to assist them in the reconstruction of the Afghan National Military Museum destroyed first by the Soviets and then by the Taliban. Mr. Lutz emailed the following photographs of what the museum and the surrounding area looks like today. He and both generals are planning a visit to the United States, to include the Center of Military History, in late October.

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