Omaha World War I Memorial

This past Sunday evening, my family and I went to a free concert at Turner Park in Omaha in remembrance of 9/11. The concert was great and the music by the Omaha Symphony and the Air Force Heartland of America Band was very inspiring. While we were there I took some nice sunset photos of the World War I memorial that stands at the corner of Farnam Street and Turner Boulevard. The memorial was finished in 1937 and was financed by the Omaha chapter of the American War Mothers. It was built by the federal Works Project Administration. The three stars featured at the top of the arch are painted blue in honor of living veterans, silver for disabled veterans and gold to honor those who died in combat. The memorial underwent some recent restoration work by McGill Restoration in August 2011 and has now been restored to its former glory. My favorite little detail of this and all monuments built before World War II is how it refers to World War I as the "World's War" with no one guessing at the time that there would be yet another world war in the near future. Along these lines, I think that the most unsettling title for World War I has always been "The Great War." The juxtaposition of "great" with "war" has always seemed slightly uncomfortable to me. At any rate, this memorial remains a small but but proud Omaha monument to those brave men who fought and died in the first "World's War."

2nd Infantry Division's 90th Reunion

The men of the 2nd I.D. Living History Association journeyed down to St. Louis, Missouri for perhaps our most important and meaningful event to date. We were invited by the Second Indianhead Division Association to be a part of their 90th Annual Reunion to set up a display honoring the division's proud history. So Dave, Will, Jeff, Kirk, Logan and myself travelled to St. Louis on Friday, August 26 to set up our display. The event was held at the Sheraton Westport Chalet which is an incredible meeting and event location. We got in later on Friday afternoon and immediately began hauling in our gear and setting up tables. Here's a photo of the entrance to the hotel on Saturday morning with the sun rising on the Indianhead's welcome banner.

Saturday was a beautiful morning in St. Louis. Jeff and I got an early start and took some outdoor photos before breakfast. Here's a nice view of the Westport Chalet Hotel - it felt like we had stumbled into a European village or a ski resort town somewhere with all the tudor style buildings.
Here's a photo that Jeff took of me standing at ease. This is probably my favorite uniform in my entire collection. I absolutely love the Army's OG-107 uniform of the late 1950's and early 60's. The gold and black Army tape, the black and white name tape, the black belt and the black leather boots just look sharp!
Here's a shot I took of Jeff wearing his World War II OD's. There were a whole lotta Indianhead patches this weekend. That's fer sure... that's fer dang sure!!!
This is the beginning of my display. Here I am showing some Korean War uniform jackets and some helmets. Also note the blue Korean War Veterans flag on the front of this table.
Here is a close-up of the Korean War helmets. The far helmet has the Indianhead painted on the front, the middle helmet has an improvised burlap helmet cover, and the closest helmet I kept clean with just the elastic helmet band.
This is all of the gear I had on my Korean War tables. The old M1 rifle sure got a lot of attention. I can't even begin to count the number of World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam veterans who have touched or held my M1 over the years. It's made a lot of guys smile and everyone always comments on what a great weapon it was - their favorite!
Here's the beginning of my 1960's tables with some gear, the M1952 Armored Vest, some helmets and the 2nd Division flag.
This is a close-up of two helmets with the Mitchell pattern camouflage helmet cover - one with the brown side out and the other with the green side out. The baseball cap in the foreground is a 1969-dated Hot Weather Field Cap with the 23rd Infantry Regiment's DUI on the front.
Here some more 60's-era gear with a M61 Buttpack, a Poncho Liner, my awesome Jungle Boots and some web gear items.
And this is the rest of my 60's gear with some personal effects, two M26 Grenades, a M56 Shovel, a Flashlight, a Machete, a M7 Bayonet and an Aircrew Survival Knife. The boots are the early pattern Leather Combat Boots.
An overall view of my corner and Jeff's corner display right across from mine.
The next few photos are David Jameson's display as well as Will Green's uniform rack and his famous "Bunk of Junk." These guys fit all of this stuff in one minivan if you can believe that!




Here's a bunch of the vets checking out our display on Saturday morning. From about 8:00 until about 11:30 we were getting tons of veterans, their wives and families coming through our display room. It was everything I'd hoped it would be!
Here's Dave talking with Mr. Ritchey (sp?) I'll have to get the whole story on here later but this guy was a 12 year old Belgian orphan who befriended some 2nd I.D. soldiers and they smuggled him back to the United States in an army duffelbag!!! They got caught when they were on the transport ship back, but the U.S. let him stay over here instead of shipping him back. What a story! I'll have to post a photo of him as well back from 1945.

This is Mr. Gordon Fisher of Toms River, New Jersey who was a real member of I Company, 23rd Infantry Regiment during World War II. Holy Cow! This guy was in the actual company that our unit reenacts when we hit the field. His stories were very touching and amazing to hear. Meeting him was the highlight of the entire weekend for me.
Here's Will just trying to fit in with all the mannequin heads. The burlap helmet cover blends in so well with the wallpaper that you can hardly see it!
Ahhhh... me and Kirk's M-16A1. Now this is something I could get used to. It's not every day you get to hold one of these retro rifles. I've got to start building my own here pretty soon!
I colorized this one to look like it may have been taken in 1970. I'm not sure how effective this technique was but I thought I'd give it a shot.
Here's a smiling group of 2nd I.D. lads at Saturday night's dinner banquet. The guest speaker gave a presentation on all of the 2nd Division monuments and markers in Europe. A snore fest for some - but I was fascinated by all of it! Everyone thought we looked pretty sharp in our Class A service coats - which we did!
And finally one more photo of the guys. It was an incredible experience and one that I will not soon forget. I wish they were having the reunion in St. Louis or Kansas City or Omaha every year because I can hardly wait for the next one. Second To None Since World War One!!!