July 30, 2022
For the release of the title, E Pluribus Unum: GRAICE Under Pressure from The Museum of the American Military Family, director Circe Olson Woessner talked about the book with my co-writer-in-residence, Connie Kinsey and me.
(yeah, I keep sharing the cover photo — credit the non-profit ad budget of $0.00 <smiley face> )
July 23, 2022
E Pluribus Unum: GRAICE Under Pressure joins two other books from the Museum. One, Schooling With Uncle Sam, is a first-person memoir collection of DoD schooling with the overseas American military. The other, On Freedom’s Frontier, gathered first-person recollections of American military service on the tank-defended, and land-mine-infested border between West and East Germany–the Iron Curtain. All three books were shepherded by Circe Olson Woessner, the Museum’s executive director.
To quote from the Museum’s press release,
“The motto, E Pluribus Unum, means ‘out of many, one.’ The museum’s latest project E Pluribus Unum: GRAICE Under Pressure — gives title and substance to a newly-released multi-faceted study exploring if the many do indeed become one,” Dr. Circe Olson Woessner, Executive Director of the Museum of the American Military Family (MAMF) explains. “E Pluribus Unum: GRAICE under Pressure curates, in one volume, stories from hundreds of military-connected individuals based on their service experience seen through the lenses of GRAICE (Gender; Religion; rAce; Identity; Culture; and Ethnicity.).”
In writing E Pluribus Unum, none of us writers knew how the others approached the writing prompts or how they explained the way military life affected their experiences of the GRAICEs. Each of us expanded on our experiences.
My essays are:
A group of similar essays were written by my co-writer-in-residence, Connie Kinsey, a Marine Corps brat. Scattered between the essays are the book’s illustrations, conceived and produced by “the son of a world traveling family,” Brandon Palma who founded 8thDayCreate.
To polish the book, Amy Hines Woody, an anthropologist and an Air Force retiree, wrote the introduction. Anthropological PhD candidates, K.T. Hanson and Chelsea E. Hunter, put under a sociological microscope raw survey data collected online by the Museum from self-selected respondents. They added fifty pages of survey analysis to the over two hundred pages of first-person experiences. The anonymity of the surveys provided the analysts with much candid information.
Despite pride shown by many of the contributors, E Pluribus Unum is not a hoo-rah rubber-stamp of military life. Likewise, the book is not an invective-laden tirade. It is an authentic look by people with something to say about their lives, either in uniform or close to uniformed personnel.
For those with an interest in what takes place behind the installation fence, I hope you enjoy the book.
May 8, 2019
Nazi troops invaded Poland in 1939 and then, with the help of the fascist government in Italy, took over most of Europe. This attempt to permanently conquer Europe by the Rome-Berlin “axis” spilled over into North Africa. Then the Nazis, with visions of a reign of a thousand years, set their sights on the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR. The largest country in the USSR was Russia.
Farther east, China defended itself against Japan. Strengthening its position, China agreed to a nonaggression treaty with the USSR and the USSR supported China by supplying weaponry to them. This alliance therefore pitted the USSR against Japan. To put it mildly, the ripples of the pact complicated international relations.
To strengthen their position, the Nazi government in Germany entered into a pact in 1941 with Imperial Japan. The pact was against the Communist International (Comintern) — effectively against the USSR. The Japanese were now part of the Axis powers. This resulted in war in the Pacific as well as the Atlantic.
Triaging the situation (as this was before the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor), the United States focused on the war in Europe. D-Day happened. The Nazis were pushed back. Hitler committed suicide. The Russian and Allied troops converged on Berlin. German military leaders signed surrender agreements.
Seventy-four years ago, the guns went silent in Europe for the second time in the 20th Century, but it wasn’t the end of the war. The fighting in the Pacific raged on. Still, the people in Europe celebrated. The people in America celebrated. The American people in Europe, servicemembers, diplomatic personnel, and others, celebrated. People in concentration camps lived.
A good two-book historical series on this era is Herman Wouk’s, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.
In 1945, my mom was serving in the Women’s Army Corps and was soon to participate in the Pacific theater. She was transferred to China.
1945 — My mom’s sisters in arms in the Women’s Army Corps on bivouac near Seattle, Washington.
My dad served, too. He celebrated VE Day in Hollandia (now, Jayapura), New Guinea.
1944 — US troops debarking in Hollandia, New Guinea. My dad’s photo.
So, on this day in 2019, here’s to the people who vanquished the Nazi government in 1940s Europe. And a toast to the continued struggle.
May 4, 2017
Stonehenge visitor center: To navigate on Google Maps, mouse over the small map in the lower left hand corner on the Google Maps screen. The blue dots are static images, such as this one. The viewer can look around, but can’t walk anywhere. For the ability to move, click on one of the blue lines in the small lower-left map and then either click farther along the blue line, or click on the map image.
In light of the potentially disrupting news from the House of Representatives today, I needed to get away for a while. The easiest way to do this, and also to be able to sleep in my own bed, is by taking a trip on Google Maps. Tonight’s visit is to Stonehenge.
The interesting aspect of virtually visiting Stonehenge is that in addition to driving around the henge on the local roads that have been maintained as smaller secondary roads, the viewer can also take a walking tour among the stones.
The picture in the screen shot is of the Visitor Center and shows what I think are representative dwellings where the people who built Stonehenge lived. To get to Stonehenge itself, click on the small lower-left map at Google Maps and navigate by following the blue lines (it’s a bit of a ‘drive’ to the right) and blue dots. Or click here if you’re in a hurry.
I enjoyed the drive from the village to the east and my stroll around the monument. I hope you do, too.
Valerie Bonham 