Howdy Everyone and Merry Christmas,
My apologies if you are getting this a 2nd or 3rd time. Both gmail and yahoo have new blocks in their systems preventing mass mailings. I got no notice of this from gmail except for some 850 mailer demons stating that the mail had not been sent. So, I'm going to try this again via my regular e-mail and see if it works here.
This will be the last issue of Old Soldiers. It completes Volume 7, meaning an effective run of 7 full years in print. This last year I transmitted several letters to the readership hoping to elicit interest and response in the magazine, which did occur, but what did NOT occur was the submission of articles for publication. This last full year there was just enough articles submitted for a single issue. That doesn't bode well for a quarterly magazine. So, this is the last. It can be downloaded for the next 30 days at:
PDF link
I continue to be a board member at the Ernie Pyle WWII Museum. We were successful in wresting control from the State of Indiana, Dept. of Natural Resources. BUT, they left the museum in terrible shape both financially and physically. They have done NO repair work for 15 years – NONE! So, on page 2 and continued on page 88 is a description of the museum's woes and a plea for financial help. I hope some of you will be moved to contribute. Afterall, Ernie Pyle was significant in helping Roosevelt obtain the public support, moving Americans away from Isolationisim, to support England with military goods in contravention of the Neutrality Laws then extant. Contrary to our modern views, driven by the vision of the Walton's sitting around their living room listening to the radio and hearing the news broadcast by Edward R. Murrow, people in America were in the depths of the Great Depression. Wealthy was the family who could afford a radio. Wealthier still were those who could afford electricity, rural electrification or not. Americans got their news from Ernie Pyle who was in London during the Blitz and wrote home of what he saw and experienced, and urged Americans to help. It was Ernie Pyle who moved Americans to help England, and directly contributed to Lend Lease by helping Roosevelt to ignore American laws against helping any belligerents.
But, Ernie Pyle was much more than that, one has only to read any of his five books to find he had a uncanny ability to understand people and to mirror their thoughts without them really telling him what they felt or believed. His stories of men at war are the stories of all men at war from the Legions of Rome to modern day Afghanistan.
So, as a member of the board, I implore you to help support the museum and save it for not only the people and veterans of the United States, but as a place of international importance and heritage. We desperately need $150,000 USD for repairs. I'm asking you to donate be it $10 USD or $100,000. USD The chairman of the board of Scripps Howard has said of the museum, "This is a Smithsonian quality facility. I'd have never thought it. We get hundreds of requests for funding and I have to check every one of them out. NEVER have I seen a small town museum that met standards that the Smithsonian would envy."
We are trying very hard to preserve the museum for posterity. So, PLEASE help!
Sincerely,
Tom Cundiff, Director
Ernie Pyle WWII Museum
erniepyle.org
765-665-3633
PS:
There are also some goodies from yours truly in this issue.
tries a stucco repair product to contour his bases.