544 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0221dc421274eb17987651b5035df2af.jpg 6df0dd8a35b23d4a84cf69168be2600a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Merrill_LS00879 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1940-05-07 Title A name given to the resource Rock City, Tennessee Description An account of the resource Black and white lantern slide of Audie Merrill and another person stanidng on an overhead bridge in Rock City, Tennessee. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/e892c0b00261c9b46157194d01b2a03f.jpg b566075cdd9c1614baab9c96e0b7808c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Merrill_LS00881 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1940 Title A name given to the resource Old Panama spiral staircase in Cathedral ruin Description An account of the resource Black and white lantern slide of a staircase in a ruined Cathedral tower in Old Panama. Subject The topic of the resource Lantern slides Panamá Viejo Site (Panama, Panama) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4a6fc7dafdc89f5b42303bde11b833f9.jpg d30b73b13086e17f41302ad57ad2436a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Robert H. Merrill photographs Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1909/1950 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-222 Description An account of the resource Photographs, negatives, and lantern slides digitized from the papers of engineer and archaeologist Robert H. Merrill. A Grand Rapids native, Merrill held an accomplished career as a civil engineer. He founded the company Spooner & Merrill, which held offices in Grand Rapids and Chicago. From 1919-1921, Merrill lived in China, working as Assistant Principal Engineer on a reconstruction of the Grand Canal - the oldest and longest canal system in the world. Merrill became fascinated by archaeology, and among other projects, he traveled to the Uxmal Pyramids in Yucatan, Mexico, with a research expedition from Tulane University. Merrill's photo collection includes images of his travels and projects, friends and family. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Merrill_LS00882 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1940 Title A name given to the resource Old Panama masonry arch highway bridge Description An account of the resource Black and white lantern slide of a masonry arch bridge over a waterway in Old Panama. Subject The topic of the resource Lantern slides Panamá Viejo Site (Panama, Panama) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merrill, Robert H., 1881-1955 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Robert H. Merrill papers (RHC-222) Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Type The nature or genre of the resource Image Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/da47f1e5e64c11c506076362a3b584a1.mp4 244c5be2f894af379dc85de0fb58530b https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/fe4e0e8a5fbb1dbe2fc07311ee7bfc03.pdf f4a3aa1da0398891a52457428d87f956 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Vietnam War Lawrence Merritt Interview Length: (00:39:06:00) Pre-enlistment / Training (00:00:24:00)  At the time he joined the military, Merritt’s immediate family were his parents and three sisters; when he joined the military, Merritt’s family was living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but Merritt had been born in Oak Park, Illinois (00:00:24:00) o Merritt actually joining the military came about from his choice to attend Purdue University, which he did not realize at the time, had a requirement that all freshmen had to take ROTC (00:00:47:00)  While fitting the ROTC into his curriculum, Merritt had to decide between Army, Navy, or Air Force ROTC and he had to do the ROTC for at least one year (00:01:01:00)  However, before Merritt enrolled, the university canceled the ROTC requirement for freshmen but since Merritt was already in a scheduled format, his father thought Merritt should just try the ROTC and see what he thought of it (00:01:13:00)  As well, the ROTC program paid a little bit of money each month, which was a little enticement (00:01:28:00) o Merritt stuck with the Army ROTC and one year led to the next, then to the next, then to the next, and finally to the fourth year, after which, Merritt received a commission as a 2nd lieutenant out of Purdue (00:01:36:00)  Merritt graduated with a degree in civil engineering and as the curriculum unfolded, Merritt could see himself joining the Army Corps of Engineers while the non-engineering ROTC members were likely to go into either infantry or artillery (00:01:52:00)  At the time, the Army required that all engineering officers attend an engineering officer basic course at Fort Belvoir, Virginia that lasted for eight weeks; the course was a first step so that all engineering officer candidates could learn military engineering because they all knew civil engineering but as the military go a hold of them, then the candidates had to learn military engineering (00:02:25:00) o The course was very informative and Merritt was able to apply most of the civil engineering to what he would be doing with Army engineers; however, the course also taught the candidates about explosives, which a civil class would not have taught them, and other aspects of military engineering that might come into play in a candidate’s future (00:03:03:00) o As far as basic training, during one of the summers in ROTC, Merritt and the other members had to go to Fort Riley, Kansas for what was a rudimentary infantry, artillery, and armor exposure; it was nothing more than to teach that there were other disciplines in the Army and in the future, the students might be drawn into one (00:03:26:00) � From Fort Belvoir, Merritt’s first assignment was at Fort Carson, Colorado in a heavyequipment platoon, which itself was in an engineer battalion that worked in support of an infantry division (00:04:01:00) o In the platoon, the soldiers had more combat engineering responsibilities, including: operating heavy-terrain cranes to retrieve vehicles, bridge launch vehicles, bull dozers, road graters, dump trucks, and paraphernalia that might be useful from and engineering unit for an infantry division (00:04:15:00) o Merritt’s time at Fort Carson lasted for about six months before he had a chance to attend another class at Fort Belvoir (00:04:43:00)  While at Fort Carson, Merritt had received assignment to MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) and although there was a class for joining that command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the class was full, so the Army allowed Merritt to go back Fort Belvoir and take and engineering equipment officer course which was intended to give him some time before going to Vietnam (00:04:54:00) Deployment (00:05:32:00)  From Fort Belvoir, Merritt went to Vietnam by way of Travis Air Force Base in California; when he arrived in Vietnam, Merritt still did not know where he was going incountry but he was a 2nd lieutenant assigned to MACV, so the Army started going through the regular curriculum of what advisors did in Vietnam and actually asked Merritt which Corps or region he might be interests in going to (00:05:32:00) o Merritt had the option of going to the north (Military Region 1), the Central Highlands (Military Region 2), Saigon (Military Region 3) or the Mekong Delta (Military Region 4) (00:06:17:00) o Merritt knew that he did not like snakes or DMZs, so he decided to go to Military Region 2 and the Army found an opening for him in that region (00:06:33:00) o After two days, Merritt flew to Nha Trang, which was the stop-off point for the head of Military Region 2; once in Nha Trang, the regional commanders looked in their list of openings and assigned Merritt to the Darlac province, which was on the western reaches of Vietnam (00:06:48:00)  When Merritt first arrived in Vietnam, it was nothing like what he expected; all the training films in college and the war stories Merritt had heard both, in person and over the news, indicated that he would be using his rifle sooner than he wanted, which was not the case (00:07:06:00) o Saigon was domesticated, which was not something Merritt was prepared for, but going into the smaller settlements, it got more rural all the time and things were almost normal, except when nighttime came, which was when people stopped using the roads (00:07:27:00)  Merritt did not realize that the curfews were on-again, off-again but usually, there was no one out at night and it became very quiet in the evenings and nights, not the constant barrage of war (00:08:04:00)  Once Merritt arrived in Darlac, his specialty in engineering allowed him to become an engineering advisor, which was an assigned position in the advisory team Merritt was a part of; the advisory team as a whole was a part of CORDS (Civil Operations and Role �   Development Support), which was made up partially of civilians and partially of military personnel (00:08:29:00) o The advisory team was mostly officers, senior NCOs, and civilians with a government background who were in specialty positions to help improve the society in the area, such as health, education, and welfare (00:08:58:00) o The team was more of a civilian organization working with the Vietnamese than a group of military advisors, although they were in the military (00:09:25:00) o As an engineer advisory, Merritt was involved in several public works projects that required aid from the team; the team did not have specific people to assist in the actual project but the team had money and mental knowledge to help the Vietnamese (00:09:37:00) o Merritt was also the assistant supply officer, which involved the more remote military assignments within the province, who were living more off the land and separate from the advisors living in the towns and Merritt helped supply those soldiers with supplies, including: food, ammunition, and fuel, all of which had to be shipped out from the central point in the province (00:09:55:00)  Along with being the engineering advisor, the supply side kept Merritt pretty busy (00:10:26:00) There was an airfield in the town where Merritt was stationed used by the Americans as well as the Vietnamese infantry division stationed there, who used the airfield as a launch point for their field operations (00:10:43:00) o However, when it rained, all the jet propellant used for re-fueling would float downstream over the land and enter the village, becoming a fire hazard because as the propellants dried up, they stayed on the surface and eventually, a propellant from someone’s cooking stove would light the streets on fire (00:11:00:00) o The engineers had to devise a way to collect the rain water and contain the jet fuel while allowing the storm water to continue flowing (00:11:33:00) o The military had been in the area long enough that it was questionable why something had not been done sooner but it was a military problem that the military had to clean up (00:11:58:00) Another public works project that Merritt took part in was helping construct buildings for administrative duties; the advisors did not actually build the buildings themselves but there was an engineering battalion who came in a built the buildings where the team had chosen to place them (00:12:15:00) Towards the end of his time in Vietnam, Merritt became involved in the Army’s effort to re-locate entire Montagnard villages; the villagers were take out of the contested areas and re-located to an area where the engineers helped them build perimeters and defensive fortifications around the new village (00:12:39:00) o There were a tremendous number of Montagnard villages that had been re-located and although the majority had re-located before Merritt arrived in Vietnam, the Americans were still involved in the re-supply and refurbishment of the fortifications around the villages (00:13:07:00) o The Montagnards themselves did not like the re-location efforts; they were taken from their historic, family areas and re-located to flat farming areas (00:13:30:00)  However, the Montagnard system of farm was such that they would plant crops around their village and they needed the jungle atmosphere and �     replenishment of the soils, which they could not get in the open farm lands, so their farming efforts became more tedious (00:13:44:00) o The soldiers did not supply the Montagnards with supplies, who grew their crops and trade for whatever else they needed in the markets; logging was a big industry for the tribesmen and they could turn any profits from that into rice if they did not successfully grow any (00:14:18:00) The town where Merritt was stationed had around seventy thousand inhabitants but the surrounding areas were more remote, so the entire province itself had around onehundred-and-fifty thousand inhabitants, which was not much for being a seven-hundredsquare-mile province (00:14:41:00) Merritt kept in contact with his family; the mail service as a little slow but the mail eventually came through (00:15:19:00) o It was a little tedious trying to keep up with everything because the letters did not always cover what Merritt wanted to know; there was a limit to how much someone could remember to put into a letter and how much Merritt wanted to read about in a letter (00:15:26:00) o Merritt tried to contact his family once through the telephone system, which was an interesting concept of using radios to transfer a call; although it was a cumbersome system, it was still something Merritt tried (00:15:52:00) The food available to the soldiers was good; because the Vietnamese were cooking American-style food, the soldiers did have to suffer (00:16:10:00) o The food was not overly fancy but the soldiers managed to stay healthy from eating it (00:16:22:00) The soldiers stayed in old French quarters from when the French had occupied the country; Merritt does not know if the quarters were an old French hotel but each soldier had an individual room (00:16:37:00) o However, the soldiers eventually took over a former Special Forces encampment and because the Special Forces tended to receive better supplies and facilities, the soldiers enjoyed what the Special Forces soldiers had left behind (00:16:53:00) Merritt had to put working with the Vietnamese people in two vernaculars: the true South Vietnamese and the Montagnards, and Merritt happened to be stationed in the Montagnard capital of South Vietnam (00:17:09:00) o Therefore, the majority of the people the Merritt and the other advisors worked with were Montagnards; Darlac was one of four provinces that had Montagnard province chiefs (00:17:21:00) o However, there were South Vietnamese living in the area who had actually come down from North Vietnam and found more land available in Darlac than they found by the coastline, where the traditional South Vietnamese maintained ownership of the land (00:17:41:00) o The soldiers enjoyed the Montagnards, who were friendly, knew enough English to keep Merritt out of trouble and so he could communicate with them, and were a happier people than the South Vietnamese (00:18:01:00)  The Montagnards were more festive and had a tighter bond with their families, who they shared with the soldiers, who would went to the different families for Sunday afternoon dinner (00:18:19:00) �   On a typical day, the soldiers had their breakfast in the morning and be working by eight o’clock, although there were some supply soldiers who were always either procuring supplies or preparing to ship the supplies to the outlying units in the area (00:18:43:00) o The outlying units needed new supplies either weekly or monthly, depending on the supplies, and because all the units were on different progressions, the workload for the supply soldiers was spread out, based on what the individual units’ needs were (00:19:06:00) o The units would call ahead with their needs because there were some items the supply soldiers could not get right away, the units knew this and gave the supply section time to scrounge the items ups (00:19:22:00)  Generators were the biggest problem because the units relied on them for electricity twenty-four hours a day, so when a generator went out, the supply soldiers had to have another generator ready, so the supply section always had move generators than they were allocated (00:19:30:00)  Fuel was not a problem; Merritt believes that the supply soldiers were able to do well there because there was a South Vietnamese Infantry in the area and their supplies, namely fuel and ammunition, became supplies for the Americans as well (00:20:06:00) There was combat in the area and Merritt divided it into two groups (00:20:26:00) o The first group were pre-meditated attacks by the American military in which they would plan operations in the area using either helicopters or trucks to get to certain stages areas, where the soldiers would stay for a period before returning to their base (00:20:32:00) o The second group were attacks by the Viet Cong where they would occasionally attack at night using mortars or rockets, which generally aiming at the airfield with the helicopters being a particular target (00:20:53:00)  However, the attacks left the soldiers’ barracks alone as well as the town; Merritt does not recall anyone in the town being wounded in an enemy attack (00:21:12:00) The unit Merritt served in itself was interesting; there were a few enlisted soldiers and a lot of both senior NCOs and officers (00:21:51:00) o After sundown, it seemed like everyone could mingle together; although rank was respected, it was put away so that people got to know each other as part of the team, not by what their rank was (00:22:08:00)  There were a lot of hazing parties for soldiers who were getting ready to go home and other occasions where the soldiers were happy (00:22:26:00) o The soldiers had chances for R&R and they would often go together; however, the soldiers did not receive many because they were a small unit (00:22:51:00) o Once of the advantages in being in the supply section was the soldiers helped obtain the food for all the outlying units and whenever they would go to Cam Ranh Bay or another place on the coast, the soldiers would take Montagnard souvenirs and return with steaks or extra items, so that the section because the focus point for Sunday afternoon partying (00:23:03:00)  The supply section got the goodies while the other soldiers brought the beer and everybody was welcome, including some of the outlying units because there were not much fun in their areas on weekends (00:23:39:00) �  Merritt spent his entire tour in Darlac (00:24:10:00) o A shallow point of Vietnam was that Merritt only saw what he did for that year but he did not know the bigger picture of why he was in Vietnam (00:24:14:00)  Merritt’s was a little easier because he was working with the civilians and he could see construction of buildings were before, everyone was pensive about their future (00:24:44:00)  The soldiers could see an evolution in the attitudes of the civilians; the soldier’s work was having an effect but they might not have been aware of it because they were so close (00:24:59:00) As a young officer, Merritt did have a few extra assignments; there were numerous jobs that needed to be delegated to the younger officers and the officers never knew when the conditions were met for those assignments or what they entailed (00:25:21:00) o One of Merritt’s extra assignments was the MPC conversion officer, although he did not know what the assignment was until somebody told him that the following day, Merritt needed to be prepared to travel to all the district teams, who would be locked down as well as the main base and no one would be allowed to leave or enter (00:25:39:00)  Merritt was expected to collect all of a unit’s military scrip, which was being done all over Vietnam on that day, take the old script back to the regional headquarters, get new script and take the scrip back to the soldiers, giving each soldier the same amount of scrip he had given Merritt in the morning (00:26:07:00)  The purpose of converting the scrip was to prevent any scrip in the black market from being useful again because the scrip would not go back into circulation (00:26:43:00)  There was a thought-process that the Viet Cong and NVA were partially funding their operations through the use black-market military scrip (00:27:03:00)  There were four districts plus the main base and Merritt also had to fly back to Nha Trang to convert the script, which was an hour-and-a-half away from the main base (00:27:27:00)  When converting the scrip, Merritt had to be accurate to the nickel with every soldier, so it was a sort of challenge to make sure he had everything right (00:27:40:00) o Another interesting extra assignment was Merritt was assigned to be the real estate officer, although he had no idea what a real estate officer did (00:27:52:00)  The position was meant to take care of what happened to a facility after the Army unit that occupied the facility moved (00:28:08:00)  Technically, there was supposed to be paperwork done ahead of time saying that before the facility was vacated, there would be a South Vietnamese unit occupant or some other useful job and the facility would then get properly transferred over (00:28:26:00)  However, this was not the case while Merritt was in Vietnam; units were leaving positions so fast that the arrangements could not be made, so Merritt had the job of playing catch-up with the abandon bases to make �  sure that at the least, the province chief would take security forces to each base to make sure the gate was locked (00:28:42:00)  If the gates were not locked, the buildings would be stripped, the plumbing taken out, and civilians would move in to start making houses (00:29:08:00)  One of his last jobs in Vietnam was making sure that the transfers were taking place (00:29:25:00)  Most of the bases were near where Merritt was stationed but there were Special Forces, Signal, and Air Forces units moving around further out and if there was not somebody at an abandoned base with a key and gun to keep people out, then the people were going to get in (00:29:32:00) Merritt had two good friend while he was in Vietnam: one was his senior supply officer who left Vietnam before Merritt and the other was the unit’s Phoenix officer, who was in charge of the Phoenix program for the group (00:30:03:00) o Overall, Merritt served in a small unit but because most of the soldiers varied in age, the two Merritt kept in the most contact with were the two soldiers who were closest to his own age and rank (00:30:53:00) Once it reached the time for Merritt to go home, it was ironic because Merritt did not know he was supposed to be going home (00:31:14:00) o All the soldiers in the unit knew they were deployed for a year and each kept track of his own date of return; however, Merritt was not of the mind to count the days down because he believed that just made it seem longer (00:31:18:00) o Before he even reached the point of being concerned, Merritt still had and R&R to look forward to and had been planning to go to Bangkok with one of his friends; the two men had the trip planned when Merritt was called into the office and told that because of a recent decree by President Nixon, he was going home the following day (00:31:42:00) o Merritt did not have any great period of time to prepare to leave; it just sort of happened, although the unit did have a ceremony for Merritt and another soldier who was had orders to go home (00:32:18:00) Post-Military Life / Reflections (00:32:45:00)  The day Merritt flew back to California was also his last day in the Army; normally, an officer had a two-year enlistment in the Army and four years in the Army Reserve but a couple of months after Merritt was let off of active duty, he was told he did not have to go through the Reserve period because he had been to Vietnam (00:32:45:00)  Once he got home, Merritt was still in a bit of shock from having left Vietnam so rapidly and once he got home, Merritt did not know where to start looking for a job (00:33:32:00) o Merritt had a re-collection of someone saying that the first thing he should do was file for unemployment, but that was not something Merritt want to do because he had not even started looking for a job; nevertheless, Merritt filed anyway and the unemployment office had a catalog of available jobs, so Merritt was able to find a job before he even left the unemployment office (00:33:41:00) o The was a small engineering firm near Chicago looking for an engineer, Merritt interviewed for the job and received it (00:34:10:00) �    Merritt married a couple months after he got home from Vietnam (00:34:25:00) o Before leaving for Vietnam, Merritt bought a car and paid for it while he was in Vietnam; an advantage of being stationed in the far western part of the country was that there was not much for Merritt to spend his money on (00:34:31:00) o Once he returned, Merritt picked up the car and married his wife a couple of months afterwards (00:34:53:00) Merritt does not remember much from after the war; for him, the sooner he could move on, the better because the war was not a popular thing and something he could tell others that he had done for the last year (00:35:21:00) o The war was not really something Merritt paid much attention to; he was getting married, starting a new job, trying to re-connect with people from college, and there was not a great interest in re-living the military experience (00:35:52:00) o When Merritt returned home, his parents had a cake for him and that was about it (00:36:39:00) Merritt received a Bronze Star that was issued after Merritt left Vietnam and the medal came as a surprise (00:36:49:00) o Merritt cannot say that he did one significant thing or another; it was a unit effort and there were others who were doing the same kind of work that Merritt was doing (00:37:05:00) o The soldiers could tell that the Vietnamese civilians appreciated what the soldiers were doing, although Merritt cannot speak about how the military viewed what the soldiers were doing (00:37:19:00) Merritt and his father have talked several times, not only about the Vietnam experience but the part about being an officer and the leadership, things that, when Merritt initially started college, did not think he could have or would have done (00:37:47:00) o It was a building of both confidence and ability as well as the effort of responsibility (00:38:10:00) o Being in command of his first platoon and see his soldiers complete their tasks was very important for Merritt (00:38:21:00) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_MerrittL1012V Title A name given to the resource Merritt, Lawrence (Interview outline and video), 2009 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-11-10 Description An account of the resource Lawrence Merritt was born in Oak Park, Illinois, although when he enlisted, Merritt's family lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After attending Purdue University and completing the university's ROTC program, Merritt received a commission in the Army Corps of Engineers and went to Fort Belvoir, Virginia for his training. From Fort Belvoir, Merritt initially received an assignment to Fort Carson, Colorado but soon received assignment to MACV. Once he deployed to Vietnam, Merritt worked as an engineering advisor in a province populated largely by Montagnards. Merritt stayed in the same province his entire tour and returned to the United States once his tour was complete. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Merritt, Lawrence Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Serafino, Meg (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Moving Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/db2a06def159760a166ae3837a89ba69.mp4 e77d499c47fc5a8309b08d73a9a55a9a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/be9fb34a7d459f019f47d3f6b6a8ce1d.pdf fcda07dbfff1a06bb89a3ff9bb88c01c PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Paul Metevier (1:02:32) Background information (00:20)  Born July 24th 1947 (00:21)  Served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam Conflict. (00:28)  He was in country from February 2nd 1968 through August 16th 1969. (2:23)  Born July 24th 1947 in Mount Clemens, Michigan (2:35)  He has one brother named Thomas Metevier. (2:47)  His family lived in Marine City, Michigan, for a year after his birth and then they relocated to San Diego California where he was raised. (2:56)  His father was a chef and served as a cook in the Marine Corps during World War II in the Philippines (3:18)  At one point his father had owned his own restaurant. (3:42)  His father’s restaurant, Lubach’s, in its prime was widely successful and served as a power lunch place for lawyers and judges. (4:42)  He attended Our Lady of Sacred Heart through 8th grade and graduated high school from the University of San Diego High School. (6:05)  He graduated high school in 1965 (6:35)  He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from San Diego University (1970) (6:38)  Because the war broke his education into 2 separate terms he finished his education in 1970. (6:50)  His degree was in Business management. (7:03)  Both he and his brother currently live in Lansing, Michigan. (7:19)  His brother currently runs a dog and cat grooming business and is nationally awarded for his work. (7:29)  The purchase of Wag a Tail Pet Resort in August 2004 is why they currently live in Lansing, Michigan. (7:46)  Wag a Tail Pet Resort has been voted the number one kennel in the country for multiple years. (8:05)  He had 2 careers. One was in the food and drink business and the other was in driving trucks across the country. (8:10)  He got sick in Lansing (a heart attack and stroke) and he needed the aid of the V.A. this is why he is currently in Grand Rapids, Michigan for rehab. (10:49)  He handled the paperwork and business aspects of his brother’s kennel. (11:20)  His mother has very severed Alzheimer’s and dementia and is currently in Eaton Rapids, Michigan. (11:27)  He traveled to the Ann Arbor Michigan V.A. but they suggested he go to one that has daily hands on care such as the V.A. in Grand Rapids. (12:08) Enlistment (12:20) �     He had been living in San Diego and had just gotten out of high school (1965 when he enlisted. (12:32) He as well as friends of his knew they were going to be drafted. (12:45) Enlisting in the Air Force and serving for 4 years was seen as an alternative to being drafted and serving perhaps a more dangerous term in the army. (12:58) After taking a qualifying test he had received his results and was accepted into the Air Force, however his friend Paul Brown got drafted before he received his test results back. He served his entire term in Germany. (13:18) He spent 2 years of his enlistment in Vietnam. (13:56) Basic training (14:00)  He enlisted January 2nd 1966 (14:19)  He attended basic training in Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. (14:27)  He attended tech school in Amarillo, Texas (14:30)  He did his only stateside assignment in Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida for 1 year until he received his papers for Vietnam. (14:40)  Basic training had been 24 days long (15:16)  tech school had been 4 months long (15:29)  He received an expert rating in his firearms training. (15:40)  His very first meal at Lackland was at 1:19 in the morning. After returning to the barracks at 2:30 in the morning they were awoken 2 hours later by a fire drill. Then basic had started. (16:29)  During basic there was a lot of following orders and suppression of individualism; they were taught to function as a group. (17:00)  There was also daily physical training and weapons training on the M4 and the M16. (17:26)  At Tyndall Air Force Base he was assigned to the flight line. This is where he began training on 20mm cannons. (18:14)  Every chance he got he was out on the flight line and he became very familiar with the task. he learned everything from loading to maintenance (18:35)  he was technically an administrative person be he also did some firing. (18:59)  He had the administrative and use records of the 20mm cannon. (19:14)  He served at Tyndall Air Force Base for about a year. (approx. 1966-December 9th 1967)(19:30)  promptly he was assigned to the 412th Munitions Maintenance Squadron in Vietnam(19:20)  He was given leave before sent into service in Vietnam. (20:00) Arrival in Vietnam (20:10)  He had been shipped out of the U.S. from March Air Force Base to McCord. (20:22)  He left on approx.. January 25th and arrived February 2nd 1968 (20:39)  he arrived at Cam Ranh Bay Vietnam (21:09)  At this point Cam Ranh was a full Air Force Base and had one of the largest landing strips in the country. (21:21) �            Every military denomination had been stationed at this Air Force Base including the Vietnamese and Koreans as well as every military branch aside from the Coast Guard. (21:48) the base also had the best food of any military post in Vietnam (22:17) here he was assigned to the 412th MMS (munitions maintenance squadron)(22:35) his basic responsibilities had consisted of the ammo dump, the flight line, reloading aircraft (cannons and machine guns.) as well as getting munitions delivered around the country. (23:00) From the instant he hopped off the plain, he recalls the heat and the smell. (Not a stench but just a different smell.) (24:20) The Base had hot and cold running water as well as central air. This surprised him as he did not expect such conditions in a war zone. (24:04) The chow hall was very large and was open to all branches of service there. (25:30) In spite landing in February it was very hot and humid and it rained very often. (26:45) The base was on a peninsula which had white sand beaches and blue water that appeared very beautiful. (27:30) There was an enlisted beach and an officers beach that the men there were allowed to use with cabanas, sodas, and beer available (27:55) His living quarters had heat and air conditioning and men were even given individual rooms. (28:30) Barbecues where held for soldiers returning from the field to help with R&R (29:12) Service in Vietnam (29:30)  Typically his job had been a shift. He was assigned to work for about 7 in the morning to about 3-4 in the afternoon. (29:30)  His outfit did come under fire one night when a 122mm rocket hit the power generator. (30:14)  5 days before he left country the 5th or 7th Field Hospital was hit. (30:55)  His unit did not take any casualties and while he does not recall how many there had to have been casualties when the field hospital was hit. (31:47)  He was sent into the Marine Base at Khe Sanh in March, 1968, while there the landing zone was extremely hot. (32:27)  Not every man in his unit had been sent out but instead the men rotated to deliver supplies. They traveled in either a C130 or an Air Force helicopter. (33:02)  This task required him to drop off munitions supplies. (33:19)  He delivered to Khe Sanh 20 millimeter ammunition Howitzer as well as ammunition for M14s and hand grenades. (34:30)  He had to travel into Khe Sanh twice. The first of these two trips had been the hottest (under heavy fire.) (35:01)  He has not ever or since felt the same sort of fear he felt during his first trip to Khe Sanh. (35:25)  When at Khe Sanh he had been on the ground for approx. 45 minutes. (35:34) �                     In Hue he delivered to a rear and though it was still a hot area it was not as dangerous as his Khe Sanh experience. (36:06) The most terrifying thing he saw was the dropping of a napalm bomb. (36:34) The first napalm bomb he saw dropped was only 1 Kilometer away from his position. (37:31) He went to Vietnam believing that the military was fighting to preserve freedom and to protect the U.S. but when he left he believed it had been the U.S. that was the intruder. He also believed that the U.S. corrupted that country. (38:35) Overall he thinks the civilians had been friendly however once soldiers had been stationed in Vietnam the black market rapidly adjusted to accommodate to the soldiers desires. (40:00) He believes the soldiers’ presence had been either tolerated or liked but not hated. (40:20) He had heard from men out in the field that one could not afford to trust a Vietnamese civilian. (40:37) The worst memory he had was visiting a high school friend who had stepped on a land mine and was in the field hospital. (42:10) He was fortunate enough not to be wounded in Vietnam or a prisoner of war. (42:22) His unit received presidential citation. (42:58) He had the opportunity to take 5 R&R sessions. (43:31) His first R&R was in Hong Kong which he enjoyed but gave him the feeling that it was like Los Angeles. (43:43) He traveled to Bangkok 3 times (44:00) And he traveled to Tokyo once. (44:07) He also went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and to Manila. (44:22) He served in Vietnam from February 2nd 1968 to August of 1969(44:40) The reason for this extended service is that he was offered an early discharged from the Air Force if he remained in Vietnam for a longer period of time. (44:35) The R&R sessions lasted 5 days. (45:15) Before taking his extra extension he was aloud a 45 day leave where he returned to the U.S. (45:50) If believes that if they would have allowed the military to do their job then the task would have been completed. (46:46) He left for Vietnam on August 10th. 1969 where he was discharged at McCord Air Force Base in Washington(47:46) Post war experiences. (48:28)  After being discharged he lived in San Diageo where he worked for his father in the Lubach’s Restaurant. (48:30)]  He got married to a childhood sweetheart, Diana, but then got divorced 4 years latter (approx 1973) (48:34)  The way in which he kept in touch with his family had been primarily by writing or by sending cassette tapes. (49:36) �                  At Cam Ranh he did receive mail on a regular basis but out in the field this was not the case. (49:58) Every once in a while the men where aloud to make phone calls to the U.S. on a radio relay telephone. (50:23) He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and followed in his dad’s footsteps in the culinary and food industry (50:56) He does not recall any supply shortages he experienced while in Vietnam. (51:18) His job had been very stressful when the plains he was serving for were currently in a conflict. This at times was very stressful. (52:30) Out of respect, the men on the ground would always make eye contact with the pilot when he was furnished refueling and resupplying his aircraft. (54:19) The USO would frequently visit the Cam Ranh base and entertainment such as pool tables were provided. (55:21) There was a Red Cross center but not a Salvation Army center. However, there was Salvation Army representation. (56:18) His rank was E5 Staff Sergeant in the Air Force. (56:40) The Culinary Institute of America offered a 1 year certificate or a 2 year certificate. (58:00) After working under his father he served as a sous chef at the Hotel Del Coronado. (58:37) Soon after his job in the Hotel Del Coronado he and his brother started their own restaurant in Del Mar, California (59:12) He spent approx. 27 years in the restaurant business. (approx 1969 to 1996)(1:00:07) After his time in the restaurant business (approx. 1996) he spent 3 year in Panama City, Panama. (1:00:11) After returning to the states he worked in Chicago, Illinois (approx 1999) (1:00:37) He ran 2 restaurants in South Haven, Michigan (1:01:17) After completing this project he moved back to Chicago where he worked at the Oak Brook men’s club. (1:01:42) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MetevierP1339V Title A name given to the resource Metevier, Paul (Interview outline and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Metevier, Paul Description An account of the resource Paul Metevier enlisted in the Air Force in January, 1966. After basic training in San Antonia, he spent over a year at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida before being sent to Vietnam. He served his tour at Cam Ranh Bay, where he was assigned to the 412th Munitions Maintenance Squadron. He worked in the ammo dump and the flight line, and supervised the shipment of munitions to different bases. Most of his duties were relatively safe, but he did make a couple of deliveries of ammunition to Khe Sanh while it was under siege in 1968. He extended his tour in exchange for an early out, and served in Vietnam from February, 1968 to August, 1969. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Erichsen, Wallace (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Air Force Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-12-05 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/35f193d0f3580d6dd3d14c5b51c0c402.mp4 20db9ce92ec0a6587a225e245cb4c77c https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/37af088db3b6a2576fa76d9de3499d85.pdf 93f56b65a38f33d823c68a370b035007 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Theobald Metzger (00:49:00) (00:25) Background Information • Theobald was born in the Netherlands near Amsterdam • His father was German and his mother was Dutch • His grandfather worked maintaining the Queen’s horses • Theobald made it through the sixth grade, but it was very different from America because they were being taught different languages and algebra in sixth grade • He went to work when he was 14 years old and also went to merchant marine school • He was a civilian when World War Two occurred, between the ages of 4 and 9 (3:15) World War Two • He and his friends played lots of soccer and saw lots of fighter planes flying over • His family was very much against the war and his father was hiding in the underground • The Germans would go house to house to find men that were 16 years or older • They wanted to put them to work in factories and concentration camps • His father and others dug holes and tunnels below the houses to hide (8:00) Rationing • There was very little food • Each family only got about a half of loaf of bread a week and some potatoes • They had to scrounge up sugar beets and make pancakes out of them • All the garbage was burned in fireplaces to keep warm (10:40) The Radio News • He had heard about railroads being bombed • The Germans would shoot men that were hiding • Each town had a different dialect and it was hard to understand people (18:40) His Father • He bombed many bridges to prevent the Germans from advancing • He had previously worked in a steel factory (10:10) The End of the War • There was much celebration and it did not take long to rebuild the community • There was a boom in the housing industry • Theobald had only ridden in a car once by the time he was twenty years old � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MetzgerT Title A name given to the resource Metzger, Theobald (Interview and video outline), 2006 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Metzger, Theobald Description An account of the resource Theobald Metzger was born in the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands in 1936. He describes his memories from his childhood in the Netherlands during WW II. His father spent most of the war in hiding and worked with the underground. He discusses food shortages, the conduct of German soldiers, and popular attitudes toward the Germans. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Metzeger, Megan (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Civilian World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Video recordings Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2006-04-04 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f0f7b73441d8b224da31977caaa7bb69.pdf 6b5a0ebb89c501796ed72d798948e946 PDF Text Text � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Civil War and Slavery Collection Subject The topic of the resource United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 Slavery--United States African Americans United States--Politics and government--19th century Description An account of the resource A selection of correspondence, diaries, official documents, photographs related to the American Civil War and to the institution of slavery, collected by Harvey E. Lemmen. The collection includes a selection of documents from ten states related to the ownership of slaves and abolition, correspondence and documents of soldiers who fought in the war and from family members and officials, diaries and letters of individuals, and a collection of mailing envelopes decorated with patriotic imagery. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lemmen, Harvey E. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/472">Civil War and Slavery Collection (RHC-45)<br /></a><a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/470">John Bennitt Diaries and Correspondence (RHC-43)<br /></a><a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/471">Nathan Sargent Papers (RHC-44)<br /></a><a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/478">Theodore Peticolas Diary (RHC-51)<br /></a><a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/476">Civil War Patriotic Envelopes Collection (RHC-51)<br /></a><a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/479">Whitely Read Diary (RHC-52)</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1804-1897 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource image/jpg; application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Image; Text Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1804-1897 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-45_AllegoryLincoln Title A name given to the resource Allegory of Lincoln's Death Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1865 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Meunier, Constantin, 1831-1905 Subject The topic of the resource United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--Assassination Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865--Death and burial Pictorial works Meunier, Constantin, 1831-1905 Brussels (Belgium) Washington (D.C.) Description An account of the resource Allegory of Lincoln's Death painted by Belgian artist Constantin Meunier in 1865. Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/NoC-US/1.0/?language=en">No Copyright - United States</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Civil War and slavery collection (RHC-45): http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/472 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/76ecebe0d8596c97f6c85321d06aace6.mp4 7b6d840af4df5bbf1140b86707725e72 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/69acf5f108caf0d992b1dea12dab42cf.pdf f52c3ed23442032b72d3de3d03346052 PDF Text Text ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW ANNIE MEYER Born: Hancock, Minnesota Resides: Holland, Michigan Interviewed by: James Smither PhD, GVSU Veterans History Project Transcribed by: Claire Herhold, January 20, 2013 Interview length: 22:20 Interviewer: Mrs. Meyer, can you start by telling us a little bit about your personal background? To start with, where and when were you born? I was born in Minnesota, Hancock. It was a very small town. And I was born into a large family. I was third oldest. We had nine children. And my mom and dad were… Dad was a farmer. We lived on a big farm and we had cows and horses. All the field work was done with horses at first and then we got into tractors. Interviewer: You’re growing up in the era of the Depression. Is your family able to hang on to the farm in that period? Yes, we were. And, in fact, I remember during the war, then things were more expensive and prices were up for what dad sold so he was able to pay for the farm, and that was a good feeling. 1:05 Otherwise he had to farm and give a share of it to the owner of the crops and things. That’s the way they worked it. Interviewer: So he was getting by, because he didn’t actually own the land, he didn’t have a mortgage to pay in the ‘30s, he was just sharecropping at that point? I guess you’d call it that, yeah. Voice Offscreen: No, he owned it, Ann. After a while, yeah. Well, he had to pay for it by the sharecropping. I don’t know how many… �Interviewer: Well, they may have arranged the purchase agreement where he had to pay for it through sharecropping or whatever but it enabled you to kind of stay in the same place and not have to move around a lot or switch jobs. I only ever remember living in that one farm. Interviewer: What kind of schooling did you get? I had eight years in a one room schoolhouse. We had all the grades and one teacher. First off, we had quite a few kids like, fourteen, and then by the time I was in the fourth grade we were way down. 2:07 At one time there were four from my family that were in school and only three other kids. It was rather strange. Interviewer: Was that just shifts in population or were kids going off and working? No, it was the older ones were graduated and there wasn’t that much of younger ones to come in. We lived two and half miles from school and we had to walk or else we took a horse and buggy, and we managed to do that for a number of years. I had, like I said, the eight years, and I had always wanted to be a nurse, and of course you needed more education, at least a high school. And I had to stay home and help on the farm so I didn’t get the high school. Interviewer: So that’s basically what you’re doing through a lot of your teenage years is you’re just kind of out there on the farm. Did you have a radio or anything like that or were you too far away? 3:05 I remember when we got radio. I remember when we got electricity. And it was really something. We had a twenty five watt bulb in the middle of the ceiling. Boy, we had light. Interviewer: Was this part of the rural electrification process? �Yes, yes. First Dad had a little plant of his own, and when rural electrification came through, then he was able to switch to that. Then he had it in all the buildings. First he had it in only a couple of them. Interviewer: Did you have any sense, I don’t know if you were old enough to think about it then, did you have any sense of what your father or your parents thought about a lot of the government’s policies regarding agriculture and that sort of stuff in that period? I didn’t hear an awful lot about it. The prices of things, that I would hear about, and then Dad would always kind of watched that when he sold the pigs or sold some cow, something like that. 4:04 He tried to pick when it was the highest. And of course the grain was always something. He harvested that. You had to get rid of it whether you wanted to or not, but you couldn’t keep. Interviewer: In some areas of the country there were agricultural agents and things like that out there who were dictating policies of different kinds. There was an agricultural town, Morris, right close by us. There was a man there that used to come out and talk with Dad. Interviewer: But he wasn’t somebody who was interfering with them or anything, he was just offering advice or suggestions? Yeah, more or less. Yes. The Farm Bureau was another organization that farmers could join and learn about things too. We didn’t have a daily newspaper all the time. There were times when Dad would subscribe to it. If he did the mailman would come around every day and give us the paper. It was always a day late. 5:05 Interviewer: Right. Where would you get the paper from? Minneapolis. Interviewer: Minneapolis. How far were you from Minneapolis? �150 miles. Interviewer: Ok, so that’s a good ways. Did you get to go into the city occasionally when you were a kid? I did a couple of times but it wasn’t a really big ambition of ours. Morris was big enough. I was at the cities to the state fair one time. I had won a prize. I won first place in a declamatory contest that was held in the public schools in the county and they would have one field day, they’d have all the speakers give their speeches, and they’d have to find out who’d win first. And the first one would go to the cities where the state fair there. And I did that one year. Interviewer: Do you remember what you talked about? I think that one was a humorous one. 6:03 I preferred having more serious ones, but it was the humorous one that got me to the cities. Interviewer: As you were kind of, getting a little older and so forth, in the period right before Pearl Harbor, were you paying much attention to the news in the world and things like that? Yeah, I think so. Especially because I had two brothers that were eligible for the draft and of course, they had to sign up for it. Interviewer: That’s right, because the draft was going on before the war started. And so when their time came, rather than go in where they didn’t want to, they wanted to be in the Navy so they enlisted. They stayed together through the whole war and they had very traumatic experiences but they both came home. Interviewer: Were they serving on a ship together? Yes, yes they were. 7:01 And it was a liberty ship, I believe. And it would ferry certain groups of soldiers with all their equipment from one place to the other. They were in the South Pacific. �Interviewer: Would they have been anti-aircraft gunners on those ships or things like that? There were, yes, and they each had, I guess, to take their places when it was time. Interviewer: It wasn’t quite, maybe, as dangerous as being on some of those combat ships at the very start of the war, or whatever. Probably not. But they were hit twice. Interviewer: Were they already in the service at the point when the Sullivan brothers went down? Because you had five brothers on the same ship. Did that…? Yes, that was really something. We had a small church in our town and I think we had probably, I had to think, seven boys out of that church and about thirty five families. That’s a lot. 8:08 Interviewer: Seven boys that got killed, you mean? No, they just went in the service. One was killed. Interviewer: How would you say the war itself wound up affecting life in the town there during the time you were there? Well, I could tell you about the farm. The town it didn’t affect it much, except the gas shortages and certain groceries. We had the stamps, stamps for flour, for coffee, for sugar, for meat, and you had to…you were issued those. I guess they came through mail, I don’t even know. And you, when they were gone, that was it, until your next issue was ready. Interviewer: Since you were on a farm, does that sort of change the way things affect you? 9:03 We always had meat, of course, and dairy products. Butter was another thing that was rationed, but we had our own. It didn’t affect us as much as a lot of people, but we always had to get sugar. Flour, my dad used to take wheat in to a flour mill and have it ground and then he’d come back with flour, so that was no problem. �Interviewer: Was there a problem with things like … now did you have farm equipment that required gasoline at that point? Tractors, yeah. We had two tractors, three tractors. Interviewer: And was there an adequate ration to run the tractors? We had enough, yeah. We were able to do it. We always had a five hundred gallon tank on the farm that some truck would come out and fill every so often and that’s what we used. My sister just younger than I, three years younger…when the boys were in service, we did all the tractor work. 10:02 My dad had quite a few acres the first year, and then he had rented some, so then he let some of it go. But I think it must have been hard on him because we had to learn everything, you know? Interviewer: How old was your sister when she started driving a tractor? Well, I was…let’s see, I was about, I think I was eighteen when the boys went into service and that’s when we started. I had driven tractor for harvesting before that, but Audrey didn’t. She started in right from the beginning there. Interviewer: But she was still fifteen, which is not quite the same as being nine or something like that. No. Oh no, Dad wouldn’t have allowed that. But, yeah, we had to do all the tractor work. Interviewer: Did the tractors have rubber tires or metal tires? Ours did. First off, the one did. My sister and I both had tractors with rubber tires. Interviewer: Were there problems getting those replaced or did you just keep using the same ones? 11:03 We were able to keep the same ones. They kept going. Interviewer: Tires were another thing that was a serious shortage. �I don’t ever remember Dad ever replacing a tire on a tractor. Isn’t that something? He’s had them for years. Interviewer: Did they get flats that he would fix or did they just keep running? It’s possible that one went flat once, but they would fix it, yeah. You didn’t go out and buy one right away. Interviewer: At a certain point in the process, you eventually do pick up and leave home. How did that come about? I don’t know why I…how come the folks let me go at that particular time, because the war was still on and the boys were still gone. It would be my sister and Dad then. But I had wanted to be a nurse as long as I could remember. 12:00 In September of that year, then, I went to the east coast, to New Jersey, Wyckoff, New Jersey. That particular institution had a shorter chance to finish my course, two years instead of three. I had a place to live like at a nurses’ residence. And I figured when I was finished I’d come home and get work at home. But that first year, I asked permission from the institution if I could go home and help Dad through the summer and they gave me that. I didn’t have classes during that time, but I missed the clinical, so to speak. And my sister and I helped Dad yet that summer. In the fall I went back to New Jersey and did my second year. They, at that point, they didn’t allow nurses to be married and work there. 13:02 Well, we got engaged and we were going to get married and I said, well, I’ll work those three months that I missed in order to get the full time in after I was married. They wouldn’t allow it, so I really never got a signed certificate from them. I did finish the work. Interviewer: What kind of training did they actually give you? What did school consist of? Well, it was a psychiatric institution so a lot of it was on psychology and psychiatry and things like that. But we got a lot of anatomy. We didn’t have laboratory work like you would get in a �large nursing school because it was private, it was limited. So we got a touch of, a little bit of everything. Interviewer: Were there patients where you were or was this just a school? Oh yes. We worked full-time while we were in training. 14:00 Interviewer: Was that what paid for the training or did you have tuition fees? I guess you kind of worked it out. We did get a small amount of pay, and of course, living there with residence with room and board, that was given. But like I say, we worked full time and we worked hard too. It was hard work, so I think they got their money’s worth. Interviewer: Were the patients there people out of the civilian population or were there any soldiers who were back who were there? No, it was all civilian. It was totally psychiatric. We didn’t have other patients. Interviewer: Was that difficult to deal with? If you have a mental hospital, essentially, was it hard work to do, just mentally? It’s hard because your patients, in the first place, can’t communicate with you very well and some of them are also physically very handicapped, so you do a lot for them. 15:05 They don’t do much for themselves. And you always had a bunch of keys on you. You locked the doors behind you, you had to unlock before you get in. It was so different than today. They had medications but nothing like it is today. The psychiatric…I don’t think they have real psychiatric hospitals, as such, now. There’s a portion of a regular hospital that is mental, but that’s the extent of it. Interviewer: Well, a lot more things are done on an out-patient basis and that kind of thing as well, so there’s different places. Was this different from what you thought you had signed up for? Or did you know going in what you were going to get? �I didn’t really know what it was like, because I hadn’t had any contact really with mental patients so it was entirely new to me. But I adjusted quite well and I felt pretty much at home with the girls that I worked with and I found a church I was at home in. 16:07 That part was ok. When I was still home yet, there… most of the guys were gone, so it was all girls really. Living on the farm, we really didn’t have a lot of recreational things. Our people that we went and did things with were our own brothers and sisters so we had plenty of those. Interviewer: Did you have extended family in Minnesota? Were there uncles and cousins and things like that? Oh yeah. Mom had two, three sisters and a brother in Iowa, but the sisters were around home. Now Dad’s family was in California, so he didn’t have any. But Mom’s whole family was by us. 17:00 Interviewer: Since part of what happens here is the family is going to get a copy of this interview, they’re going to want this in there, why don’t you give us your version of how it was that you met your husband? Well, like you say, he got discharged on a Sunday evening and came home and went to church with his mother and sister and brother. And I went to church too, but I came from the nurses’ station. We had a transportation car that would bring us to our churches and pick us up at a designated spot. Transportation at that point was by bus if there was one, because gas was rationed and you didn’t ask people to do things for you very easily. After church then we went to his mother’s house and we had refreshments and he took us home. 18:00 And he said in the car that he sang in the choir, because I was in choir. I said, “Well hey, we need basses.” And he sang bass, so I said, “why don’t you come to choir?” So he said, “Well, maybe I will.” So then he decided he would join choir, and then he picked me up and brought me home. So that was the �way we started. And on my birthday he…well, that Christmas we spent with his… no I spent that one at the san because I was working. I was on nights at that point. So Thanksgiving I spent with his family and got to know some of them that way. Interviewer: Had he met any of your family before you got married? Did I have any of…? Interviewer: Did any of your family meet him? No, he didn’t meet my family until he came out when we got married, and that was in July. 19:05 I had gone ahead. I was finished with school, and I had gone ahead and got everything ready. When he came we got married and then moved back to New Jersey. Interviewer: What was your family’s response to the news you were getting married to some guy they hadn’t met? I think my mother said to me, she said, “I kind of could read between the lines.” I wrote home almost every day, and you don’t realize that, I guess, when you’re writing at that, it’s telling something different. When I was in training I had a lot of friends, soldiers that were in the service. I used to write a lot. They used to laugh at me. I used to have the most mail. They’d bring the mail in and put it out on a table, and sometimes I’d have as many as seven letters. But I wrote a lot too, so it worked both ways. 20:01 Interviewer: After you got married, did you hold jobs in different places or did you just start a family? I stayed home. My husband said I didn’t have to work, so that was a very easy, nice part of my life. You know, before I had children, it wasn’t busy at all. I could do what I wanted to. I think I slept my life away. �Interviewer: I suppose after growing up on a farm and having to be doing farm work from the time you were a young teenager and so forth, onward, that yeah, a little bit of a break might not be such a bad thing. I enjoyed it. It really was nice. And then we had the children, of course. We had four, three girls and a boy. That kept us busy. We lived very frugally, one paycheck to the next, but we never had any lack of anything really necessary, so we were very thankful for that. 21:00 Interviewer: Again, to go back to the period of the war there a little bit, did they do much out in a small farm town by way…in the cities and things they had scrap drives and paper drives and things like that. All kind of to support the war effort activity, or war bond sales. Did that stuff happen in a place like Hancock, Minnesota? Yeah, it did. They were asking for lard, fat, you know, and the farmers would have access to that to bring into town. I don’t know how it got…where it went after that, after we brought it into town, but yeah, we did that. Paper drives, I don’t remember about. Interviewer: That might have been less because you wouldn’t have the concentration of people all together who were all getting newspapers or things like that. No, in fact we didn’t have one for a while. But, I think it was a, certainly a time of growing up, for me anyway, for a lot of us. 22:07 Interviewer: Well thank you for taking the time to tell your story to me. You’re welcome. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MeyerA Title A name given to the resource Meyer, Annie (Interview transcript and video), 2009 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Meyer, Annie Description An account of the resource Annie Meyer grew up on a farm in Minnesota during the Depression. In her interview, she describes farm life during the Depression and during the first part of World War II. She also describes attending nursing school during the war and working at a psychiatric hospital during the war, and discusses various aspects of home front life. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Other veterans & civilians--Personal narratives Women Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-04-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/80f27b7ddc1af78de75257628d611299.mp4 e93fdaf5967418fcaa0a64fed443753a https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/6672d18c2d77438be1675ffc0808669a.pdf 89bd02d120fa5ad06f4f37e233372781 PDF Text Text Meyer, J.P. Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of War: Vietnam War Interviewee’s Name: J.P. Meyer Length of Interview: (1:45:58) Interviewed by: James Smither Transcribed by: Chelsea Chandler Interviewer: “All right, J.P., start us out with some background on yourself, and to begin with, where and when were you born?” I was born January 5th, 1947 in Marshalltown, Iowa. Interviewer: “All right. Now did you grow up there, or did you move around?” I grew up on a dairy farm in a small community about twenty-five miles north of Marshalltown called Wellsburg, Iowa. Interviewer: “Okay, and what part of Iowa is that in?” Central part. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, and did you finish high school?” I did. Interviewer: “When did you graduate?” 1965. Interviewer: “Okay, and then what did you do after you got out of high school?” I enrolled at South Dakota State University in pre-pharmacy. Interviewer: “Okay, and then how long did you stay there?” I was there until April of 1968. Interviewer: “Okay. Now did you complete your program there, or…?” I completed it after my active duty army time. (1:02) Interviewer: “Okay, and so how is it that you wound up in the army?” �Meyer, J.P. I dropped out of school, and I wanted to fly. I had taken flying lessons while I was at South Dakota State. So I actually went down to the Air National Guard unit in Sioux Falls and got on their wait list for pilot training. I was number 102 on the wait list, so it didn’t look very likely that I was going to go to Air Force pilot training. And they required four years of college. The army would allow you to go through the warrant officer flight training program if you had a certain number of semester hours of college credit, which I had, so I went down to the post office in Brookings, South Dakota on April 26th and enlisted in the army for the warrant officer flight training program. Interviewer: “All right. Now a lot of people probably don’t even know what a warrant officer is, so can you explain that?” Well, warrant officers are—I guess you would consider them technical type officers. They were in the supply field, logistics, and, of course, during the Vietnam War, most of the warrant officers were helicopter pilots. (2:10) Interviewer: “All right, and how do they compare with standard commissioned officers?” We were below the regular commissioned officers. There were—At the time, there were four grades of warrant officer. They’ve since expanded it as I understand it, but back then there was— The grades were W-1 through W-4. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, and you could do this without going through all of the things involved in becoming an officer, but you still get your own things.” Yes, yes. Yeah, we went through a different type of program. Interviewer: “Okay, okay. Now when you signed up, how many years were you signing up for?” You know, I honestly don’t remember. We had our obligation after flight training, but I can’t remember exactly what it was. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, so now where do they send—Now do you do a regular army basic training first, or did they send you—” I went to basic training at Fort Polk, Louisiana in August. It was very hot, and from there—when we finished basic training—I went to Fort Wolters, Texas for primary helicopter school. Interviewer: “Okay, so the training at Fort Polk. That was standard army basic training?” Yes. Interviewer: “So what was that like other than hot?” �Meyer, J.P. It was miserable. It was—After I’d been to Fort Polk for about six weeks, I—You just—You’re so entrenched in basic training. You really don’t think about anything else. It was—It was hot and, like I said, pretty miserable. Interviewer: “Okay. Well, how did the instructors treat you?” Like a typical drill sergeant back in that day and age. They’d be in your face, screaming. You’d be standing at attention. They didn’t physically touch us or hurt us, but you were always thinking that they would if they had to. That’s kind of how—That’s what the environment was like back then. Interviewer: “Okay, and how much of the emphasis was just on drill and discipline?” (4:00) All of it. Basically, you did what the army told you to do, and they were, I guess, developing a mindset of what they were looking for in a soldier. Interviewer: “Okay. Now were you training alongside people who were draftees, or were they all enlistees? Or do you not know?” There was a mix. We had a lot of draftees. Interviewer: “Okay, and how did the other guys respond to the treatment?” We had a couple of guys that—We had one particular guy from Mississippi who was a little on the heavy side, and I know on one of our marches he just fell out. He couldn’t go anymore. But everybody was kind of in their own world and struggled to get through it. They—The environment just gives you a certain mindset like, “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do next.” And then you always look forward to getting through for the day, so you could get some rest. And, of course, the barracks were un-air-conditioned, and you’d wake up with your sheets wet in the morning from sweating all night. It was hot. Interviewer: “All right. Now how long did that last?” Eight weeks. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, and then your next step from there?” From basic training I went to Fort Wolters, Texas. They took us by bus from Fort Polk, Louisiana to Fort Wolters. And we got to Fort Wolters, and the TAC officer as they were called got on the bus and was wearing a shiny helmet liner, carrying a—I think it was some kind of 40 mm round all polished up. And tapping it in his hand and being very nice. And saying, “Welcome, gentlemen to Fort Wolters, Texas. You’re here for your basic, primary helicopter training.” And then he just started screaming at us, and he says, “Now you have twenty seconds to get your you know what off this bus and get in formation.” (6:01) And we were in formation in the street, and it was hot in Texas during—in August and September. And we had one �Meyer, J.P. gentleman who was prior service as they say. Had medals on and had a—I think he was a staff sergeant actually. And the drill sergeant came by and ripped his medals off his shirt and ripped the stripes off his sleeve, and he says, “You’re now a warrant officer candidate, and you’re lower than whale shit on the bottom of the ocean.” So it was—The first four weeks of helicopter— primary helicopter school are—I guess you’d call it indoctrination. We didn’t fly. We went to class, and we were harassed a lot. Middle—Inspections in the middle of the night. Get out in the street. You’re standing out there in the dark at two o’clock in the morning in formation, and they’re going through and inspecting the troops. The TAC officer would, and then he’d tell you, “You’ve got five minutes to get back upstairs, change into your class A’s, and get back out here.” So we’d go change uniforms and come right back out and get inspected again. That lasted for the first four weeks, and then once we started flight training, we had to get crew rest. They were required to give us a certain number of hours of sleep before we could do anything else, and so the harassment wasn’t nearly as intense after that. Interviewer: “All right. Now the—So what are you actually learning in the first four weeks?” Well, you’re learning—In class we’re learning about the helicopter and how it’s built, how it operates. Learning basic flying information. Navigation, what air speed means, and things like that. And you learn a certain amount of—They went through the checklist, and we’d learn how to start the helicopter. We’d learn how to preflight it. Look for defects. (8:01) Interviewer: “So were you getting into helicopters but not flying them, or…?” No, we weren’t. We weren’t allowed on the flight line the first four weeks. We had one individual who was in our barracks, and, as I recall, his name was Jackie Wilson from Fort Worth. We had our helmets issued to us, and we had them up on the top of our lockers. And one day after class, Jackie got his helmet out, and everybody asked him, “What are you doing?” He says, “Well, I’m going flying.” And he went to the flight line, and he got in a TH-55. And he got it started. I think—as I recall—he had to have a maintenance man help him get it started. And he got it up to flying speed and picked it up to a hover. And, of course, he didn’t know how to fly a helicopter, but now he’s at a hover in a TH-55. And, from what I’m told, he—Actually, what he thought was—It started vibrating real bad, and there’s a condition called ground resonance in a TH-55. And the solution for that is to get it off the ground. Pick it up. He thought he was getting into ground resonance, so he picked it up to a hover. And now he’s at a hover, and obviously he doesn’t know how to fly a helicopter because he hasn’t been trained yet. And they say he got it back to the ground, and he bounced on one skid, bounced on the other skid, and then turned it on its side and destroyed it. He survived, and I think—as I recall—he got court martialed. So that was an interesting event in our first four weeks of pilot training at Fort Wolters. Interviewer: “Okay. All right. Now—So for the rest of you—Now did people wash out of those first four weeks, or did everyone get through?” Not that I recall. I think we all—We all made it through the first four weeks. �Meyer, J.P. Interviewer: “All right. Okay, so now they actually put you in a helicopter, and do you start flying right away at least with an instructor, or…?” Mm-hmm. Interviewer: “Okay, so how does that process work?” (10:00) Well, we all go out to the—We went out to the flight line. We each were assigned to an instructor, and my instructor was the flight commander. So I—A lot of the students flew to the stage field. We went from the main heliport in Fort Wolters to different stage fields for training for—to practice. And my—And many of the students were bused out. My instructor was the flight commander, so he and I got in a helicopter—and that was my first helicopter ride in the military—and flew from there to the stage field, which was north of Fort Wolters about—oh, I’m guessing—seven or eight or nine miles. Interviewer: “Okay. Were you using a TH-55 at that point?” I was in the Hiller OH-23. Interviewer: “Okay. Describe that as what—as a machine relative to the TH-55 or something else.” The Hiller is probably fifty percent larger than the TH-55. The TH-55 was a very small helicopter. The Hiller was—had a bubble like the old Bell helicopters. When I describe the helicopters that I flew back then, I ask people if they remember the old TV show, The Whirlybirds, because it had the big, glass bubble. It was a two-seat helicopter with a reciprocating engine. Had a tail boom that slanted up—the TH-55’s tail boom went straight back—and it was a two-bladed helicopter and vibrated a lot. My first impression when the instructor picked the helicopter up to a hover—I felt like I was trying to balance—And I wasn’t flying it, but the sensation I had was trying to stand on top of a basketball on a pogo stick. That’s what it felt like. So I—You know, your thought is, “How am I ever going to learn to fly this machine?” But we did. Interviewer: “Okay, so how does he go about teaching you?” We’d go out to a stage field that had—I think they each had four lanes, and you would hover down a lane. He’d teach you to hover first, and we did it off to the side of the lanes. (12:05) And you could tell students who—when a student was flying and when an instructor was flying because when the student—New students would take the controls. You’d see the helicopter start to drift in all different directions and back and side and forward, and all of a sudden it would go, “Whoop.” Right back to where it started. And you knew the instructor took the controls at that point. And you just basically did that over and over until you got the feel for how to fly a helicopter, and it kind of became a natural thing like when you try to learn to ride a bike. Interviewer: “All right, and so how long then were you doing that?” �Meyer, J.P. We were—Well, the entire primary helicopter phase lasted from—I guess we started flying in September, and we finished, as I recall, in late December. And we learned to hover, and then we would take off and fly traffic patterns. And, after a while, when the instructor felt like you were safe enough, he would get out, and you’d have your first solo. And I think I soloed a helicopter—I think I had nine hours of flight time. And I remember being at Downwind the first time I soloed, looking down and flying this machine that was shaking and thinking, “What in the hell are you doing up here, Meyer? You don’t know how to operate this machine.” But I got it back on the ground safely, and, after a while, it just became very natural. Interviewer: “All right, and in that level of training, did other people have accidents, or did everyone get through?” There were accidents. There were mid-air collisions. I was—We were on a night flight—a solo night flight—one time, and there was a student in a TH-55 that apparently was lost. (14:04) I was coming into Wolters main from the north, and they were talking about him on the radio. But they couldn’t get him to reorient himself, and then I saw a flash of light off to the east. And he had flown through some high tension wires, and the aircraft hit the ground and exploded. He was burned very badly. He survived the crash but died in the hospital. Interviewer: “Do you think you were better off because you had the commander train you? Was he—” No, all the instructors were extremely talented people. Good helicopter pilots, good instructor pilots. Some of them were a little more aggressive than others, and the—Excuse me. And the commander just flew to the stage field with me. He wasn’t my regular instructor. Interviewer: “Okay, okay. All right, so now when you complete that, now do you move on to more advanced helicopters?” When we completed our training at Fort Wolters, we moved to Fort Rucker, Alabama, and we started out in the Bell TH-13 in instrument training. We did our instrument training there at Shell field outside of Enterprise, Alabama, and then, once we finished instrument training, we moved on to tactical training. And that was done in Hueys. We learned to fly the Huey. Interviewer: “Now with the instrument training are you actually flying a helicopter and relying on instruments, or are you on the ground?” No, you’re in the helicopter under a hood, and flying just by reference to the instruments. You’re actually not qualified—As a student, we weren’t actually qualified in the TH-13. We just flew it with an instructor for instrument training, and all of that training was with an instructor. There was no solo time. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, but then you move on to the Huey. Now how is a Huey different from the other things you had flown?” �Meyer, J.P. It was a lot bigger, and it had—It was a much more modern helicopter. Had better instruments. (16:03) And it was fully instrumented in terms of flying in the clouds and just a lot bigger, heavier machine. And it had a turbine engine instead of reciprocating engine, and a reciprocating engine helicopter—Part of what you have to do when you fly it is manage the RPM, and you do that manually with a throttle that’s on the collective. In a Huey, it had a governor on the turbine engine, which would maintain a certain RPM, so you didn’t have to worry about twisting a throttle. You just pulled—You pulled pitch, and as you pulled pitch, the engine would develop more power to compensate for the increased power requirement. Interviewer: “All right, and—So how long now do you spend at Fort Rucker?” Well, we spent the rest of our training at Fort Rucker, and we graduated in May of 1970. Or— I’m sorry. ‘69. 1969. And then I went from flight training direct to Chinook transition. When I was at Fort Wolters, we had a Chinook fly over the field one day, and I was just fascinated with that helicopter. And I like big machinery. And so I went in to see my TAC officer, which is not something you typically did back then. You didn’t want to see your TAC officer. But I went in to see him and asked him how I could get into Chinooks. He said, “Well, Meyer, I’ll tell you what. Here’s how it works. You’re going to graduate from pilot training, you’re going to fly Hueys in Vietnam, and if you survive that year, you can come back and we’ll send you to Chinook transition if that’s what you want to do. And then we’ll send you back to Vietnam to fly Chinooks for a year.” And I said, “Well, some students get Chinook training right out of pilot training.” He said, “Oh, yeah, if you graduate first in your class, you might get a Chinook transition.” (18:02) So I said, “Thank you. That’s all I wanted to know.” And I started gunning, studying—I had a pilot’s license when I went to the army, so I basically knew how to fly. And I started studying under the covers at night with a flashlight in the barracks after lights out. And I graduated first in my class when we finished at Fort Rucker, and we got one Chinook allocation. So I took it, and what that did—The army decided not long before we graduated that if you got a certain transition—and Chinook was one of them—you had to sign up voluntary indefinite status, which means the army had you as long as they wanted you. But I thought the trade-off was worth it, so I—I had some of my classmates ask me, “Now what are you going to do, Meyer?” I said, “I’m going voluntary indefinite because I’m going to Chinook transition.” Because by then you’d heard about all the—We had heard about all the Hueys—Well, I knew when I went into helicopters that it was very risky, and it was an automatic ticket pretty much to going to Vietnam. Flying helicopters. So I thought flying Chinooks would be a lot safer than flying Hueys. Interviewer: “All right, so now do you go—then go on to Chinook training?” I went to Chinook transition and then went to Vietnam in August of 1969. Interviewer: “Yeah. Okay, so August of ‘69. So, I guess, when we were—I don’t know— originally recording your dates—And so you would’ve enlisted in ‘68 then?” I enlisted in ‘68. Yes. �Meyer, J.P. Interviewer: “Okay. All right. Okay, so the Chinook transition—I mean, how long does that take, or how complicated was that?” (20:06) It was—As I recall it, it was a six-week transition. Six or seven weeks. Well, the Chinook’s a very large helicopter—has two engines, two rotor systems—and it’s not a conventional helicopter. It’s a tandem rotor helicopter, so it flies a little bit differently. In most respects, it’s easier to fly because you don’t have the anti-torque system to worry about. It had a stabilization system because the rotors are equal in size, so the back rotor wants to fly as fast as the front rotor. So without the stabilization system, it became very unstable and yaw, and it was a little bit tricky. Boeing made some design changes to it when they developed the B and C model, but the A model was pretty squirrely as we call it if the stabilization system was turned off. Interviewer: “All right. Now over the course of your training, you’ve been in Texas, you’ve been in Alabama, and where do they do the Chinook training?” Alabama. Fort Rucker. Interviewer: “Alabama. Okay. Now you’re in—You’re now, you know—You’re now down south. You’re in the area that is sort of still in the process of desegregating. I mean, did you notice a different way of life in those places, or did you just stay focused on what you were doing?” Not then. I noticed that after I got back from Vietnam and was stationed at Fort Rucker. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, but at this point it’s just all helicopters?” All concentrated on learning to fly helicopters and being in the military. Interviewer: “Okay. Now once you complete the Chinook training, do you get some time off before you go to Vietnam, or…?” (22:00) I had a month of leave before I left for Vietnam. Interviewer: “Okay. Did you just go back home at that point?” Mm-hmm. Went back home to Iowa. Interviewer: “All right. Now how did your family feel about your heading off to Vietnam?” Well, when I signed up, I didn’t ask my parents, and thinking back, when my son was my age when I signed up—Thinking about him doing that, I realized how much stress I created for my parents. My dad—Of course, I’d already signed up, so there wasn’t anything that anybody could do about it. But he was concerned. He said, “Don’t you know they’re shooting them—those helicopters down?” And I said, “Yeah, I know, but if your time is up, your time is up.” That was kind of my—I had a fatalistic attitude at that point, I guess. �Meyer, J.P. Interviewer: “All right, and as you’re preparing to go to Vietnam, how much did you know about what was going on over there?” During the month that I was home on leave, Khe Sanh was under siege, and I was glued to the TV watching those events daily. Interviewer: “Okay, because Khe Sanh was in 1968.” But it was—Well, maybe it was ‘68 when I was—before I entered. That may have been before I entered. Interviewer: “Yeah. Yeah, so you’re aware of that, and then ‘69 there was Hamburger Hill that summer and that sort of thing. But regardless, you’re watching—But you are. You’re watching the news at that point.” Yeah, realizing that I’m going to be over there in thirty days. Interviewer: “All right. Now how do they physically get you to Vietnam?” I got on a flight in Des Moines and flew to California—the Oakland Overseas Replacement Station—and got on a Stretch 8. DC-8. And we flew to—It was either Okinawa or Guam. I think it was Okinawa. To refuel. From California. (24:20) It was the first airplane ride I ever was on that had a movie, and the movie was Support Your Local Sheriff! with James Garner. I still remember that, and I’ve got that video at home. And we landed at—We landed in Saigon at Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base, and—I don’t know—I guess my thought was when we got off the airplane, there would be rockets landing and bullets flying. And it was just hot, and it stunk. And then we went through Overseas Replacement training with 101st Airborne Division. Interviewer: “Okay. Now did you do that down at Saigon, or did you get up to where the 101st was first?” We did that in Saigon. They had a training location there. They called it SERTS. Screaming Eagle Replacement Training. Interviewer: “All right, and what did that actually consist of?” Oh, indoctrination about the Viet Cong and the NVA. How they would set booby traps. I think we actually went on a mini patrol while we were there. They had a—They had wooden bleachers and had an instructor on a short stage out in front of us—probably twenty feet in front of us— and he was talking about how the Vietnam would sneak up on you and throw satchel charges and booby traps. (26:11) And then he kind of led up to it dramatically, and then he kicked a—In front of him against a wooden—Like a 2x6 or something. We couldn’t see it from our side, but there was a little detonator there. And he kicked that, and they would—They had grenade simulators, and he’d explode those. And it just scared the bejesus out of us. Pretty sudden. And I actually heard after I got—after I talked to some of the guys that I trained in helicopter training with— that we had two students from my class that were sitting in the front row, and the Viet Cong had �Meyer, J.P. snuck in there the night before and put live grenades—What he would do is he’d take a fake grenade, he’d pull the pin, and throw it out in front of—right in front of the students or the troops. And they’d snuck in and put live grenades in his box. So he pulled a pin on a live grenade and threw it out and killed one of my helicopter classmates. So that was the harsh reality of Vietnam from the start. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, so now once you go through that training, now what happens?” Well, we got together in a group, and we got our assignments. And when they called my name, they said, “Meyer, you’re going up to Charlie Company 159th Aviation Battalion in I Corps.” (28:16) And I said, “101st? They don’t have helicopters.” And there was a—There was a guy—a group of guys that were going home, and somebody overheard me say that. He says, “Yes, they do. I just came from there.” So I went up to Phu Bai and joined the Charlie Company. The 159th. Interviewer: “Okay. How do they get you to Phu Bai? As I recall, we got there in a C-130. Interviewer: “Yeah, so military transport plane. Okay, and then what kind of reception do you get when you join your unit?” You get welcomed to the unit, and here’s your room. They put me in a room that was vacant, and there was a set of fatigues in the closet. The fatigues were—had the name Dives on it, and I said, “Who’s Dives?” And the guy that checked me in said, “You don’t have to worry about that.” And he took the fatigues out. Well, Tom Dives had been killed in a midair collision just—I think just a couple of weeks before I got there. So they moved me into his room because it was empty. Interviewer: “So did you have private rooms in the barracks?” We each had a roommate. We were two to a hooch we called it. The buildings were plywood. There were, I think, four rooms on each side of each building, so there were sixteen pilots in one building. And we had a total of thirty-two pilots as I recall, so we had two buildings in the—what we called the officers’ area. (30:01) We had a little officers’ club and the two barracks, and then our commander had his own barracks building. Interviewer: “Okay, and so there’s four companies in the battalion. Is that right?” There’s three—There’s four companies. There were three Chinook companies in the 159th Battalion and a crane company that was located in Da Nang. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, so—But your three companies were basically together?” All at Phu Bai. Interviewer: “Yeah, all at Phu Bai. Okay, and then how many aircraft—” �Meyer, J.P. I’m sorry. The Charlie Company was at Phu Bai. Alpha and Bravo Companies were at Camp Eagle. Interviewer: “Okay, so you were at the Phu Bai airport, and they were at Camp—Because Camp Eagle is near Phu Bai, but it’s not the same.” Correct. Yeah, not the same location. Interviewer: “Okay. All right. All right, so you’ve got your own—Again, how many aircraft did you have?” Sixteen. Interviewer: “Okay, so sixteen, and would you—And then, with the thirty-two pilots then, if all sixteen were flying, all of you would be flying.” Technically, we could man all the aircraft. Interviewer: “Yeah, because you had to have a pilot and a copilot for each one.” Yes. Interviewer: “Okay. All right. Now how quickly do you start flying?” As I recall, we were flying within a week. Interviewer: “And how do they work in the new guys?” You flew with an experienced aircraft commander initially. You were called a peter pilot, and you had to have a certain number of hours before you would qualify to be an aircraft commander. I can’t remember what—I think it was a hundred. Can’t remember exactly what that hour requirement was. But if you—We became short on aircraft commanders to man the aircraft for the missions, so if you had a certain amount of experience and were considered safe to do so, you were named first pilot. (32:09) So you flew—You were technically the aircraft commander, but you weren’t logging aircraft commander time because you didn’t have enough time to do that, so you were logging first pilot time with a copilot. Interviewer: “Okay. Now when you’re starting out with the aircraft commander, they’re going to gradually give you more responsibility where—so you’d start to do more of the actual flying in that period. Now under normal circumstances, what does a copilot actually do?” Monitor the systems. Monitor the rotor RPM and the gauges and do a certain amount of flying. And as you spent more time there, you flew more and more. You typically didn’t talk on the radio. That was the aircraft commander’s job. We all had nicknames, and I got my nickname—it �Meyer, J.P. was Lurch—one day when my aircraft commander was busy talking to the crew and one of the other aircraft was asking my aircraft commander a question or something about something. And I answered on the radio, and apparently my voice was very deep. And the other aircraft commander said, “Who is that? It sounds like Lurch.” And that’s how I got my nickname. Interviewer: “And you’re referring to the character in The Addams Family TV series?” Yes, yes. Interviewer: “Okay. All right. Now so when do you actually start flying in Vietnam? What month was it when you were doing that?” Well, I started flying in August of ‘69. Interviewer: “Okay. Now was there a lot of stuff going on at that point, or were things quieting down?” (34:11) At that point in time, as I recall, we were doing a lot of missions out into the A Shau Valley, and Firebase Rendezvous was the main firebase in the A Shau Valley that we resupplied. And then we resupplied Birmingham and Berchtesgaden as I recall. There were two firebases before we would get out to the A Shau. Interviewer: “Yeah, because you have them in the chain of hills that separates the A Shau from the coastal plain, and that’s where those bases were. But Rendezvous was in it. Now was it dangerous to fly into the A Shau?” It didn’t feel like it at the time honestly. There weren’t—When they sent Chinooks out on what they considered dangerous missions, they would send two Cobra gunships with us, and I don’t recall ever needing escort for that first six months I was there. Interviewer: “Okay. Well, I think—So, well, August would be after Hamburger Hill when a lot of the NVA had kind of pulled out or pulled back for the time being.” Yeah, the A Shau was—After Hamburger Hill, the A Shau seemed pretty quiet. Interviewer: “Okay. Now was there a point when the monsoon sets in and they have to pull out of there?” Yes, I think that they pulled out in late ‘69. I think we pulled everything out of the A Shau Valley and operated pretty much along the coastal mountains for the monsoon season. (36:00) Interviewer: “Okay. Now how much trouble does the weather create for a Chinook, or are there conditions where you can’t operate?” Well, it was a fully instrumented helicopter, and we flew in the weather in Vietnam in the Chinook mostly to drop flares for the infantry at night. I remember one particular night where it �Meyer, J.P. was low clouds, drizzly, and rainy that we had a flare mission, and I took off out of Liftmaster and was in the clouds within five or six hundred feet and pretty much spent the whole time in the clouds flying. And there was a radar controller that would guide us out to the drop zone, and then we’d set up a racetrack pattern and drop. And then the infantry radio man on the ground would adjust that drop zone based on where the light was within—One of the things that really was striking was the first time I went on a flare mission at night in the clouds, we dropped the flares, and when the flare ignited, the flare would drop. And a parachute would come out, and then it would float down and provide I don’t know how many thousand candlepower of light in each one. The whole cockpit lit up. The clouds lit up like it was daytime. And then they’d go out, and it’d be dark again. And we’d stay up there—Oh, I don’t know how many flare—We had a crate in the back with all the flares in it, and we’d stay up there until the flares were gone and then go back. Interviewer: “Okay, and then what kinds of supplies would you carry?” We carried mostly ammunition, food and water, and fuel in sling loads. Most of our flights were sling loads. (38:04) Interviewer: “So they’re hanging below the aircraft rather than inside it.” Correct. In nets. And then when an artillery battery would move, we would move them. We’d go up to the hill where they’re located, pick the tubes up, take them to the new location, and drop them off. And we called it an arty move, and most of our unit—If we were assigned an arty move, most of our unit would work on that one mission together until the entire battery was moved. And then we’d go off and do other missions. Interviewer: “All right. Was there cargo that was harder to transport than others?” It was usually based on weight. A 155 Howitzer is a lot heavier than a 105. Some of our other missions would involve going and getting—recovering down helicopters, and the Cobra was a very heavy helicopter. We had to be quite low on fuel to pick up a Cobra. I remember distinctly a Cobra that was shot down and sitting on a sandbar in a river with high ridgelines on each side. And we were resupplying a firebase and flying over that site, and there was a lot of talk on the radio about, “How are we going to get that Cobra out of there?” And I was flying—Some of the Chinooks were more powerful than others, I guess. I’m not sure why, but we had—And they— And our—Some of our aircraft had been upgraded to what were called Super C’s where they had bigger engines, and I was flying a Super C that day. And I told everybody on the radio—I said, “I think I’ve got—I’m down to a fuel load where I think I can pick that Cobra up.” I said, “I’m going to go down and give it a try.” So I went down, and the riggers were down there. (40:00) And I went down and hovered over the Cobra and picked it up. And I got it off the ground, and I got it off high enough. But the crew chief thought it was safe to go, so we took off. And I took off down the river to gain airspeed, and I started climbing. And I climbed, and I climbed, and I climbed. And I’m looking up at these ridgelines like, “Golly, we’ve got a ways to go yet.” And then you’re thinking about, “I wonder how many NVA can see us flying slowly, climbing with this Cobra slung underneath us.” But we retrieved it, and it was one of those memorable moments in flying in Vietnam because when we got back to Camp Evans with the Cobra—And �Meyer, J.P. we had—We must’ve had a hundred foot sling on it. So we’re hovering a hundred feet in the air, setting this thing down very gently, and set it down and release the sling. And the maintenance and the pilots from the Cobra company were down there, and they were just cheering and waving because we brought their Cobra back to them. Interviewer: “All right. Now you said that the first several months you’re there were fairly quiet in terms of having to deal with enemy. Do things get more intense later on?” One thing I—Things seemed to escalate slowly during the monsoon season. One thing that—So the things we were worried about in the monsoon season were getting up to the firebases in the clouds. We had guys that actually hovered up the side of mountains to get up to firebases to resupply. We had other guys who got to the firebase with the low clouds, but when they got right over the firebase went into the clouds. And that’s a pretty urgent situation because you really can’t start letting down because you don’t know what you’re letting down into. (42:06) So you have to take off—You have to accelerate in the clouds and come back around and get radar vectors or whatever you might get to get out of the clouds and then try again to get back up to the firebase. But as long as you maintained visual with the ground or basically the trees out in front of you, you could actually hover up the side of a mountain. If you had enough clearance so that your sling load didn’t drag through the trees, you could get up to the firebase and resupply them because we’re the only—We were their only lifeline for food, water, ammunition. The other thing that was happening occasionally—and I only know of a couple instances—was that the NVA would get on the radio, and they would intercept you on the radio assuming you—They would imitate the ground control—the GCA approach controller—and they’d start radar vectoring you. And they actually radar vectored a Cobra into the mountains on one occasion. And I was out there flying on a flare mission one night, and we were being vectored back to Phu Bai. And the controller had us going west for some reason, and I told my copilot. I said, “If we go west for one more minute—” I said, “We’re turning around and heading for the coast and letting down under the water.” Because I wasn’t sure who I was talking to, and then he turned us back. And it was actually one of our guys, and he vectored us back into Phu Bai. But that’s—As I recall, that’s about the time that things started to change in terms of hostile activity in I Corps for us. Interviewer: “Okay, and now for the ground units and so forth, I mean, there up until about March of 1970, they’re mostly kind of in the lowlands or in the foothills and not going farther inland too much. There were some missions up to the DMZ and things like that. Now did you also support like the ARVN 1st Division or the Marines?” (44:24) We did. We’d haul—When we hauled the ARVNs—Some of those flights were interesting because they would take animals with them. I know we had one load where we were carrying ammo for them, and they had ducks in the net. And the—When they—Ammo crates—We’d pick the load up in the net, and that pushed the ammo crates together. And some of the ducks were down in between the crates and, of course, got smashed. They probably ate them first when they got to the firebase. And I had a load of ARVNs that I picked up inside the aircraft one day, and we took off. And we’re headed out to a firebase, and I look down at the—The Chinook had a little—The cockpit was separate from the back, and there was a little companionway we called it that you went through to get into the seat. And I look down, and there was a pig standing in the �Meyer, J.P. companionway. And I said over the intercom—I says, “Chief, get that damn pig out of the cockpit, will you?” He was just standing there looking at the instruments. Interviewer: “Yeah, well, soldiers brought their own food with them.” Yeah. Interviewer: “Okay. All right. Now in March of 1970, the 101st makes their first effort to set up what would become Firebase Ripcord, and that mission aborted. And then they try a second one the first of April, and then eventually the middle of April they start. Now how much were you involved with that stuff?” (46:05) I remember the insert into Ripcord vaguely. It was just another firebase insert. We’d take a dozer up there. We carried what was called a mini dozer. It was a very heavy load. We would take the body of the dozer up there, and then we would take the tracks and the blades separately. And then the troops would assemble the dozer up on the hill, and then they would use the bulldozer to doze off the top of the hill and create the setting or the ground for the firebase. And then we’d pull the dozer off and bring in the artillery and all their supplies and do an arty move. And then it was—After that, up until it was evacuated, it was a matter of resupplying Ripcord, and initially we could fly in there, and they—Ripcord was a two-tiered firebase. They had an upper on the hill where the guns were, and they had a lower area that was called a log pad. And the log pad was just to the north, northeast of the hill proper, and that’s where we’d drop our loads. And then they had a little trail between the two where they’d take their supplies up to the hill. So we would come in in the lower log pad, and it was just a routine resupply for the first, I guess, couple of months that we were resupplying Ripcord. And then it got hot. Interviewer: “Okay. Now before it got hot at Ripcord, had you had other situations or places where you were taking enemy fire or getting shot at?” I got shot at four times that I know of in Vietnam. (48:00) We were on a routine supply back in the fall of ‘69 out to Rendezvous in the A Shau Valley, and the crew chief came up in the cockpit one day with a AK-47 round in his hand. And we looked at it and said, “Where’d you get that?” And he said, “I looked up—” And he said, “There was a hole in the soundproofing.” He said, “It must have come through the cargo hold.” And it was lodged in the soundproofing overhead, and he took it out. And then the second time I got shot at, I was on a flare mission over the A Shau. We were dropping flares over Firebase Henderson, I believe, on the east side of the A Shau Valley, and when we briefed for the mission, part of the briefing indicated that there was a 37 mm in aircraft sight on the west side of the valley across from Henderson. And we were at eleven thousand feet with the lights out, and we’d been up there dropping flares for probably forty to forty-five minutes. And the crew chief or my right door gunner—As I was turning in the racetrack pattern right after a drop, he said, “We’re taking fire. We’re taking—” And he got real excited. He said, “We’re taking fire, sir. We’re taking fire. It’s coming up through the rotor system.” And I started jinking—you know, getting away—to the left. And I said, “Okay, they know we’re up here.” I said, “We’re going to depart and let the C-130 come in and drop from high altitude.” And the pathfinder on the ground was just begging for—He says, “We’ve got to have light. We’re in hand-to-hand combat down here, and we don’t know the good guys from the �Meyer, J.P. bad guys. And we’re trying to clear these bunkers.” And I—I said, “Okay.” I said, “They didn’t get that close.” (50:00) So I turned around, and I went back in. And about my third pass, I saw— It was flak in front of flashbulbs just like getting your picture taken, and it was level at our altitude. And I turned, made a sharp bank, and got out. I said, “All right, we’ve got to leave now. We’re going to get hit.” So we had to leave the area. That was the second time I got shot at. The third time I got shot at was on what was known as Operation Lifesaver. The general— commanding general—apparently wanted an emergency landing zone in every thousand meter grid square in I Corps that were in our area of operation. So our mission was to pick up combat engineers and take them out to an area that had been selected as an emergency landing zone on a hilltop and drop them off in the morning. They would clear trees, blow stumps, and create a landing zone big enough ideally for at least a Huey, and then we’d go pick them up in the afternoon. Sometimes when we dropped them off, we could get the back wheels on the ground and hover the front end, and then they could lower the ramp and just get off in the LZ. Other times we had a seventy foot cable ladder that they would go down off the ramp. Well, in this case, we couldn’t land. They had to go down the cable ladder. And when we were on our way out there, the pathfinder who—They put a security force on the ground before we would go in. The pathfinder asked—He says, “Where are you guys?” I said, “Well, we’re en route. We’re about five minutes out.” (52:02) And we were pretty high to stay out of small arms range. We were probably flying at four or five thousand feet, and I asked him—I said, “Is the area cold?” “Yep,” he said. “The infantry got on the ground. Not a shot fired.” I said, “Okay.” And I looked over to my copilot. I said, “Jeff, they’re going to get somebody killed in this mission one of these days.” And so I was the company instructor pilot by that time, and I was giving—My copilot was Jeff Brockmeyer, and he was upgrading to aircraft commander. So I was giving him an aircraft commander check, and I told him when we started—I said, “Jeff, I know you know how to fly the aircraft.” I said, “You run the mission. I’ll fly the aircraft. If you have any questions, just ask me.” So I was flying, and I came into the LZ at a high hover. And the—I dropped off the sling load, and the sling load was dynamite, gasoline, chainsaws. To clear the area. And right after we dropped off the sling load, all hell broke loose. I heard a lot of popping. It sounded like—What I recall—The sound of being on a basic training firing range with all the—Everybody shooting. And everything happened very fast, and about that time a round went through the cockpit, plexiglass flying. And Jeff, my copilot, threw his hands up in his face. I thought he was hit, and the crew chief said, “We’ve got people hit back here. We’ve got oil all over the place.” Well, I instinctively—When that happened, they hadn’t put out the ladder yet. Thank goodness. And there was nobody—So there was nobody on the ladder. But I instinctively pulled off the hill, started going down the ridgeline down towards the valley, and our caution panel lit up like a Christmas tree. (54:06) And I saw the oil transmission pressure caution light come on, so—And Jeff was talking to the Cobra gunship pilots on the radio, and I was—I saw the transmission oil pressure light, so I—There’s five transmissions in a Chinook, and there’s a selector that will tell you what the pressure is in each one individually. When I got to the main transmission, the pressure gauge went all the way to zero, and I said, “Jeff, they’ve got the C-Box. We’re going to have to set it down.” And I’m going down there towards the—I’m looking for a place to go, and I’m looking down in the river bottom, and there’s no place to go down there. And about that time Jeff was talking on the radio, and he switched over to intercom. Apparently, the Cobra pilots were looking at me—at the angle that we were going and saying, “Are you going to make it? Are you going to make it?” And Jeff says, “Are we going to make it?” And I said, “Hell yes, we’re going to make it.” And I pulled back on the cyclic and did what we call a cyclic climb and �Meyer, J.P. pitched the nose up, and now I’m looking at the next ridgeline. And there’s a break in the trees. I said, “We’re going in right up there.” (56:01) I said, “Get the 60s off the mounts, put them at two and ten o’clock position, get somebody off the tail.” And I said, “We’re going in up there, and I don’t know what we’re going into. Get ready to duke it out with whoever’s there because we’ve got to land.” So I got up, coasted to a stop, and that was ironically a previous Operation Lifesaver landing zone. And it wasn’t quite at the top of the hill, so I set the Chinook down. And it started to roll, and I picked it back up. And I hovered up the hill a little ways, and there was a—about a two foot or three foot tree stump. And I planted the front end on the tree stump and let it—And slowly let it down and it settle, and everything was stable. And we just pulled everything to stop, and, you know, we’ve got guys screaming in the back. We had sixteen people on that aircraft. Five crew members and eleven combat engineers. Out of the eleven combat engineers, nine of them were shot. My left door gunner had a round in the hip, and the Huey came in and landed behind us and took nine out of the eleven—We had two wounded guys that stayed on the hill because the Huey couldn’t take everybody, but he took the most critical ones. Two of those combat engineers ended up dying as I was told later, and they had a ready reaction force that would come out and rescue downed helicopter crews. And they activated the ready— the rescue force, and we could hear the Hueys orbiting way off in the distance. You can hear a Huey from a long ways, and, you know, my thought was, “Why aren’t they coming to get us?” (58:00) Well, we weren’t on the hill more than about five minutes after the Huey had come in and took our wounded guys, and we heard this—It was an artillery shell coming in, and it sounded just like in the movies. Comes whistling in, and there’s a big explosion. And the ground shakes, and I asked my—One of our door gunners had been in infantry troop. He—And I said, “What the hell was that?” He said, “That’s our artillery.” There was a fire mission going from somewhere east of us. They were firing at what I didn’t know at the time. But was a North Vietnamese regimental base camp area. Was based at the base of this hill not far from Ripcord. So finally the Hueys came in. The Cobras stayed with us. We couldn’t talk to them because they shot out all our radios, and our survival radio didn’t work. But they kept making—They weren’t shooting, but they were making gun runs. And they stayed with us, and the Huey finally came in. And the infantry was very impressive. I’ll never forget that. They came in, and they got off the Huey. They huddled up just like a football team, and the lieutenant said, “All right, you guys here, you guys there.” And he designed the perimeter. He said—And it’s just like, “Okay. Break.” And they all spread out and did their thing, and then he came up to me. And he said, “Who’s the aircraft commander?” I said, “I am.” He said, “Well, sir, you picked an interesting place to go down.” I said, “Why is that?” He said—He pulled out his map. He said, “We’re on the top of this hill right here.” He said, “All around the base of this hill is a North Vietnamese regimental base camp area.” And I said, “That’s very interesting. How soon are we going to get off this hill?” So the Huey that had taken the wounded guys to the hospital came back and picked us up. (1:00:02) We were on the hill for an hour and ten minutes. The—We had radioed back once the infantry got on the ground. We had radioed back to the—our company. The crew chief went up and inspected the damage and thought if we—They hit the return oil line from the main transmission, and he said, “If you send the line out in some oil, we’ll—We can fix it right here and fly it out of here.” And our commander radioed back. He said, “No, you guys have had enough for one day. We’re getting you off the hill.” So they evacuated us, and Jeff and I were sitting in my hooch having a beer at about three in the afternoon. And somebody came racing in and said, “502 was shot down, and it crashed.” I said, “No, it didn’t.” I said, “We were in it. It’s just—It’s sitting out there.” “No, no. The maintenance crew went out, and they recovered the �Meyer, J.P. aircraft. And they crashed.” So the maintenance—So what happened was the commander sent two maintenance pilots and two maintenance technicians out to the hill with a line and the oil, and they fixed it. And they cranked it up and did a hover check. Everything checked out, so they took off and headed direct for home. And I had told Jeff—I said, “If we get this thing fixed—” I said, “We’re going from here to Ripcord because it’s only about three or four minutes. And set it down and check it out.” Well, they took off, climbed altitude, and headed for Phu Bai. After they were at altitude, the oil that had leaked out of the transmission had streamed down by the engines, and it caught fire. So the whole back end of the aircraft was on fire, and they made an emergency landing. They crash-landed on a sandbar at a place called Three Forks, which is south of Ripcord a ways, and the—They hit the sandbar so hard that the front—the cockpit broke off at the cockpit slice and went into the river. (1:02:15) Underwater with the two pilots in it. The two maintenance technicians were thrown out the opening that was created when the cockpit was gone, and they were in the river. They had made a mayday call when they went down, and another Chinook went in and picked them up. They all survived and relatively uninjured. They had some burns because by the time they got on the ground, the pilots told me that the flames were lapping up in the cockpit. But they survived. But the aircraft never made it back. It burned right on the sandbar. That was the third time I got shot at. The fourth time I got shot at was—I was actually giving a new pilot an in-country orientation ride. So when a new pilot came in, you’d get in the aircraft with somebody—usually the company instructor pilot—and then just basically tour the area. “Here’s our area of operation.” And we were up west of Quảng Trị by a place called Firebase—I’m blanking on the name, but we were just south of the DMZ, and I said, “Well, I’ll show you a little further west.” Which we really didn’t have anybody out there, but I was basically pointed towards Khe Sanh. And I made a turn to go back to the south, and I could hear the—We started taking fire. I could hear bullets. Well, there was—Apparently, there was a .50 caliber machine gun in a culvert in one area, and he would roll it out and shoot at helicopters and then roll it back into the culvert. (1:04:00) And Cobras finally got him, but he shot at us. And you could hear rounds going by the aircraft, and we exited the area. Fortunately, they didn’t hit us. Interviewer: “Okay. Now were you flying to Ripcord in July of 1970 when things got interesting?” Yes. Interviewer: “So talk about that phase.” That was pretty exciting. My technique for getting in and out of Ripcord when it was really under siege and being mortared regularly was to fly directly at the mountain with a sling load, do a cyclic climb, and time it so that you slowed down and basically came to a stop right over the lower log pad. And set your load down, release it, and get out. And it wasn’t uncommon for us to be leaving the firebase and hearing mortars land behind us because when we hovered in to drop off a load, we created a lot of dust. And the NVA could see the dust. They’d put the mortars in the tubes, and we’d be gone by the time the mortars came down and hit the firebase. But at least three or four times when I brought loads in there, it was—I could hear mortars landing. �Meyer, J.P. Interviewer: “Okay. Did you always put the loads on the log pads, or did you ever put them anywhere else on the base?” No, we were told back during that time, “If you put your nose up on top of the hill, you’re probably going to get shot.” So we stayed below the—Basically use the top of the hill to screen us from small arms fire on the lower log pad. Interviewer: “All right, but now eventually a Chinook does get shot down over Ripcord, and they’re over the artillery positions at the time they’re doing that. And I was told they were actually trying to put some of the artillery rounds closer to where the guns were.” That must’ve been their—What they were probably doing is trying to put the load right next to the guns, so that they didn’t have to go down to the lower log pad... Interviewer: “Right. On top of the ammo bunker pretty much.” ... and haul them up there. So they were going to put them right in the ammo bunker, and they got shot. (1:06:06) And the Chinook crashed on top of the ammo bunker and basically blew the entire supply of ammunition up over—It cooked off over time, and I talked to one of the infantry lieutenants who was quite a ways from Ripcord. And he said there was shrapnel and debris landing in the trees around them as that was cooking off. I personally was actually in Saigon that day picking up a brand new Chinook with one of our maintenance pilots. We were on our way back, and when we got back late in the afternoon, the routine for bringing in a new aircraft was to a fly-by over the company area, a high speed pass, and then come in and land. Well, we made a high speed pass over the company, and I look down. And almost all the Chinooks were gone, and I called the company ops. I said, “What’s going on?” Guy said—He said, “Well, they’re— Ripcord—” He told me that they’d had a—The ammo supply at Ripcord was blown up, and they’re up there doing an attack emergency resupply. So they resupplied them at that point, but that’s when things got really hot. Interviewer: “Okay, and then did you go to Ripcord again before the day they evacuated?” I went in and out of there several times before—Yeah, while it was—I call it—under siege, I guess. Interviewer: “Yeah, well, it was under siege.” It was under siege because we were the only resupply line they had. The Hueys could get in there and haul troops in, but they couldn’t haul very much ammo. And they didn’t haul ammo. Interviewer: “Yeah, and at this point, I mean, the 105 battery is not operational, so there’s just the 155s up there. But were you bringing out 105 ammunition in expectation that they would put another battery there?” �Meyer, J.P. I honestly don’t know. We were carrying high explosive artillery rounds. (1:08:00) We usually would call in to the pathfinder and say, “We’ve got a load of 105 HE.” But I don’t recall what I was calling in at the time. Interviewer: “Yeah, because there was thought of bringing in another battery to replace the one that had been knocked out.” Because the guns were destroyed. Interviewer: “Yeah, the—Yeah. So anyway—Okay, and then now we get to—sort of the 23rd of July when they actually evacuate the firebase. And what do you remember about that day?” We had a briefing the night before in our ops. They called all the pilots in and briefed us and told us what we were going to be doing the next day. And one of the things they said was—I don’t actually—I assume they did, but they told us that the first load going in there was going to be a bulldozer. And if you got shot down on the hill, get out of the aircraft because they’re going to bulldoze it off the side of the hill. And then they asked for volunteers, and I was sitting in the back. And, of course, my hand went up, and the ops officer said, “Meyer, put your hand down. You’re going home.” I was—The next day was my last flying day in Vietnam. So they took volunteers—crews—and then the ops officer came up to me afterwards. And he said, “We’re going to need you to be on standby.” So he said I’m—“We’re going to have you in the revetment with the APU running, listening to the radios, and if we call you, you’re going to need launch.” So we did just that. They—Our company launched, and the other companies launched and went out and extracted the tubes off of Ripcord. And we were listening to it on the radio, and about— There was a lot of aircraft getting hit going in and out of there. Some of them disabled and had to go back and land, and towards the end of the mission, they—The ops officer called and said, “We need you to launch.” And I thought, “God, this isn’t going to be good.” I don’t know. I just had the sense that if I go up there today, I’m not coming back. (1:10:01) So we cranked up, taxied out to the end of the take-off—where the take-off pad was—and we were ready to take off. Called for clearance to take off, and the ops officer called. And he said, “They’re done. Taxi back in and shut it down.” That was quite a relief. So I wasn’t actually in on the extraction. Interviewer: “Okay, and you were in all of the stuff before it.” Yeah. Interviewer: “Yeah. All right. Okay, so at this point now do they pack you up and send you back to the States, or what do you do next?” We packed up, had a little going away party in the officers’ club, packed all my stuff, got on a C130 at Phu Bai, and flew down to… Interviewer: “Cam Ranh Bay?” �Meyer, J.P. Cam Ranh Bay, Cam Ranh Bay. And spent the night there. A group of us commandeered a deuce and a half and went down to one of the—actually one of the local off base restaurants and had Vietnamese food. And then left on a Freedom Bird as they called them the next day. Interviewer: “Okay. Some—To kind of back up a little bit to sort of life in Vietnam, what was daily life like when you weren’t flying?” We played a lot of poker, drank a lot of beer. People asked me what I did in Vietnam. I said, “Well, I flew all day one day, and I drank all day the next.” I didn’t actually do that, but… Interviewer: “Yeah. Did they—Did you ever go off base?” I went off base one time into Huế on a tour. We toured Huế—The citadel I guess they called it. That was an interesting tour to—The Tet Offensive had done a lot of damage, and there was just—The walls were marked with bullet—Yeah, bullet marks all over the place, and—But that’s the only time I recall—other than R&R—getting off base. (1:12:22) Interviewer: “Okay, and where did you go on R&R?” I went to Hawaii. Interviewer: “Okay, so were you married at the time, or…?” I was married. Had my oldest son. I left for Vietnam one or two days before his first birthday. That was pretty hard. And then my wife was pregnant when I left, and my second son was born—I left in—It was—I entered Vietnam in August. He was born in November. I didn’t see him until he was—What was he? Nine months old. But I went on R&R and met my wife in Hawaii, spent a week there, and then went back to Vietnam. Interviewer: “Okay, so what’s it like having to go back to Vietnam?” Pretty depressing. When you’re back out of the—out of the combat environment, out of the stress, out of the risk, you feel safe, and it was relaxing. Interviewer: “Okay. Now there’s lots of kind of stereotypes about Vietnam and life in Vietnam and that kind of thing, and one of them is—particularly on the bases—there were a lot of issues with drug use and race relations and so forth. Did you observe any of that yourself, or…?” Not in our company. We had—I think we had two different—They called them shakedown inspections where the officers would go down and go through the enlisted barracks looking for drugs. And I remember one of those for sure. I can’t remember, but I think we might have done that a second time. But we didn’t find anything. That was the only experience with that concept the whole time I was there. (1:14:14) �Meyer, J.P. Interviewer: “And, I guess—And so your company was kind of in its own sort of selfcontained area pretty much. Yeah, so you’re not really seeing sort of large numbers of other base personnel and things like that. Did you have any Vietnamese civilians working on the base?” We had—The maids would come in and clean our rooms, make our beds, and do laundry for us. But they were there only during the day. They were moved off base at nighttime, I think. Apparently, they caught one guy walking off distances in our company area and got him off the base. We got rocketed when I first got to Vietnam. We got rocketed at night every so often, and I think what they were aiming for—There was an antenna field just to the north of where we were living, and I think they were aiming for that antenna field. But you could hear the rockets come in, and you’d scramble to get in the bunker. We’d go in the bunker, and it was kind of frightening because you never knew while you were running to the bunker if the next rocket was going to land right next to you. We did have a rocket hit one of our bunkers, and we had some pilots in there. They weren’t injured, but it was—It was a good thing they were in the bunker. Interviewer: “Right. Now did that rocketing—Did that stop at a certain point?” Seems to me that it stopped about the time the monsoon season started. We would sit out on our—We had a deck off the back of our officers’ club on the south side of the building, and we would sit out there at night and watch Cobras working in the lowlands. (1:16:09) You could see their tracers coming down., and you could see—They called them Dusters. I don’t know whether they were Quad-50s or what they were, but we called them Dusters. And you could see their tracers going out, firing, but that—a lot of that activity seemed to stop about the time the monsoon season started. And during the monsoon season, there were times when we didn’t fly for up to a week at a time, and we had one—We had one storm that dropped twenty-three inches of rain in twenty-four hours. Interviewer: “Okay, so once you get back from Vietnam, what do you do next?” I—When I was in—I got my assignment out of Vietnam. I was assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia because I had taken a direct commission. The army was short on commissioned officers. They were offering direct commissions if you had—if you were a chief warrant officer grade 2, which I was, and if you had a certain number of semester hours of college credit. So I qualified, and so the—I don’t know. We were kind of ornery as warrant officers, and I was actually going on R&R when that notice came out. And my roommate—who was the admin officer—called me, and he—And I was in the officers’ club at the crane unit in Da Nang waiting for my flight to Hawaii the next day, and he—I’m in the officers’ club, and I get a phone call. And I went, “Uhoh. Somebody died or something.” Because you never got a phone call in Vietnam. (1:18:06) And it was my roommate, and he told me that the army was offering direct commissions if you had the qualifications. And he said—I think there were—I don’t know—four or five or six of us that qualified, and I said, “What are they offering?” He says, “Second lieutenant.” I said, “What branch?” He said, “Infantry, artillery, armor, and signal.” I said, “So what do you think we ought to do?” He says, “Well, we’re all going to—We’re all going to apply.” He said, “We can always turn it down if it comes—when it comes back, so we’re all going to apply.” I said—He said, “Do you want to apply?” I said, “Well, I guess so.” He said, “What branch?” I said, “Signal.” He said, �Meyer, J.P. “Okay.” I said, “What do we have to do?” He said, “We’ve got to sign a postcard and send it back to DA.” Department Of the Army. I said, “Okay, well, sign a postcard for me and send it back.” So we did. When I got back from R&R, on the bulletin board in the officers’ club—It— Like I said, we were kind of ornery. Somebody—One of the warrant officers had put up a little notice: “Send in your picture postcard and ten C-ration box tops for direct commission to second lieutenant.” And so in July—I was due to go home in August. In July, the commissions came down, and I was being commissioned second lieutenant infantry. So I decided since I was so close to going home—And one of the questions I had from my admin officer—my roommate— was, “Hey, they’re going to commission us to second lieutenants and send us to the field as grunts.” (1:20:07) He said, “No, they can’t do that. We’re not qualified.” He said, “We’re going to be pilots.” I said, “Okay.” So I took the direct commission. Well, because I was infantry, they were going to send me to Fort Benning, Georgia. I don’t want to go to Fort Benning, Georgia. I wanted to go to Fort Rucker and be a flight instructor. So I went to Fort Rucker. I actually got my orders changed and went to Fort Rucker. Interviewer: “How did you get your orders changed?” I don’t recall exactly, but I’m sure I sent in a request. A Twix as we called them. It’s like a fax nowadays. Sent a Twix back to DA, and they changed my orders. So I went to Fort Rucker from Vietnam. I got back in—Would have been August because we were there exactly a year. And was assigned to the Student Battalion in the administrative office. And basically my job—my primary job—was to coordinate the graduation parties and to make sure that the colonels all got seated by date of rank, and you didn’t seat one colonel whose wife didn’t like the other colonel’s wife next to each other. And that was my job in the—I was in S1 I believe it’s called. So I was there for six months. After I was there—They told me, “We’re going to put you in here for six months, and then if you want to go fly, you can.” So once I was there for six months, I requested reassignment to the—to Shell Army Heliport where we did instrument training in the TH-13, and that’s what I did for the rest of my tour. Interviewer: “Okay, so how long did you wind up doing that?” From—Would have been early 1970 to 1972 when I got off active duty. (1:22:09) Interviewer: “Well, it wouldn’t be early 1970 because—” I’m sorry. Late 1970. Early 1971. Because I would have been in the Battalion for six months, from—Yeah, you’re right. From August to six months later, which would have been early ‘71. And then I went to Shell Field and was an instructor. Interviewer: “Okay. All right. Now at this point do you—What do you do next? I mean, do you stay in the military in some fashion, or…?” Let me answer a question you asked early on. When I was assigned to Shell, we lived on an acreage that we found out in the country on a dirt road rented to us by a couple of bachelor peanut farmers in a little farmhouse. Tiny house. You asked about—You were implying discrimination. When we left—When I got reassigned after my tour was done, the landlord came �Meyer, J.P. to me and said, “Now, you know, if you’ve got any buddies that want to live out here in the quiet country—” He said, “You let them know and steer them towards me, and we’ll rent them this house when you leave.” And they said, “But, you know, we don’t want—” And he wouldn’t say, “We don’t want any black people out here.” But he implied that. I said, “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.” I was from the Midwest, and we didn’t—There just wasn’t the prejudice in the Midwest there was in the South. And so I said, “Yeah, I know what you mean.” And then I had another experience. (1:24:04) We had a—One of our instructor pilots was African American and a very nice gentleman, and I think—As I recall, his name was Danny Johnson. Had a nice family. Good people. And he would call to rent. He was living on base. He wanted to live off base. He would call to rent, and they’d say, “Oh, you bet. We’ve got this apartment. It’s great. Come on out and take a look at it.” He said, “I’d go up and knock on the door, and they’d open the door. And they said, ‘You know, we just rented that thirty minutes ago.’” He had a heck of a time finding housing as a black person. So when we—I finished my tour. My family and I moved back to Iowa, and I had wanted to go back to—Initially when I left high school, I enrolled at South Dakota State in pre-pharmacy, and I wanted to finish pharmacy school. So I did two things. I joined a Guard unit because I wanted to keep my military experience going, and there happened to be a Chinook unit in Davenport, Iowa. So I joined the Chinook unit. And we lived in Marshalltown, Iowa, and just a week or so after I got out—My dad was a farmer. He had a heart attack. So we lived in Marshalltown, and I helped a neighbor of ours farm our farm for that year while I went to junior college. And—a kind of a catch up year—I took courses that were required for pharmacy school. And then I had—I was in the Iowa Army National Guard, and we went to summer camp at Fort Ripley, Minnesota. (1:26:04) And I was—My job that summer at Fort Ripley was to do instrument flight instruction in a Huey. So we basically would get in a Huey—I’d get in a Huey with two students every morning, and we’d fly around Minnesota. Well, on one of those days, I actually flew a Huey from Fort Ripley down to Brookings, South Dakota and met with the dean of pharmacy, and I had been in school there before. And I told him I wanted to come back and finish, and he said, “Well, if your grades are decent—” I didn’t have a very good Grade Point Average when I left, and he said, “If your grades are decent—” He said, “I’ll consider putting you in the class.” So when I finished summer camp, finished at Marshalltown Community College with a 4.0 Grade Point Average, and called the dean, he said, “I’ll put you in the class.” Because at the time, pharmacy school was two years of pre-pharmacy and three years of pharmacy school. So I had finished my requirements for the first two years, and he put me in the class for pharmacy school. So we moved from Marshalltown to Brookings, South Dakota, and I finished pharmacy school and graduated in 1976. Interviewer: “All right, and then you go to work as a pharmacist at that point?” I did. We moved down to Vermillion, South Dakota where the medical school was because when I was in pharmacy school my last—my next to last year—I was a second year pharmacy second semester pharmacy student, and I took a course in pathology. And it was very interesting to me, so I went to see the pathology professor and said, “You know, I might be interested in applying to medical school.” (1:28:00) But I thought, “Well, it’s going to be a long shot because of my Grade Point Average and my age.” I was twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, and I sat there and talked to him for half an hour. And age kept coming up, and he said probably some of the best advice I ever got as a student. He said, “Well, Meyer, let me ask you. How old are you?” I said—I think I was twenty-seven. He said, “All right, so you’ve got a year and a half of �Meyer, J.P. pharmacy school left. You’ll be twenty-eight, almost twenty-nine. Let’s say it takes you a couple of years to get into medical school. You’ll be thirty-one. Four years of medical school, you’ll be thirty-five. Two years of—A year of internship, thirty-six. Couple years of internal medicine residency, thirty-eight. You’ll be thirty-eight years old. You could be a board-certified internist—internal medicine specialist.” I said, “Oh my gosh, that’s eleven years from now.” He leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his head, and he said, “Let me ask you something, Meyer.” I said, “Yeah, what’s that, Dr. Johnson?” “How old are you going to be in eleven years from now if you don’t do it?” I said, “That’s a very good point, Dr. Johnson.” So I moved down to—So the point is I moved to Vermillion. That’s where the medical school was. I didn’t have a very good Grade Point Average although I did very well in pharmacy school. I maintained about a 3.75. I went down and started applying to medical school, worked in a retail drugstore as a pharmacist. One of our customers was the dean of admissions for the medical school. He knew who I was. He knew what I was—I would go see him and talk to him about what I wanted to do. And I took the Medical College Admission Test because it’d been so long since I had had Biochemistry, for instance. My scores weren’t very good, so I took a prep course for the Medical College Admission Test and increased my scores and kept applying to medical school (1:30:15) I applied four years in a row. The third year—The second year I applied the dean told me—He said, “You didn’t make the list.” But he said, “You moved up significantly in the applicant pool.” Because of my better MCAT scores. So I said, “Well, I’m going to apply again.” And he said, “I’d recommend you do so.” So I did. The third year I applied I was on the alternate list. I was thirteenth alternate. I went to see the dean, and I said, “What are my chances?” He said, “Well— ” He said, “You’re on the alternate list.” But he said, “To be honest with you, we never take in over seven alternates.” I said, “Well, all right, I’m on the alternate list. I think I’m going to apply one more year.” And he said, “I would if I were you.” So, in the meantime—I applied that fourth year—I was a registered pharmacist in a small town in South Dakota, not making very much money, counting pills and typing labels. And I wanted to get out of the Army Guard and into the Air Force Reserve, so I found an Air Force Reserve unit at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan that was looking for pilots that had heavy helicopter time because they had H-3s. And they took me on, so I moved to Michigan. And I actually worked full-time for the Air Force Reserve for that year while I was waiting to get into medical school. I didn’t tell them I had applied to medical school because I just thought, “Well, they don’t need to know that.” So I worked out there, and they were wanting me to take a full-time job as a flight instructor. (1:32:01) So I finally did. Chief of safety flight instructor in H-3. Well, they sent me off to— Because I had transitioned from the Army Guard to the Air Force Reserve, they sent me to water survival training, land survival training, and an aviation safety officer course, which was taught at the Air Force Base outside of San Bernardino, California. So I went out there. I was out there. It was my last week of class, and the phone rang. And again, that’s the only time my phone rang ever in the BOQ I was staying in. And I answered it, and it was the secretary from the medical school. And said, “We’re going to accept you to medical school. Where are you? We need to send you some paperwork to have notarized and sent back to us.” So I signed it and sent it back, accepted a position in—Medical school started in August of 1980, and for my training that I had gone through in the Air Force Reserve, I was obligated until September of 1980. So I had a problem. So I went back, and I talked to my boss. And I said, “Hey. I’m—Before I came out here a long time ago, I applied to medical school, and I just found out last week I got accepted.” And he says, “What are you going to do?” I said, “Well, I applied so many years in a row. I need to do this.” So I sent a letter to AFRS headquarters requesting release from my obligation, and they �Meyer, J.P. denied it. In the meantime, I wanted to stay in the military, so I had found a position in the 185th Tactical Fighter Group in Sioux City in the Iowa Air National Guard in the command post because they—It required a rated officer. But you didn’t have to be A-7 qualified. We had A-7s at the time. So I wrote a letter back, and I said, “Look. I’ve already got a position in an Iowa Air National Guard unit, and I think the Air Force would be better off gaining a flight surgeon or a physician flight surgeon as opposed to another pilot.” And they agreed with me, and they let me out of my commitment. (1:34:03) So I moved back to Vermillion and started medical school in 19—in August of—Well, July of 1980. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, and did you get through that successfully?” I finished medical school in 1984. Stayed in the Guard the whole time. After medical school, I moved to Michigan. I did an internship in Detroit, and then, during my internship, I applied to go back on active duty in the Navy and the Air Force. And my goal in the Navy was to become what was called a dual designator to fly as a pilot in Navy jets and be a flight surgeon at the same time, and the Navy had that program. The Air Force didn’t. So as my internship went along, the Navy didn’t get the paperwork done. The Air Force did. So I took the Air Force route and went to flight surgeon training and was assigned to Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma, and after my internship—So we moved to Enid in—Well, it would’ve been July of 1984. I went on active duty until—It was a three year commitment, so ‘84 to ‘87 I was on active duty in the Air Force. Interviewer: “Okay, and what did your job consist of?” We had a clinic on the base. It was clinic medicine, and our job as flight surgeons was to take care of the rated personnel. And the rated personnel consisted of student pilots, flight instructors, and air traffic controllers. So we saw a young, healthy population. It wasn’t especially challenging, so what I did was I took a job part-time in the local—one of the hospital’s local emergency rooms as an emergency room physician. (1:36:00) So I moonlighted in the emergency room while I was in the Air Force, and one of my objectives was to keep my skills up because you do flight medicine for three years, and now, you know, taking care of a heart attack is way back in the distance. So I was an emergency room physician. Well, when I finished the Air Force obligation in ‘87, I—The local medical staff wanted me to take over the emergency room at the other hospital in town, which was expanding and building a new emergency room and building on to the hospital, so I agreed to do that. So I became a full-time emergency room physician in Enid, and I transferred—Once I got off active duty, I rejoined the Iowa Air National Guard as a flight surgeon in Sioux City. So I would attend drills in Sioux City, and I worked fulltime in Enid. Interviewer: “And how would you get back and forth?” I had my own airplane at the time, so I’d commute back and forth to— Interviewer: “Long drive, not so long flight.” �Meyer, J.P. Correct, and actually there were times when the pilots from Sioux City—There was a low level route that they would fly that went down into Kansas. Well, there was—Occasionally, they would actually come down to Enid to the Air Force base and pick me up in an A-7, and we’d fly the low level route back to Sioux City. And then Sunday afternoon be in a Guard drill. We’d repeat the process, and they’d drop me off back in Enid, which was a lot of fun for me. Interviewer: “Okay. All right. Now you would have been in the Air National Guard in the period of the Gulf War in ‘91. Did that have any ripple effects that got to your unit, or did things just stay normal?” We had—I don’t know if I’d call it a request or an offer for volunteers, and we did have some people from our medical unit that volunteered for the Gulf War. And they were sent to—I know one of our physicians was sent to Florida to backfill a physician’s position that was deployed to the Gulf War. (1:38:10) So no one went to the Gulf, but they—We had a few people that went to different places in the United States. Interviewer: “Okay. All right, and then how long did you stay with the Air National Guard?” I was the—I started out as the chief flight surgeon in the 185th Tactical clinic, and then I became the clinic commander. And then my next assignment was as the State Air Surgeon for the state of Iowa. So I switched from going to Sioux City. I went to Des Moines for drill, and I was the State Air Surgeon for the Iowa Air National Guard. Interviewer: “Okay. Now when did you complete that assignment?” When I retired in January of 2000. Interviewer: “All right. Now you had been working in Enid, Oklahoma. You now live in Grand Island, Nebraska. How did that come about?” Well, I was working as the emergency room physician. I ran the emergency room, and I would hire other physicians to be the emergency room physician when I was not there. And I had a partner who was a medical school classmate of mine, and he and I basically took most of the hours. And then we’d use residents from Oklahoma City to fill in the rest, and I did that until 1992. In late ‘91, the administrator at the hospital came down and was talking to me, and he said, “You know, you’re one of two physicians on our medical staff who do not have post-graduate medical education.” Basically, I’d had just an internship and experience. And he said, “And the other one is retiring.” So I thought, “Well, all right. I probably need to go and do my specialty training.” So my thought at the time—Because of my pharmacy background, I had—Really, when I left medical school, I wanted to do anesthesia residency, and the internship I did was a lead-in to that. And then, during my internship, I decided to change course and go to the—back to the military for a while. (1:40:08) So I—My choices were to do anesthesiology or do emergency medicine. The University of Oklahoma had an emergency medicine program. The University of Kansas-Wichita had an anesthesiology program, and they were—Well, University of Wichita was a little further than Oklahoma City from Enid but not much. So my thought at the �Meyer, J.P. time was, “Well, I’m already doing emergency medicine. I’m not sure I want to go and train for two years to do something I’m already doing.” An my primary interest had always been anesthesiology. So I applied to the University of Kansas and completed the residency program at the University of Kansas-Wichita hospitals, and that program ran from 1992 to 1995. In 1995, we moved to Woodward, Oklahoma—small town in western Oklahoma—and I was the only anesthesiologist there. We had a nurse anesthesthetist who was a nurse that does anesthesia, and we had—It was a fairly—We had a new, young—couple of new, young surgeons, and it was a fairly busy place. But I grew up in the Midwest around cornfields and beanfields, and now I was in an environment that looked like west Texas with wind and dry and tumbleweeds. And if you didn’t ride horses or chase rattlesnakes, there wasn’t a whole lot to do in Woodward, Oklahoma, so—And I was being—I was on call 24/7, and basically I got tired of the routine. And I told my wife. I said, “I’m moving back to the Midwest. I hope you’re going with me.” So we moved to— I had a classmate who was from Grand Island where I live now, and his father and his group—an orthopedic group—had plans to build their own ambulatory surgery center. (1:42:19) So Dr. Albers was calling me and telling me and encouraging me to come up. Well, I wanted to leave Oklahoma, so I actually interviewed in—at a couple hospitals in Iowa and one in Topeka, and I knew of the opportunity in Grand Island and ultimately decided to move to Grand Island. And we’ve lived there ever since. Interviewer: “Okay. All right. Okay, so to look back on the whole thing, I mean, obviously, a lot—You know, the standard question that I ask is sort of how do you think your time in the service affected you, or what did you take out of it? And you said a lot about that already, but I just want to sort of—Just for yourself as a person, how do you think that this affected you?” Well, I got out of the service—You know, I guess I’d have to say I got out of the service what I wanted. Flight training and experience. Because of the course I took in flight training, in the Air Force Reserve, in medical school, in the flight surgeon—I mean, I had a terrific time in the military. I had a lot of opportunity. I got to do a lot of really neat things. I rode in the backseat of an A-7 all the way from Sioux City, Iowa to Sint-Truiden, Belgium on a deployment for summer camp one year. I—It was just a really—It was a good time. Got a lot of flying experience and enjoyed it. On the downside, it took a toll on my personal life. After Vietnam, I got divorced from my boys’ mother and eventually was remarried to my current wife, and we raised her two boys. My two boys finished college and are very successful. One’s an insurance executive. One is actually a physician anesthesiologist pain doctor just like myself who now lives in Kansas. (1:44:05) We raised my wife’s two boys. One of them finished his degree at the University of Nebraska in psychology, and he actually works for us in the office. Does—Helps do billing. Her oldest son just finished his undergraduate degree, and he’s applying to PA school. And then we had a daughter who was born in 1996, and she now is at the—Oklahoma State University in their professional pilot program. I steered her towards aviation, but I told her—I said, “I want you to do this for you. I don’t—You know, don’t do it for me. Just—This is something you seem to enjoy and be interested in.” And I said, “You can actually go to college and get a degree in aviation and learn to fly.” And I said, “There’s a pilot shortage going on, and I think it’s going to run for at least ten years. And the sky’s the limit.” I said, “You’ll—” And I—We talked when she’s been home, and I said, “You know, Elizabeth, you have the world by the tail if you play your cards right.” And she just smiles and says, “Yeah, I know.” So it took a toll on, you know, �Meyer, J.P. my personal life like I think it did for so many Vietnam vets. It’s just what life was like at the time. It’s how things were. Lot of stress. Interviewer: “All right, and you basically kind of over time learned to manage it or deal— Or things quiet down over time, or…?” Yeah, they have. I think there are times when a certain situation is difficult for me. Interviewer: “Yeah, I mean, you saw a lot difficult stuff and went through some very, very scary things, and those do leave a mark. But you’ve had certainly a very impressive career and makes for very good stories, so thank you very much for taking the time to share today.” You’re welcome. (1:45:58) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27_MeyerJ2282V Title A name given to the resource Meyer, J. Paul (Interview transcript and video), 2018 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-11-03 Description An account of the resource J.P. Meyer was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, in 1947. He graduated high school in 1965 and attended a pre-pharmacy program at South Dakota State University before dropping out in 1968 to enlist in the Army's warrant officer flight training program. Meyer underwent Basic Training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and then transfered to Fort Wolters, Texas, for primary helicopter school as well as Fort Rucker, Alabama, for instrument and tactical training. When he was deployed to Vietnam, Meyer joined Charlie Company, 159th Aviation Battalion, 101st Airborne in Phu Bai. His unit participated in the establishment, siege, and eventual evacuation of Firebase Ripcord in 1970. After working an administration job back in the U.S. for the remainder of his tour, he joined a Chinook unit in the Iowa Army National Guard and later graduated with a pharmaceutical degree. From there, he continued his medical studies at vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma. Meyer eventually became the State Air Surgeon and began going to Des Moines, Iowa, for drill. Meyer finally completed this assignment when he retired in January of 2000. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Meyer, J. Paul Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Army. Air Force Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource video/mp4 application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Veterans History Project collection, RHC-27 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401. Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c4e0c23d70da9cf39c5d5ed55844d912.mp4 1c0d57dbfb0c44b98baccf05e56c0113 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/425d8c8b794e32147573183e5f57e512.pdf d34a28e31ac5b5b2cc60c74c6d8d430c PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Richard Meyer Length: 56:59 (00:15) Background Information • Richard Meyer was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1922 • Both his parents had been previously married and had lost their spouses • He was their only child they had after getting married, but combined had 14 children • After graduating from high school in 1940 Richard spent 6 months in metal training school and then worked in the metal trade for about a year • Richard received his draft notice in November of 1942 and on December 29, 1942 he was sent on a train to Fort Dix in New Jersey and then later shipped to Camp Carson, Colorado (5:00) Training • Richard trained with the 49th Engineers near Colorado Springs at a relatively new camp • They were up in a very high altitude and it was very cold; some of the men got frostbite while they were out on hikes • They went through maneuvers in the mountains, had weapons training for 6 weeks, spent 6 weeks working on rigging, 6 weeks on demolition, and another 6 weeks on bridge building • Richard got sick at the end of the Fall and had to go to the hospital • The 49th Engineers was shipped out while he was in the hospital and he was later transferred to the 60th Engineers (9:10) Further Training • After recovering Richard had been sent to Tennessee in 1944 to work on more maneuvers • He received an emergency furlough because his father had died • He was then sent to Camp Sutton in North Carolina where he went through radio training • The weather was much nicer than Colorado and he really enjoyed it �• Richard was in North Carolina from January 1944-May 1944 and then sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. (10:40) England • Richard traveled with many other ships in convoy surrounded by destroyers; it took them 15 days to cross the Atlantic • Richard was part of a Combat Engineer Battalion that landed in England in early May before D Day • They took a train to Plymouth and then stayed in Land’s End for 6 weeks in an old British barracks • There were many rumors going around about what was going on for D Day and no one was quite sure as to how it would turn out • They did however all know that something was going on because the MP began tightening security and being more strict (14:15) France • The men were loaded on LSTs and it took them 8 hours to cross the channel • There was an electrical storm on the way over and one of their ships was hit • Omaha beach was loaded with broken down vehicles and there was much activity • Many tried to unload supplies while shells were going off all over and others were digging fox holes • There was much damage to the French countryside from shells of ships • They were camping in the hedgerow area near many farms • His battalion was assigned to the 35th Infantry Division (19:40) Radio Operations • Richard had been working communications operating a switchboard 24/7 • They occasionally came under artillery fire, but were never hit with mortars • They spent time laying and deactivating mines, creating maps of their locations �• At one point a whole truck carrying mines blew up and about 40 men were killed • Operating the switchboard allowed Richard to get an idea of the war’s progress and of what was going on around him (26:50) Metz, France • Richard kept busy laying telephone lines and working with radio communications • They traveled through France from July through September, moving very quickly • Most felt at that point that the war was going well, but things began to get more hectic in October • They had been staying in deserted civilian houses and shops, which was much better then camping in the countryside • Richard set up a switchboard in Southern Holland where he met a man in the Dutch Underground; they remained friends for many years after the war • They did not get to see much of the French population because they were usually traveling through wooded areas and the countryside (35:11) Battle of the Bulge • They had been traveling through Luxemburg during a very cold winter • They usually traveled during the day, driving 2.5 ton trucks and sleeping in abandoned buildings at night • Richard was in Luxemburg for about 2 months • They traveled to Holland and then later crossed the Rhine River into Germany • The entire unit had been mobilized, looking through the territory for Germans • They were not able to find any and made it almost to Russia [to the Russian lines] searching through the woods • Many German cities had been completely leveled and there was much destruction • They were not supposed to talk to any German civilians, even after the war had ended (45:05) Leaving Europe �• Richard left Germany in July of 1945 • They spent time cigarette camps near La Havre for about 4 days • They took a ship from Cherbourg to a British base in England where they stayed for an additional 3 days • They finally boarded the Queen Mary and landed in New York in only 3 days • The men were all given a special steak dinner and issued leave for 31 days • Richard had been gone for 3 years, but everyone in town seemed to still be overseas when he got home • He was very bored and thought about reenlisting, but his mother talked him out of it (49:40) After Service • Richard was given back his old job at the electric company; he worked there for 2 months and then quit • He worked at a few other jobs and within 15 years he had started his own machine company • Richard had 4 children and they all moved to Michigan to go to Calvin College • Richard and his wife decided to follow their children to Michigan and they have been living in Holland ever since � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MeyerR Title A name given to the resource Meyer, Richard (Interview outline and video), 2009 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Meyer, Richard Description An account of the resource Richard Meyer was born in Patterson, New Jersey in 1922 and graduated from high school in 1940. After high school Richard worked in the metal trade until he was drafted in 1942. He started training in December 1942 in Colorado Springs with the 49th Engineers. Richard also trained in North Carolina and Tennessee before being sent to Europe. While in Europe Richard worked with the 35th Infantry Division, working on communications and operating switchboards. He traveled through Britain, Holland, Luxemburg, Germany, and France. Richard left Germany in 1945 and later started his own machine company. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-04-07 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7f1a9842c3d138027c3ec6ceaf5edb62.mp4 431135cede7807e0e09c94ee1afc5b5e https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f41d8c6365fe0e6b05c24546bfbb1372.pdf 78bb6ad88800f404f1d03d3973770412 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans’ History Project Tom Meyer Vietnam War 1 hour 18 minutes 36 seconds (00:00:44) Early Life -Born in 1945 in Oak Park, Illinois -Grew up in Cicero, Illinois -Father was in the garbage business -Helped his father clean the offices -Father was a WWII veteran -Flew with the Marines in the South Pacific -This influenced him (Tom) to join the Marines -Graduated from high school and went to college (00:02:13) Enlisting in the Marines -Enlisted in the Marines in 1964 -Didn’t think he would ever have to see combat -Flew out of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago -Landed in San Diego, California at 2 A.M. (00:03:50) Basic Training -After being bused to the base they were ordered to stand at attention -Eventually got led to barbers to have their heads shaved -Initial adjustment was somewhat of a shock -Issued physical training outfits -The next day they were brought to Quonset huts that served as living quarters -Training was a matter of being disciplined -Everything had to be done by the book -Taught about the history of the Marines -Had lots of physical training -Drilled that having a good attitude was key to completing basic training -Adjusting to military living wasn’t too difficult for him -In good physical shape when he enlisted -Accepted the fact that you had to follow orders -Taught hand to hand combat -Won a hand to hand combat championship (00:13:13) Firearms Training -After three weeks they were brought to Camp Pendleton -They had to qualify with a rifle -Taught how to shoot at targets using only the iron sights (no scope) -Trained with the M1 Garand rifle from WWII (00:15:05) End of Basic Training -After Camp Pendleton they returned to San Diego to complete basic training -At the end of training there was a graduation ceremony -Recruits from the area could have their family attend �-At the end of basic they were given base liberty -Allowed to go to the PX (general store) and have some free reign (00:15:45) Advanced Infantry Training (AIT) -After a few days they were taken to Camp Pendleton again for AIT -Training consisted of crawling through obstacle courses -Had to go hiking in the mountains -Tarantulas were extremely prevalent in the mountains -Learned how to live in the field -Taught how to properly use explosives and high powered weapons -Trained with mines, bazookas, and the M60 machine gun -AIT lasted eight weeks (00:17:52) Bronchial Pneumonia during Basic Training (pre-AIT) -While at Camp Pendleton for firearms training contracted bronchial pneumonia -Lived in tents on the firing range and most likely caught it there -Had a momentary bout of blindness in the mess hall at Camp Pendleton -Corpsman said that he was healthy enough to continue training -Returned to San Diego and started having chest pains during physical training -Corpsman there told him he had bronchial pneumonia -Got sent to Balboa Hospital (Bob Wilson Naval Hospital) in San Diego -Spent three weeks in the hospital -Afterwards completed basic training and went on to advanced infantry training (00:21:30) Radio Repair & Operator School -Completed advanced infantry training in early 1965 -Upon completing AIT they were issued deployment orders -His orders were to go to San Diego for further schooling -Sent to radio repair and operator school -Given weekly tests -Courses focused on mathematics, learning basics about radio, and troubleshooting -They were given weekends off -Went snorkeling in La Jolla (near San Diego) -Went to Mexico once -School lasted a year (00:26:56) Camp Lejeune, North Carolina -After completing radio school he was sent to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina -Remote area -Boring deployment -After six months there he received orders to return to Camp Pendleton -Had to train to prepare to go to Vietnam (00:27:50) Training for Vietnam -Given thirty days of leave and then had to return to Camp Pendleton -Part of training was a field exercise involving crossing the mountains -Had to reach a rendezvous point in three days -Had to work in three man groups -Marine Reservists were used to mimic enemy soldiers hunting them -On the first day his group members were captured -Connected with other soldiers �-They found, caught, killed and ate a rattlesnake -Second day they stumbled onto a Reservist camp -Raided it for rations and water -Eventually reached the rendezvous point -Taken to a simulated prisoner of war camp -Trained how to deal with being interrogated -They broke out of the camp and hid in the hills -Eventually had to return to POW camp to continue exercise (00:37:37) Deployment to Vietnam -After returning to Camp Pendleton they went to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California -February 1966 -Boarded C-130 transports there -Island hopped their way across the Pacific -Given dinner on Guam -Landed in Okinawa -Stayed there for three days -After Okinawa flew to Da Nang, Vietnam (00:40:25) Arriving in Vietnam -Upon arriving in Da Nang they were assigned barracks to sleep in -Had a good first impression of Vietnam -Thought that Da Nang was oddly big and well organized -Felt that his arrival was fairly civilized -Got assigned to the 4th Marines Regiment Headquarters at Phu Bai -Had to get there on his own -Recruited an Air Force helicopter pilot to take him there (00:43:02) Overview of Phu Bai -Arrived in Phu Bai and got introduced to the other technicians -Got sick for three days -Pulled basic duties on base -Perimeter guard, radio repair, radio operator in the field, filling sandbags -Occasionally went out on patrols -Sometimes took mortar fire from the Vietnamese -Airfield was a prime target for the Vietnamese -Primary duty was to set up communications -Usually worked out of a command post -Sometimes got recruited to be a radio operator (00:47:11) Living in the Field -Remembers accidentally opening fire on a water buffalo during Operation Prairie -Thought it was an enemy patrol trying to breach perimeter -Marines had to pay for the dead water buffalo -Sometimes went out with company commanders to call in coordinates -Had to take a weapon everywhere he went -Opted for the .45 pistol because it was lightweight -Didn’t spend much time in the field -As a result didn’t have to see a lot of combat �(00:52:02) Daily Life in Vietnam -Daily duty consisted of sending coded messages out to units -Didn’t think about the danger of the war -Aware of how dangerous the war was -Could hear firefights on the radio -One night remembers an incident on perimeter duty -Heard shooting down the line -In the morning found that his foxhole partner had set up claymore mine wrong -Blast would have gone towards them, not the enemy (00:57:26) Relationship with Vietnamese Civilians -Not allowed to leave the base and fraternize with the Vietnamese -Young Vietnamese girls would do laundry for the troops though -Command eventually prohibited that too -Civilians weren’t used for manual labor at Phu Bai -Vietnamese barbers were employed at Dong Ha -Didn’t go out on civic action patrols (patrolling villages) -Did travel through villages with convoys -Threw gum and rations to Vietnamese children (01:00:07) Drug Use & Morale -Some soldiers did smoke pot -Rare occurrence though -Had morphine in their med kits -Saved for when they were wounded -Morale was good -Stayed close with the friends that he made -Played cards off duty and had one record to play -He was in charge of setting up speakers for the USO shows -Martha Raye was the most memorable performance -Amateur groups would come in and sing for them as well (01:03:37) End of Deployment -Wound up spending a total of eleven months and twenty six days in Vietnam -Returned home in February 1967 -Had only had twelve months left in enlistment upon being deployed -Superiors pressured him to reenlist -Offered promotion, $5000 bonus, and a thirty day vacation to anywhere -He turned it down (01:04:55) Morale and Downtime -Enjoyed the camaraderie that he had with his friends -He left a little earlier than they did -Spent the majority of their tour together though -Remembers a bar in Dong Ha with saloon style doors -Everyone in the bar carried a gun of some kind -General atmosphere felt like something out of the Wild West -Assumed that the U.S. was winning the war by time he was ready to leave �(01:08:25) Leaving Vietnam & Coming Home -Got on a convoy to go to a catch a helicopter to Da Nang -Had to return to base camp to talk to top sergeant -Got on another convoy and eventually got on a helicopter to Da Nang -Flew out of Da Nang on a chartered TWA airliner -Good morale on the flight home -Stopped in Honolulu, Hawaii -Flew back into Marine Air Station El Toro, California -Remembers that it smelled like roses -Got processed out of the Marines at El Toro -Visited cousin who lived in Long Beach -Got denied admission to a local night club because of being ex-military -Flew back to Chicago -Got free drinks at O’Hare airport bar while he waited for parents to pick him up (01:13:16) Life after the Marines -Didn’t feel discriminated against upon returning home -Got invited to be an honored guest at the Cicero Chamber of Commerce -Went back to college on military benefits -Attended Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan -Didn’t get hassled at college for being ex-military -People were actively interested in his experiences -Was able to enroll in college quickly and easily -Got a degree in social studies -Taught through Kellogsville Public Schools in Michigan -Never experienced trouble readjusting to civilian life -Only major issue was that he missed his friends -Didn’t suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (01:17:21) Reflections on Service -Marines allowed him the opportunity to go back to college -The Marines taught him how to be disciplined -Being in the military earned him respect from people (both civilian and military) -Looks back on his service fondly -Strengthened bond with father -Able to swap stories about their time in the Marines -Being in the Marines opened up a lot of opportunities for him later in life � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MeyerT1553V Title A name given to the resource Meyer, Thomas (Interview outline and video), 2013 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Meyer, Thomas Description An account of the resource Tom Meyer was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1945 and grew up in Cicero, Illinois. After high school he attended college briefly before enlisting in the Marines in 1964. He went through basic training in San Diego, California and advanced infantry training in Camp Pendleton, California. He would go on to specialize in radio repair and operations. After a brief stint at Camp Lejeune he received orders to go to Vietnam whereupon he returned to Camp Pendleton for pre-deployment training. He was sent to Vietnam in February 1966 and was assigned to the 4th Marines Regiment Headquarters stationed at Phu Bai where he spent his deployment both in, and out of, the field. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) WKTV (Wyoming, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American United States. Marine Corps Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2013-10-17 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/020ff314a4414f57bc1df92cee101b52.mp4 876ab503e61d08b442c8eac9f4f10818 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/46173e0abc0d8f115d9ea98f8758aa8a.pdf 84b845152572a22d6255f8e2f7e2d986 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Vietnam War Uwe Meyer (1:02:23) Background Information (00:12) • • • • • • • • • • • Born in Germany on November 8th 1949. (00:14) Uwe moved to America on July 3rd 1951. (00:15) His father worked on railroads in Germany, and wanted to farm in America. (00:35) Uwe has one older sister and one younger sister. (1:00) His father bought a farm in Montezuma, Iowa. (1:26) Uwe’s father served in the German army at the age of 16 on the eastern front. (1:51) He graduated from high school in 1968. For most of his high school life, Uwe worked on his father’s farm. (2:20) There was some awareness of the Vietnam conflict. (3:03) Uwe received his draft notice in June of 1969. His father didn’t like that he would lose his only male son working on the farm. (3:46) A physical was administered in Des Moines, Iowa, in December of 1968. (4:33) Uwe was picked up by a bus to Des Moines. He was then taken to Fort Polk, Louisiana, by plane. (5:30) Basic Training (5:58) • • • • • • Right when the men were unloaded, the drill instructors were yelling at the new trainees. (6:42) The men were processed the morning after their arrival. Uwe was given the task of showing around new men who arrived at the base for several weeks. (7:40) Uwe did not think he was working as hard in basic as he did on his farm back at home. (9:17) Uwe’s training group was fairly diverse. The African Americans soldiers often had trouble with the authority and discipline of the service. (9:55) Uwe found basic training easy. His father was strict, so discipline was not an issue. (11:18) Before AIT [advanced individual training], Uwe knew he would be sent to Vietnam. (12:00) AIT Training (12:59) • • • • • • • Attended AIT in Fort Polk, Louisiana. (13:03) The men marched, but not like in basic. (13:17) The men had a little more freedom in AIT, they were allowed to go off the base occasionally. (14:08) AIT lasted aprox. 8 weeks. Uwe also did not fight this training challenging. (14:30) There was some training given that was specifically given for jungle combat. Uwe often trained in Tigerland [the simulated Vietnam environment at Fort Polk]. (16:32) Uwe graduated AIT in November of 1969. (18:11) He was given a 30 day leave before being sent to Vietnam. (18:26) �Early Service in Vietnam (18:30) • • • • • • • • • • He flew from Seattle Washington, to Hawaii, to an island In the Pacific (Wake island), to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam (18:31) Vietnam was warm. When Uwe got off the aircraft, Vietnamese civilians gave the soldiers the finger. (20:51) The men were in Cam Ranh Bay for 3 days before being assigned. Uwe was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. (21:20) An Aircraft took Uwe to Da Nang. He was with approx. 20 other men who were all assigned to Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion of the 506th Regiment (22:42) Uwe was sent to Camp Evans where he joined his unit. He was received very well by his new unit. (23:44) Uwe recalled working bunker guard while serving at Camp Evans. The men then went out in the field. Uwe walked point for the first 6 weeks. (25:38) He knew not to walk on the main trail because of the threat of booby traps. (26:37) The men were given flak jackets and flak pants for protection. Uwe threw them aside and left them because they were unbearable to wear in the heat. (27:00) Uwe’s unit was in the lowlands around Camp Evans from January of 1970-March of 1970. (28:41) Uwe’s platoon rarely encountered enemy fire. They would set up ambushes, but the men they were suppose to intercept the unit never encountered. (29:33) Ripcord Campaign (30:04) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • In April of 1970, the men were helicoptered into Rip Cord. (30:04) Here is where Uwe had encountered his first heavy enemy fire. The men were ordered to e move at night due to enemy fire. (31:00) Judging by how the hill was cleared, Uwe knew that his unit was not the first to be on Ripcord. The men were not given any background information before arriving on the hill. (32:34) The unit soon ran out of foot. They found green bananas and caught crayfish to eat for several days. (33:42) Wet weather contributed to the difficulty that helicopters had resupplying soldiers. (34:55) The men were moved to Eagle Beach for a stand down. On June f1st 1970, Uwe had 10 days R&R in Sydney Australia. (35:31) When he returned on June 11th his unit was on Ripcord. (36:37) Air strikes were frequently called in. The men on point were often hurt when air strikes were called. Uwe was carrying a machine gun at this time. (37:55) In the summer of 1970, naval gunfire was also called in form 27 miles away. (40:13) He recalls 3 helicopters being down at one time on Ripcord. One helicopter crashed on the ammo dump. Uwe rescued several men from the crash. (41:20) Uwe was aware that the bombardment of Ripcord was getting worse over time. (43:52) Most machine gun fire was used as suppressive fire. (45:09) Uwe was evacuated from Ripcord via helicopter. (45:55) Being on the helicopter over Ripcord was terrifying. (47:44) Service after Ripcord (49:08) �• • • Uwe was sent on leave to Hong Kong for 10 days. When he retained he was placed on bunker guard before returning home. (49:21) There were some racial problems in the rear. (50:27) Though he was not an officer, Uwe was able to get into the officer’s club after stealing a Lieutenant's shirt. (51:30) Discharge and Life After Service (54:30) • • • • • • • The flight back to the US stopped in Japan then to Seattle, Washington. (53:12) Uwe was told that he would encounter protesters and that he should take his uniform off. Uwe did not recall seeing any protesters. (53:32) After return home, Uwe was given 30 days leave and then was sent to Fort Hood, Texas, where he would spend the remaining 3 months of his service. He worked in military intelligence. (54:12) The men were trained on how to use ground radar. (54:58) The moral of the troops on the base was fairly good. (55:24) Uwe was given an early out after 3 months because the spring was coming and his help was needed on the farm. (56:19) He spent a month in Germany visiting with his parents. During this time they convinced Uwe to be a farmer. (56:50) Thoughts on Service (57:33) • • He believes that the war was political. He was happy that he didn’t avoid the draft and that he survived his infield service. (57:37) Though he was ever taught any Vietnamese, after a while he could make out some parts of the language. Uwe did not trust any of the Vietnamese civilians. (58:50) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MeyerU1448V Title A name given to the resource Meyer, Uwe (Interview outline and video), 2012 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Meyer, Uwe Description An account of the resource Uwe Meyer, Born in Germany in 1949, moved to Iowa as a child and was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1969. After training at Fort Polk, Louisiana, he was sent to Vietnam. Upon arrival, he was assigned to B Company, 2nd Battalion, 506h Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division. He spent his first few months in Vietnam in early 1970 patrolling the area around Camp Evans, and was then moved into the hills to the west and participated in the fighting on and around Firebase Ripcord. He participated in his company's failed attempt to establish the Ripcord base on April 1, 1970, and from mid-June served as a machine gunner on the base until it was evacuated in July. Upon returning to the US, he spent the rest of his enlistment at Fort Hood, Texas, working with ground radar units. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource McGregor, Michael (Interviewer) Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings United States. Army Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012-10-06 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/0e4337a6ade039832eeecd756cc3497e.m4v 60c9aed763b961a0182a81132d3142ed https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c52035392aaf43cd357ef4e5ddc1462e.pdf d626b464a2d72ed908fc9f45e7a11f2b PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Name of Interviewee: Leslie Meyering Name of War: Korean War Length of Interview: (00:19:30) Background Information Shows a map of Korea while the war was going on (0:30) Gives a brief history of the war (2:00) General MacArthur wanted to bomb North Korea, but the UN did not want that, so General MacArthur was fired (5:30) Eisenhower was elected on the platform of ending the conflict (6:00) After the war ended, North Korea stayed agrarian while South Korea became an industrial nation (7:00) Korean War was fought by the UN, so there were many countries represented in the conflict (7:30) Pre-Enlistment Was drafted into the Army (9:15) Had friends going into the military, and thought it was the best thing for him (10:15) Training Had basic training in Fort Bliss, Texas (11:30) Part of training was living in tents (11:45) Basic training was harder than anything they ever did in service (12:15) Spent 6 weeks in basic training (12:30) Stayed at Fort Bliss for Anti-Aircraft training (13:00) Came home for 10 days, then was shipped to Korea out of Washington in 1952 (14:15) Enlistment The ship dropped them off in Pusan, Korea, then took trucks to his station (2:15) Worked in close contact with the soldiers of the Republic of Korea (3:15) Had to use howitzers, because they did not have anti-aircraft guns (15:15) Always had the artillery behind a large hill, and infantry would radio back the positions (16:30) Had 5 guns, and would shoot once with the center gun to gauge accuracy (17:00) Would keep adjusting until they got the right location, then each gun would fire 10 rounds each (17:15) Became another job after a while (17:45) Moved around every 2 weeks, but stayed in the same general area (19:00) Had bigger guns stationed behind them, but they never really did much (19:20) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MeyeringL Title A name given to the resource Meyering, Leslie (Interview outline and video), 2009 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Meyering, Leslie Description An account of the resource Leslie Meyering was drafted into the US Army in 1952. After completing basic training at Fort Bliss, Texas, he completed additional training on Anti-Aircraft guns. He was shipped to Korea, and was stationed with an artillery unit. The interview was cut short at 19:45, so additional information was lost. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Ryskamp, Lindsey (Interviewer) Caledonia High School (Caledonia, Mich.) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2009-05-28 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f2441f8e47457b36aeb0755d80bacf0d.m4v 96363b8c478746192431faf0e759d8ea https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/35c0fb55099a41fb638926dd191dd4a3.pdf 4a8e13e888652303cc21960cde3925a1 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Name of Interviewee: George Meyers Name of War: World War II Length of Interview: (00:23:02) (00:15) Background Information  George was born in Coloma, Michigan on August 6, 1926  George spent his younger years on his parents farm, but they eventually lost it during the Depression  His father then began working on contract work for construction and actually made more money than he had on the farm  In 1942 both of George’s older brothers were in the service in Europe and Asia  George was still in high school when he received his draft papers in 1944  He was no longer interested in school and left for the Army before graduating (2:20) Pacific  George went through basic training at Camp Hood, Texas  He went through extended training after that and then was shipped to Luzon  They boarded a troop ship in San Francisco that held 3,000 troops  It took them 31 days to make it to their destination because they had to take a zig zag course to avoid enemy submarines  Traveling on the way home on a normal route only took 6 days  George and others were sent as replacements for the 32nd Infantry Division  He was very confused when he had first arrived and had not been trained properly  He was lucky to arrive near the end of the war and was glad they he did not have to fight for years (5:00) Luzon  George had spent 18 months in Luzon � He did not come into contact with many civilians, but the ones he did meet were very friendly  George had been injured by a grenade and had to go to a hospital in the capital of Luzon  He only had 60 points when the war was over, but 165 were needed to be discharged  His brother was able to travel around in Japan and see the ruins from the bombs (7:50) After Service  George was shipped back to California and then took a train to Port Sheridan  He was allowed 60 days leave to go home and then called back to Illinois to be discharged  Both his brothers had been back from the service when he got home  George got married in 1949 and later had 6 children (12:40) Business  After the service George had began working with his father repairing and building septic tanks  He later decided to start his own business and did well  One of his sons now helps him run the business and George has been living in the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans since 2002 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MeyersG Title A name given to the resource Meyers, George O. (Interview outline and video), 2007 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Meyers, George O. Description An account of the resource George Meyers was born in Coloma, Michigan on August 6, 1926. George spent his early years on his parent's farm, but they had lost it during the Depression. Both of George's older brothers were already in the service and fighting when he received his draft papers in 1944. George went through basic training for the Army at Camp Hood in Texas and then went through extended training before being sent to Luzon. George served as a replacement in the 32nd Infantry Division and was later sent home after being injured by a grenade. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Collins Sr., Charles E. (Interviewer) Collins, Carol (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2007-07-30 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/09531863643402be3aaa73e01b593d39.mp4 7a81cdb042844a007a3efa19772903d6 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/16625d0c283e30188ba4f751445a1650.pdf b2e3a254468aaed7d3728d6162ed2cc6 PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Frank Micele (1:02:38) Background information (00:05)             Born in Grand Rapids Michigan in 1923.(00:10) His full name is Francesco P. Micele. (00:15) His parents were immigrants from Italy. (00:28) His family had 3 boys and 2 girls. (00:46) His father worked for the railroad repairing air brakes. He was able to keep this job during the Depression. (00:55) He attended high school at South High school in Grand Rapids Michigan. He also completed 2 years of junior college after returning from service in 1946. (1:17) On December 7th 1941 he was on a date when he heard about Pearl Harbor. (1:37) He knew very little of what was happening in Europe. (2:06) He accepted that he would be drafted. He joined the military in 1943 after finishing high school. (2:33) He graduated from high school in 1943. (3:26) He decided to join the Marine Corps in 1943. (3:42) He was sent to Camp Pendleton, California in 1943 (4:02) Basic Training (4:15)               He was sent to basic in California via train. The men were in a Pullman car. The trip took 3 days. (4:26) He was treated very well in Basic. (6:05) The physical training as well as the work on the firing range was seen to be very difficult. (6:34) He doesn’t recall any men being disorderly while he was there. (7:05) His company was compiled of men from all around the country. (8:12) He enjoyed life in the Marines and it was easy to adapt to. (8:25) He had never held a gun before his military training. (8:52) Some of the drill sergeants were men who have been in combat and some were just out of boot camp. (9:38) He believes boot camp lasted 3-4 weeks. (9:58) He was then sent to Camp Pendleton after boot camp to do field exercises. (10:19) He was trained on his rifle and the bayonet for his rifle. (10:37) Marksmanship was also practiced at Camp Pendleton. (11:03) Some men returned home on furlough after completing training. He had to stay in order to attended clerical school. (11:29) Clerical school was short and consisted of work on a typewriter. (12:21) �   He was moved from trucks to tanks to infantry. He had 2 days of training with the tank. He didn’t like it because it was too loud. (13:22) After arriving at Camp Pendleton he was given a furlough. (14:28) He did not receive any training in landing craft. (15:10) Voyage to the Pacific (approx. early 1944)(15:44)        He was seasick while traveling across the Pacific. He and other men were given medication to help with the sickness. (15:44) His transport stopped in Hilo, Hawaii. (16:08) Here they had more training. The area was very sandy in order to prepare them for the sandy conditions they would be exposed to. (16:40) After in Hilo, he was sent to train on volcanic mountains. This was to prepare the men for battle at Iwo Jima. (17:18) After Hawaii the ship stopped at 1 more location to load he ship with supply and ammunition. (18:13) He recalls being told that the men were going to hit Iwo Jima. They were told the island would be bombed every day and every night for 3 days. The men had no idea that the battle would be so difficult. (19:48) The sand was very thin. This caused difficulty in movement. (21:10) Battle at Iwo Jima (February 1945) (21:25)                 He charged the beach using what were like amphibious tanks or amtracs. (21:48) The men were forced to exit the amtrac when it was still in the water because they did not want to drive it ashore. (22:41) When arriving on the beach the men came under light fire. (22:55) After the 3rd company came in that’s when the Japanese began using heavy fire such as artillery (23:34) The men were surprised but at the same time were expecting the worst. (24:03) During the Battle of Iwo Jima, his company was assigned to attack Mt. Suribachi. (25:00) His company took a lot of loses. (25:30) The men were able to dig into the ground and make foxholes at night. (26:29) It took about 2 days to take Mt. Suribachi. (26:45) His company secured the back of the mountain. At the time the front of the mountain was already secured. (27:10) He didn’t experience any heavy fire when taking the back of the mountain. (27:26) The company had already received reinforcements at this time in the battle. (27:52) The men did have food and water during this period. (28:00) His company had the original flag that was placed at the top of Mt. Suribachi. (28:34) After placing the flag at the top of the mountain, there was still a lot of sniper fire as well as Japanese attacks at night. When the men thought they heard something at night, they would often throw grenades into the brush. (29:37) He stayed on Iwo Jima until the Japanese surrendered there. (30:04) � After securing Mt. Suribachi the men were assigned to go and aid the capture of the air field but by the time they got there it was already captured. (30:37) Combat experience on Iwo Jima (31:24)                     He was wounded on his first day on Iwo Jima. (31:26) While taking cover, he was told by another man that he was bleeding. He was told that he could go back to the rear of the unit, however he didn’t believe his wound was that bad, it was just a small hit from shrapnel. (31:55) He decided not to go back because he thought it was more dangerous to make the trek to return to the beach than it would to travel inland. (32:54) The beach was being bombarded by Japanese planes but no kamikazes struck ships this early in the battle. (33:11) Several men got lost and joined the second company until they rejoined their own. (33:47) He was on Iwo Jima for 10-15 days. (34:44) The men took such heavy casualties that they couldn’t even keep track.(34:57) Less than 10 of the original company were still alive [and unhurt] when they left Iwo Jima. (36:09) Sergeants were left running the company because most of the officers were casualties. (36:35) He used a flamethrower for 1-2 days to attack pill boxes. (37:04) He had an M1 Garand for most of his service. (38:10) He was able to advance on the island due to artillery that was shooting from the ships off shore. (38:54) He had a friend who took on 14 Japanese soldiers all at once. He survived and killed all 14 Japanese but he lost mobility in both his arms and his legs. (39:40) During the night men stayed in there foxholes and never got out. (41:20) He was lucky and was never attacked by the Japanese at night in hand to hand combat. (42:34) They did not set up any trip wires or noise makers to warn of their position. (43:12) They didn’t take any prisoners, due in part to language differences and the fact that they couldn’t handle traveling with prisoners. (43:49) (44:36) He and his unit were occasionally attacked from the rear. (44:55) Movement of men between units was very difficult during combat. (46:15) Leaving Iwo Jima (46:34)     He received orders from his sergeant that he was to leave Iwo Jima. (46:44) When he left Iwo Jima there was still fighting occurring on the island but mostly just light rifle fire. (47:00) He was happy to leave Iwo Jima with his life. (47:20) He and the reaming 6 of the remaining men from his company left together when leaving the island. (47:56) �    He was placed on a transport ship and taken to another island where he received orders for where he was going to go next. It was in the works for him to be sent to southern Japan next. (48:55) Between the end of Iwo Jima in February of 1945 and the Japanese surrender in August of 1945, he spent his time training for the attack on Japan. (50:10,) During this period of preparation and training the men were not given “days off” (52:00) He was out in the field when he heard of Japan’s surrender in August 1945. (52:20) Service in Japan (52:30)         Soon after the surrender he was sent to Sasebo, the Japanese naval base. (52:43) When he arrived in Japan, he was greeted by 1 police officer. The rest of the citizens had run to the mountains. (53:10) The men had trouble with Korean Laborers that were taken by the Japanese. (53:35) He was in Japan for approx 2-5 months doing policing. (54:04) When the Japanese did return to their town the civilians were kind to the soldiers. They didn’t want any part of the war any more. (54:40) The people were afraid of the Americans at first because they thought they were ruthless to their prisoners. (55:29) He stayed in Sasebo for the entire duration of time he spent in Japan. (55:50) Many of the Japanese could speak English but they didn’t converse with the Americans much. (56:06) Arrival in the U.S. and post war life. (56:55)           He was sent home via a troop transport. (56:59) The trip home was very good. The men were fed well and aloud to shower regularly. (57:00) He arrived in the U.S. in early spring. (57:29) He was sent back to Chicago where he was discharged (approx 1946) (58:55) After returning, he wanted to travel around the world. (59:14) He was encouraged too reenlist and was offered more money. (59:50) After returning home he attended Grand Rapids Community College in fall of 1946 until spring of 1948. (1:00:28) He then got a job at Kelvinator (a company making refrigerator and stoves) as an office worker. (1:00:40) He stayed with this company till he retired. (1:01:15) He learned a lot about reality as a result of being in the Marine Corps. He also found the amount of team work and comradely rewarding. (1:01:30) 2 hour 16 min. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MiceleF1170V Title A name given to the resource Micele, Francisco (Interview outline and video), 2011 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Micele, Francisco Description An account of the resource Frank Micele was born in Grand Rapids Michigan in 1923 and served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1943-1946 in the Pacific Theater during World War II. During his service, he fought in the entirety of the Battle of Iwo Jima and was involved in the taking of Mt. Suribachi. After the end of the war in 1945, Frank spent several moths policing Japan while stationed in the Japanese navel base at Sasebo. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Marine Corps Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2011-07-21 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4c6d22d411df999502a4e7f2b6b57157.m4v 2b0e7859de7f2a8facb2ca18d01612d7 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/df67396f899f4560c4c18aead5dedd12.pdf 91dee1205571597f5c2f486aac7fde5d PDF Text Text Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project Interview Interviewee’s Name: John Michels Name of War: World War II Length: (00:38:53) (00:10) Background Information     John was born on March 22, 1920 in Park Ridge, Illinois John grew up in Illinois and was drafted into the Army after graduating from high school He chose to go into the Army Air Force because he had always been intrigued by airplanes and wanted to by a pilot They would not let him be a pilot because he was color blind and he then decided to become an engineer (3:25) Training  John went to school in Boston where he learned basic information on aircraft for 2 months  He then took more classes in Wisconsin for another 2 months studying engineering and repairs of aircraft  They went through a bit of training at an Air Force base in Texas and then formed their squadrons to take off to San Francisco, and then the Pacific (7:55) Leaving California  They took off from San Francisco and landed first in Hawaii, then Christmas Island, and a few others  Each plane was carrying 2-400 gallon tanks in its cabin because the flight would last 16 hours  They could not fly faster than 199 mph and reached about 15,000 feet  The squadron eventually landed in Townsend, Australia and waited for their base on New Guinea to be completed (9:30) New Guinea  Their base was at Port Moresby near the airstrip, which was mostly just made up of flattened grass  John was very scared the first time he left New Guinea on a mission to drop off supplies  After they had been living on the base for a while the Japanese had taken most of the island  John was a technical sergeant, but often flew as co-pilot and had to help the pilots fly �(16:45) Missions  Whenever they saw Japanese beyond trees in the horizon they would dive into the cover of the trees  They could not fly very high and just made it over the mountains of New Guinea  They left for missions at the same time every day  Most of the mountains ranged from 18,000-22,000 [8,000-12,000?], while the planes could only reach 15,000 feet  They had to search for valleys between the mountains to fly through, which was often difficult because it was cloudy so far up and hard to see (24:25) Biak Island  John was later stationed on Biak Island, north of New Guinea, for about a year  It rained for about fifteen minutes right around 4:00 pm every day and then it would be nice and sunny  It was a fun place to be stationed and they often spent time swimming on the beach  They lived in tents above the ground on stilts to keep out the many snakes and poisonous spiders  There were many young Japanese snipers hiding in the trees (29:10) End of Service  John left Asia in November of 1944 and had been serving in the Pacific for 2 years  Instead of flying back they took a ship, which he did not enjoy and the trip lasted 30 days  There were two separate times where the engine had problems in the middle of the ocean and they had to sit there and worry about being attacked by submarines  They landed in Los Angeles and then flew to an Air Force base in Utica, New York  John had the second largest amount of points of all the men in his squadron  Those who did not have enough points would continue fighting in the Pacific  John remained stationed in New York, but broke his leg and spent 6 months recuperating  He was later sent to Miami, Florida in 1945 to be discharged � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Veterans History Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. History Department Description An account of the resource The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1914- Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American Michigan--History, Military Oral history Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American United States--History, Military United States. Air Force United States. Army United States. Navy Veterans Video recordings Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Smither, James Boring, Frank Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context RHC-27 Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MichelsJ Title A name given to the resource Michels, John H. (Interview outline and video), 2004 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michels, John H. Description An account of the resource John Michels was born on March 22, 1920 in Park Ridge, Illinois and was drafted into the Army after graduating from high school. He was given the option of joining the Army Air Force, but not allowed to become a pilot because he was color blind. John then chose to go into engineering and took classes for aircraft in Boston and in Wisconsin before he became a technical sergeant. He was later stationed at Fort Moresby in New Guinea where they flew on missions every day delivering supplies to troops throughout the Pacific. After that John was also stationed on Biak Island and eventually gathered enough points to be sent back to the States before the war had ended. John was discharged in Miami, Florida in 1945. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Mangione, Nathaniel (Interviewer) Subject The topic of the resource Oral history Veterans History Project (U.S.) United States--History, Military Michigan--History, Military Veterans Video recordings World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American United States. Army Language A language of the resource eng Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Moving Image Text Relation A related resource Veterans History Project (U.S.) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2004-05-06 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf video/mp4 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Lemmen Library and Archives https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c7f4655433bf08228ddec4b3898c3e9b.pdf b3701d6bb26f838f42ef04ae10441bee PDF Text Text MICHIGAN COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMISSION .. AGENDA OCTOBER 31, 1991 OLDS PLAZA, 2ND FLOOR CABINET ROOM 10:00 A.M. - 2:00 p.M. 1. Welcome and Brief Remarks by Governor Engler 2. Introduction of Commissioners 3. Briefing on the National Community Service Act 4. Update on National Commission and Federal Grant Time lines 5. Review of Commissioners Briefing Notebook 6. LUNCH 7. Remarks by Chuck Supple, Vice President, Points of Light . Foundation. ~outh Engaged in Service (YES) _and an introduction of the Michigan YES Ambassadors Cynthia Scherer, and Trabian Shorters 8. Next Steps for Commission A. Goals and Objectives B. Subcommittee Structures 9. 10. Establishing Meeting Schedules Public Comments � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our State of Generosity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Description An account of the resource Collection contains the records of four Michigan nonprofit organizations: Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Community Service Commission, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU. The documents are compiled by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, and records document the history of the organizations from the 1960s to the 2010s. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1968-2014 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Council of Michigan Foundations Michigan Nonprofit Association Michigan Community Service Commission Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Council of Michigan Foundations; Michigan Nonprofit Association; Michigan Community Service Commission Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04 Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04_MCSC_1991_CM_1991-10-31_Agenda Title A name given to the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting agenda Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michigan Community Service Commission Description An account of the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting agenda. Records are compiled in the Our State of Generosity collection by the Johnson Center, along with the files of the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA), the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Originals are at the Michigan Community Service Commission. Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Community Service Commission Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-10-31 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/01fa903a0a68cf0ee5322ace72a68c20.pdf d83826658ff8e4a59f1024028d686c55 PDF Text Text THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF NATIONAL SERVICE BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON NOMINEES TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE COMMISSION ON NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE The President announced the nominees to the Board of Directors of the Commission on National and Community Service on July 22, 1991. The Commission's mandate is to design and administer new programs under the National and Community Service Act of 1990, to evaluate apd assess the programs within its jurisdiction, and to advise the President and Congress about developments in community service. JOYCE M. BLACK, of New York, New York. Ms. Black ' is the Executive Director of the Governor's Office for Voluntary Service in New York. The first woman President of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, Ms. Black has served on the boards of numerous voluntary health and welfare organizations. Ms. Black is the President of the National Assembly of Health and Welfare Organizations and of the Council of Children and Families in New York State. Past President of the Hospital Trustees of New York State, she holds a B.S. Degree from Skidmore College. WILLIAM J. BYRON, of Washington, D.C. Father Byron is the President of The Catholic University of America. He has held numerous directorships, trusteeships, professorships and is widely published in many fields. He is Director of The Sister . Thea Bowman Black Catholic Education Foundation, Director of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and former Chairman of the Division III Subcommittee of the National Collegiate Athletic Association President's Commission. Father Byron was President of the University of Scranton from 1975-1982, and serves on the boards of many education, health and civil organizations. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland. THOMAS EHRLICH. of Bloomington, Indiana. Mr. Ehrlich is the President of Indiana University. He currently is Vice President of and serves on the Executive Committee of Campus Compact - The Project for Public and Community Service. He has served as President of the Legal Services Corporation, a non-profit organization supporting legal assistance for poor people. Former Dean of stanford Law School, Mr. Ehrlich graduated magna cum laude from both Harvard University and Harvard Law School. �QANIEL J. EVANS, of Seattle, Wash~ngton. Governor Evans is the President of Daniel J. Evans Associates in Seattle. A former Governor and Senator from Washington State, he has gained nationa 1 recognition as a statesm'an. After a distinguished military career and 13 years as a professional engineer, Governor Evans was elected in 1956 to the Washington state House of Representatives. As Governor, he served three consecutive terms, passing up a potential fourth term for the Presidency of The Evergreen State College. He was elected to the Senate by special election in 1983, and served until 1988. Governor Evans received both his B.A. and Master of Science degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington. HARIA HERNANDEZ FERRIER. of San Antonio, Texas. Ms. Ferrier is the Executive Director for Community Services in the Southwest Independent School District. She is responsible for initiating several programs including the first S.A.D.D. Chapter for elementary students in the u.s.; "Safety Kids", a school abduction prevention program; the award winning and model Nimitz Community Education program for at-risk students, and is cofounder of the SWISD/Kelly AFB mentoring partnership which was recognized as one of the President's "1000 Points of Light." Among other awards, she has received the National Community Education's Minority Leadership Award and the United Way's Volunteer of the Year Award in Education. She holds a B.A. in sp~ech and a M.Ed. in Guidance and Counseling from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, as is presently completing her doctorate at Texas A & M University. FRANCES HESSELBEIN, of Easton, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Hesselbein is President and CEO of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Josephson Institute for The Advancement of Ethics. She serves on the Board of the Mutual of America Life Insurance Company. She was Chief Executive Officer of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. from July 1976 to February 1990. Mrs. Hesselbein also served on the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Points of Light Initiative Foundation, and has received five Honorary Degrees. She attended the University of Pittsburgh. ALAN KBAZBI. of Boston, Massachusetts. Mr. Khazei is Co-Founder and co-Director of City Year, a model national service program that unites young adults from diverse backgrounds for a year of full-time community service. Since its launch, City Year has provided more than 100 community agencies with over 160,000 hours of community service. He serves on the Board of Directors of Share our Strength · (s.o.s.), a national hunger relief organization, and on the board of the Massachusetts Youth Service Alliance. Mr. Khazei graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1983 with a B.A. in Government, and received a J.D., cum laude, in 1987 from Harvard Law School. �REATHA CLARK KING, of St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. King is the President and Executive Director of the General Mills Foundation. She was involved in the early formation of Campus Compact, a national organization which promotes service-learning by college students. A former St. Paul United Way President and current Minneapolis United Way leader, Dr. King also served 11 years as President of Metropolitan State University. She holds a B.S. · degree in Chemistry and Mathematics from Clark College, a Masters and Doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, and an MBA from Columbia University. LESLIE LENKOWSKY, of Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Lenkowsky is President and CEO of the Hudson Institute in Indianapolis. He previously served as President of the Institute for Educational Affairs in Washington, D.C., Director of Research at the Smith Richardso~ Foundation, and has authored numerous publications. In 1985 Dr. Lenkowsky was a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, and a consultant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. · JACK A. MacALLISTER, of Englewood, Colorado. Mr. MacAllister is the Chairman of the Board and former CEO of U.S. WEST, Inc. He is the former President of Northwestern Bell. In the early 1980s, he was named National Minority Advocate of the Year by the Small Business Association. Mr. MacAllister is a member of the bciard of trustees at the University of Northern Colorado, as well as the boards of the National Park Foundation and The st. Paul Companies. He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1950. PAUL N. McCLOSKEY. JB., of Menlo Park, California. Congressman McCloskey is a Partner in the Law Offices of Paul N. McCloskey, Jr. A former Congressman from the 12th Congressional District in California, he served as Deputy District Attorney, Alameda County, California, before practicing law in Palo Alto from 1955 through 1967. Congressman McCloskey's community involvement includes service as President of the Palo Alto Fair Play Council and on the Board of Family Services Association. He also founded the s~anford Area Youth Plan, a college/high school counseling program which has spread across the nation. Congressman McCloskey has a distinguished record of military service in the United States Marine Corps, and graduated from Stanford University in 1950 and Stanford Law School in 1953. WAYNE w. MEISEL. of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. Meisel is Executive Director of the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation. Prior to his work at the Bonner Foundation, Mr. Meisel founded Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL), a nonprofit organization designed to build and champion a national youth movement based on community service. Mr. Meisel designed and directed HAND (House and Neighborhood Development), which facilitated and institutionalized student and campus activities in the cambridge community. He attended the Lawrenceville school, and is a graduate cum laude of Harvard University. �RICHARD FREDERICK PHELPS. of South Bend, Indiana. Mr. Phelps was the Head Basketball Coach at the University of Notre Dame from 1971 to 1990. Named Coach of the Year in 1971, 1974, and 1987, Mr. Phelps has the most wins of ariy ba~ketball coach in Notre Dame history. An active volunteer with the Special Olympics program, he helped pick the 1984 Olympic team and has worked on the legislative committee of the National Association of College Basketball Coaches. Mr. Phelps currently serves on the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee of the Unites States Postal Service. He received his B.S. in Commerce and his M.A. in Business Education at Rider College. GEORGE WILCKEN ROMNEY. of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Governor Romney is the founding chairman of The National VOLUNTEER Center. His business career includes serving as Chairman and CEO of American Motors. Elected to three terms as Governor of Michigan, George Romney was a Presidential candidate in 1968 and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Nixon. Throughout his life, Governor Romney has been an active civic leader and volunteer, from helping to organize the first federated fund-raising campaign in the nation in 1948 to membership on the President's Advisory Board on Private Sector Initiatives in 1986. He is a current and founding member of the Board of Directors of the Points of Light Foundation. PATRICIA TRAUGOTT ROUSE, of Columbia, Maryland. Mrs. Rouse is the co-founder of The Enterprise Foundation and serves as Secretary/Treasurer and member of the Board of Trustees. The Enterprise Foundation was created to provide decent, affordable housing for the poor. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Health and Welfare Council, Inc. of Maryland, as well as of the Boards of the Jubilee Enterprise of Greater Washington, Inc. and the National Low Income Housinq Coalition. Ms. Rouse . graduated magna cum laude from sweet Briar College, and pursued graduate work in Urban Studies at Old Dominion University. SHIRLEY SACHI SAGAWA. of Alexandria, Virginia. Ms. Sagawa is Senior counsel and Director of Family and Youth Policy for the National Women's Law Center. As Chief Counsel !or Youth Policy to the Senate Labor and Resources Committee from 1987 to 1991, Ms. Sagawa was responsible for national and volunteer service, education, Head Start and children's issues. A volunteer at the carpenter's Shelter for the Homeless, Ms. Sagawa is Public Policy Chairman of the Organization of Pan Asian American Women. She received an A.B., magna cum laude, from Smith College, -an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School. · �GLEN W. WHITE. of Lawrence, Kansas. Mr. White is the Director of Training at the Research and Training Center on Independent Living at the University of Kansas. He has done extensive research in the area of rehabilitative and therapeutic medicine, as evidenced by his many publications and presentations. His community service efforts include serving as President of the · Rochester Center for Independent Living, Inc., and as founding member and board member of Rochester Area Disabled Athletics and Recreation, Inc. Mr. White holds a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from Winona State University, and an M.A. in Developmental and Child Psychology from the University of Kansas. GAYLE EDLUND WILSON. of Sacramento, California. Mrs. Wilson is the First Lady of the State of California, wife of Governor Pete Wilson. She is a current sustaining member and former President of the Junior League of San Diego. Mrs. Wilson has also served as a Board Member at the Center for Excellence in Education and on the Executive Committee at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., in addition to being active in ~mateur musical theater in San Diego. Mrs. Wilson launched the San Diego Chapter of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS). She was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Stanford University. ROBERT L. WOODSON, of Washington, D.C. Mr. Woodson is President o~ the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and Chairman of the Council for a Black Economic Agenda. A former Resident Fellow and Director of the American Enterprise Institute's Neighborhood Revitalization Project, Mr. Woodson has also directed national and local community service programs that include work among a broad cross-section of Americans. He received a B.S. from Cheyney State College, an M.S.W. from the University of Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts doctoral program. KAREN SUSAN YOUNG. of Fremont, California. Ms. Young is the Communications Director of The Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL) • She has an extensive background in community service, including recruiting non-profit organizations to participate in workshops encouraging youth service and serving as head counselor at a camp for children with disabilities. Ms. Young was founder and Project Director of Global Education, Youth Education Services (YES), and a Project Director of Nutrition tor Kids, where she developed a series of 16 nutrition education presentations for low-income children. She received a B.A. in Home Economics from Humboldt State University. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our State of Generosity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Description An account of the resource Collection contains the records of four Michigan nonprofit organizations: Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Community Service Commission, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU. The documents are compiled by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, and records document the history of the organizations from the 1960s to the 2010s. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1968-2014 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Council of Michigan Foundations Michigan Nonprofit Association Michigan Community Service Commission Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Council of Michigan Foundations; Michigan Nonprofit Association; Michigan Community Service Commission Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04 Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04_MCSC_1991_CM_1991-10-31_CNCS-Board-of-Directors-Nominees-Info Title A name given to the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting National Community Service Board of Directors nominees information Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michigan Community Service Commission Description An account of the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting National Community Service Board of Directors nominees information. Records are compiled in the Our State of Generosity collection by the Johnson Center, along with the files of the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA), the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Originals are at the Michigan Community Service Commission. Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Community Service Commission Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49402 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-10-31 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/20cd820f4baf409b3531068242782055.pdf 4c05da382e9ca2d44f1b5ffbee7eae53 PDF Text Text Commission on National and Community Senice P.O Box 33119 WashingtL .1, D.C. 20033-0119 Mrs. Joyce M. Black Executive Director Governor's Office for Voluntary Service Two World Trade Center 57th Floor New Yor~ NY 10047 (212) 417-2255 Fax: (212) 417-4709 Mrs. Frances Hesselbein President and CEO Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management 656 Fifth Avenue lOth Floor New York, NY 10103 (212) 399-1710 Fax: (212) 399-4426 Reverend William James Byron. SJ. President The Catholic University of America Washington, DC 20064 (202) 319-5100 Fax: (202) 319-4441 Mr. Alan Khazei Commission Vice Chair Co-Founder City Year 11 Stillings Street Boston, MA 02210 (617) 451-0699 Fax: (617) 695-0562 Mr. Thomas Ehrlich President Indiana University Bryan Ball 200 Bloomington, IN 47405 (612) 855-4613 Fax: (812) The Honorable Daniel J. Evans 1111 Third Avenue Suite 3400 Seattle, WA 38101 (206) 447-4700 Fax: (206) 447-4701 Ms. Maria Hernandez Farrier Executive Director for Special Programs Southwest Independent School District 11914 Dragon Lane San Antonio, TX 78252-2647 (512) 622-9908 Fax: (512) 622-5428 Dr. Reatha Clark King Commission Vice Chair President and Executive Director General Mills Foundation Post Office Box 1113 Minneapolis, MN 55440 (612) 540-7890 Fax: (612) 540-4925 Dr. Leslie Lankowsky President and Chief Executive Officer Hudson Institute Herman Kahn Center Post Office Box 26-919 Indianapolis, IN 46226 (317) 545-1000 Fax: (317) 545-9639 �Mr. Jack A MacAllister Chairman of the Board U.S. West, Inc. 9785 Maroon Circle Suite 332 Englewood, CO 80112 (303) 649-4346 Fax: (303) 649-4526 The Honorable Paul N. McCloskey Commission Chair 3000 Sand Hill Road Building One, Suite 170 Menlo Park. CA 94025 (415) 854-7770 Fax: (415) 854- ; ;87 Mr. Wayne W. Meisel Executive Director The Corelia and Bertram Bonner Foundation 22 Chambers Street Post Office Box 712 Princeton, NJ 08542 (609) 924-6663 Fax: (609) 683-4626 Mr. Richard Frederick Phelps 122 Peashway South Bend, IN 46617 (219) 232-6486 Fax: (219) 239-8231 The Honorable George Romney 1840 East Valley Road Bloomfield Hills, MI 48013 (313) 642-5011 Fax: (313) 642-4418 Mrs. Patricia Rouse Co-Founder The Enterprise Foundation 500 American City Building Columbia, Maryland 21044 (301) 964-1230 Fax: (301) 964-1918 Ms. Shirley Sagawa Commission Vice Chair Senior Counsel National Women's Law Center 1616 P Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 (202) 328-5160 Fax: (202) 328-5137 The Reverend Johnnie Smith 2510 Wave Hampton Blvd. Suite 8 Greenville, SC 29165 (803) 292-5600 Fax: (803) 268-3009 Dr. Glen W. White Director of Training Research and Training Center on Independent Living 4089 Dole Building University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 66045 (913) 864-0590 Fax: (913) 864-5323 Mrs. Gayle Wilson Office of the Governor State of California Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 445-2841 Fax: (916) 445-4633 �,.. -··---- - - -- t Mr. Robert L Woodson President National Center for Neighborhood EnteQrise 1367 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036 (202) 331-1103 Fax: (202) 296-1541 Ms. Karen Young National Meetings Director Campus Outreach Opportunity League 356 McNeal Hall 1985 Buford Avenue St. Paul, MN 55108 (612) 624-3018 Fax: (612) 625-5767 . Catherine Milton Commission Interim Director cjo ACfiON 1'100 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20525 (202) 606-4880 Fax: (202) 606-4928 - - -- � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our State of Generosity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Description An account of the resource Collection contains the records of four Michigan nonprofit organizations: Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Community Service Commission, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU. The documents are compiled by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, and records document the history of the organizations from the 1960s to the 2010s. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1968-2014 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Council of Michigan Foundations Michigan Nonprofit Association Michigan Community Service Commission Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Council of Michigan Foundations; Michigan Nonprofit Association; Michigan Community Service Commission Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04 Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04_MCSC_1991_CM_1991-10-31_CNCS-Roster Title A name given to the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting National Community Service roster Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michigan Community Service Commission Description An account of the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting National Community Service roster. Records are compiled in the Our State of Generosity collection by the Johnson Center, along with the files of the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA), the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Originals are at the Michigan Community Service Commission. Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Community Service Commission Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49403 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-10-31 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/9a59157f5e7de97ddc50b844b12b11af.pdf a101fcd6e7ca454d995ecf334caf7a54 PDF Text Text MICHIGAN COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMISSION CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY (DRAFT) The Michigan Community Service Commission, in recognition of potential conflict of interest situations, adopts the following policy to guide its work: 1. Members of the Commission are asked to declare actual or potential conflict of interest situations at the start of each meeting where the agenda indicates such a conflict will occur. If a conflict of interest situation develops during Commission discussion, the commissioner with the conflict is expected to notify the Chairperson. Conflicts of interest include situations where a member of the Commission serves as a Trustee, Board member, staff member, or committee member of an entity which is requesting approval of a grant from the Michigan Community Service Commission. Or any other relationship which the Commissioner, in his/her own discretion deems a conflict of interest. 2. Any members of the Commission with a conflict will be called on by the Chairperson to discuss details and share any information about the proposed grant at the time of the individual grant request discussion. The Commission member will then be excused by the Chairperson while other members of the Commission discuss the application and vote its acceptance or denial. Following action on the grant request, the Commissioner may return to the Commission work. 3. Michigan Community Service Commission members who are unsure about a conflict of interest situation should discuss their concerns with the Chairperson prior to the meeting where the conflict might occur. In general, the Michigan Community Service Commission wants to err on the side of too stringently enforcing conflict of interest policies in order to assure that both the fact and the perception of any unethical conduct is avoided. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our State of Generosity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Description An account of the resource Collection contains the records of four Michigan nonprofit organizations: Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Community Service Commission, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU. The documents are compiled by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, and records document the history of the organizations from the 1960s to the 2010s. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1968-2014 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Council of Michigan Foundations Michigan Nonprofit Association Michigan Community Service Commission Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Council of Michigan Foundations; Michigan Nonprofit Association; Michigan Community Service Commission Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04 Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04_MCSC_1991_CM_1991-10-31_Conflict-of-Interest-Policy Title A name given to the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting Conflict of Interest Policy Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michigan Community Service Commission Description An account of the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting Conflict of Interest Policy. Records are compiled in the Our State of Generosity collection by the Johnson Center, along with the files of the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA), the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Originals are at the Michigan Community Service Commission. Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Community Service Commission Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49404 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-10-31 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/5cc31f1f7e052e73862cc37187c63083.pdf 2bad1affd81e1d4700c13f70269e8a04 PDF Text Text t' -' . STATE OF /v/ICHIGA LV JOHN ENGLER GOVERNOR EXECUTIVE ORDER No. 1991·25 MICHIGAN COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMISSION WHEREAS, this administration is committed to encourag in g a ll citizens, organizations and institutions in Michigan to help in solving our most critical problems by volunteering their time, effort, energy and service; and WHEREAS, the increasing demands for services and limited financial resou rcas of the State have contributed to the need to call upon the energy, compassion, inventiveness and the entrepreneurial spirit of all citizens to help solve many of the problems facing their communities; and WHEREAS, it is the desire of this administration to discover and to encourag e new community service leaders, to promote individuals, organizations and institution s that serve as outstanding examples of a commitment to serving others, and to convince all Michigan citizens that a successful life includes serving others; and WHEREAS, significant issues facing the State can be addressed by the collaborative efforts of committed citizens volunteering their time and talents, volunteer centers, community organizations, business and labor groups and a host of other community and State agencies; and WHEREAS, the establishment of a commission would promote voluntee ris m through a ~h~lping hands effort" in which the Governor and the First Lady of Michigan lend their personal support to volunteer organizations and local communities that identify cultural, educational and social programs in need of assistance or funding, as committed by the Governor in his State of the State message; and WHEREAS, Public Law 101-610, the National and Community Service Act of 1990, was enacted to promote an ethic of civic responsibility to enable all Americans, and particularly young Americans, to make a substantiaJ commitment to service resulting in an unprecedented level of citizen participation; and WHEREAS, it is the intent of the federal National and Community Service Act to build upon the existing organizationaJ framework of federal, state and local agenci es by Increasing cooperation and expanding full-time and part·time service opportunities for aJI citizens; and WHEREAS, the Act establishes a system of federal grant programs for: (1) Students and Out-of-School Youth to Serve America; (2) Higher Education Innovative Projects for Community Service; (3) An American Conservation and Youth Corps; (4) NationaJ and Community Service; and (5) Innovative and Demonstration Programs and Projects; and WHEREAS, the goals of this administration and of the National Act are facilitated by creation of an organization within the State of Michigan designed to promote these objectives and to secure available federal funds for the purposes indicated. �NOW, THEREFORE, I, John Engler, Governor of the State of Michigan, pursuant to the powers vested in me by the Constitution of the State of Michigan of 1963 and th laws of the State of Michigan, do herc;~by order the establishment of the Michigan Community Service Commission within the Department of Labor. The Commission is charged with the following responsibilities: (1) Develop a coordinated, unified state plan in response to the National and Community Service Act of 1990; (2) Establish policies and procedures for the use of federal funds; (3) Develop initiatives to promote community service in coordination with existing programs. The Commission shall be composed of 21 members who shall be appointed by the Governor, who shall designate the Chairperson of the Commission. The term of appointment shall be 3 years, except that of those initially appointed, 7 members shall be appointed to terms expiring on October 1, 1992; 7 members to terms expiring on October 1, 1993; and 7 members to terms expiring on October 1, 1994. The Commission shall function indefinitely and shall provide the Governor with an annual report which describes its activities during the preceding year. Annual reports shall be submitted not later than 60 days after the close of each fiscal year. The Commission shall have an executive director and such additional staff as may be required to carry out its mandate. The executive director of the Commission shall report directly to the Governor and to the Commission for the purpose of giving advice and making recommendations on programs and laws related to volunteerism and community service. All state departments and agencies shall cooperate with the Commission in the performance of its responsibilities. The Commission may request, and state agencies and departments shall provide, such policy and technical information as is required by the Commission in the discharge of its responsibilities. ":. ~ . .. ·_ / ·, ' ' ; ,, ....... . - t . '. BY THE GOVERNOR: ~~~ SECRETARY OF STATE Given under my hand and the Great Seal of the State of Michigan this 2---1 day of October, in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-One, and of the Commonwealth, One Hundred Fifty-Five. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our State of Generosity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Description An account of the resource Collection contains the records of four Michigan nonprofit organizations: Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Community Service Commission, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU. The documents are compiled by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, and records document the history of the organizations from the 1960s to the 2010s. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1968-2014 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Council of Michigan Foundations Michigan Nonprofit Association Michigan Community Service Commission Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Council of Michigan Foundations; Michigan Nonprofit Association; Michigan Community Service Commission Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04 Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04_MCSC_1991_CM_1991-10-31_Executive-Order Title A name given to the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting Executive Order Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michigan Community Service Commission Description An account of the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting Executive Order. Records are compiled in the Our State of Generosity collection by the Johnson Center, along with the files of the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA), the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Originals are at the Michigan Community Service Commission. Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Community Service Commission Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49405 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-10-31 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/7fcb453521286e138d1c92c0e970c0ae.pdf fefadf85079576cd9773795e66056605 PDF Text Text 1. October 31, 1991 - held (Lansing) 2. November 22, 1991- held (Lansing) 3. January 31, 1992- held (UCS of Metro Detroit) 4. February 28, 1992 - held (MSU) 5. March 27, 1992- held (New Detroit) 6. May 22, 1992- held (CMU) 7. June 26, 1992- cancelled 8. July 24, 1992- held (Tippy Dam Camp) 9. August 28 , 1992- cancelled 10. September 25, 1992- held (Battle Creek) 11. October 23, 1992 -held (Lansing) 12. November 1992 -Retreat in Albion 13. January 22, 1993- held (Midland) 14. April 23, 1993- held (Lansing) 15. July 23, 1993- held (Madonna University) 16. October 22, 1993 changed to October 29, 1993 - held (Alpena) 17. January 27, 1994 changed to March 23, 1994- held (Lansing) 18. May 20, 1994- held (Flint) 19. September 23, 1994- held (Grand Rapids) 20. December 2, 1994- held (Detroit) 21. February 24, 1995 22. May 19, 1995 23. August 25, 1995 24. December 1, 1995 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our State of Generosity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Description An account of the resource Collection contains the records of four Michigan nonprofit organizations: Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Community Service Commission, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU. The documents are compiled by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, and records document the history of the organizations from the 1960s to the 2010s. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1968-2014 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Council of Michigan Foundations Michigan Nonprofit Association Michigan Community Service Commission Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Council of Michigan Foundations; Michigan Nonprofit Association; Michigan Community Service Commission Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04 Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04_MCSC_1991_CM_1991-10-31_Meeting-Schedule Title A name given to the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting meeting schedule Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michigan Community Service Commission Description An account of the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting meeting schedule. Records are compiled in the Our State of Generosity collection by the Johnson Center, along with the files of the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA), the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Originals are at the Michigan Community Service Commission. Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Community Service Commission Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49406 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-10-31 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/506e64f81cd48edf6e29a7d65b9ccdf2.pdf 7e789bb3511f9787eb65dfccd8b66d32 PDF Text Text Michigan Community Service Commission Thursday, October 31, 1991 Olds Plaza, 2nd Floor Lansing, Michigan 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. MINUTES MEMBERS PRESENT: Michelle Engler, Chair Dr. Mary Ellen Brandell DarinA Day Dr. John DiBiaggio Hemy C. Gaines Paul Hubbard Dorothy Johnson Terry Langston Lisa Ilitch Murray Vernie Nethercut Dr. Joel Orosz Eugene Proctor Terry Pruitt, Jr. Judith Reyes Judith Riedlinger Geneva Jones Williams Diana R Algra MEMBERS ABSENT: James Kalil Dr. William S. Stavropoulos OTIIERS: Jocelyn Vanda, Dept. of Social Services Stacie Smith, Executive Assistant to the First Lady Trabian Shorters, YES Ambassador Cynthia Scherer, YES Ambassador Paulette Ethier, Senior Mgr. Public Relations , U.C.S. Judith Keely, Dept. of Labor Stephanie Comai-Paige, Governor's Office 1. Openin~ Address Governor John Engler made a brief welcoming address to the Commission members. He expressed his strong support of this initiative and wished the Commission well in its upcoming work. He stressed that coordination of services on a statewide basis was very-important to him and that he would look to the Commission for suggestions on how this could be accomplished. �2. Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Michelle Engler. Mrs. Engler provided the members with a brief history of how we came to establish a commission on community Service. The initial thrust came from the signing of the National Community Service Legislation by the President. Once that took place, Youth Service America (YSA) approached a number of key organizations in Michigan to suggest the formation of a statewide coalitions to prepare the ground work for the development of a statewide plan. Thereafter, three meetings were held in the summer of 1991 where representatives of K-12, Higher Education, Community Based Organizations and Youth Corps and youth came together to begin dialogue of youth service programs across Michigan. By the time of the second meeting in July 199 1, the Governor was committed to the formation of a statewide commission on Community Service. This commission would be designated the lead agency in coordinating the effort to develop a statewide youth service policy. The summer meetings also produced preliminary recommendations for the Commission to consider in developing a statewide youth service plan. These can be found in your notebook. Mr. Frank Dirks of Youth Service America will be joining us at our November 22, 1991 meeting to review this with us in more depth. 3. Introduction of Commissioners The Chairperson, Mrs. Engler requested that each member of the Commission do a self-introduction. Each member introduced him or herself and shared some personal background on themselves and their interest in the field of service. 4. Briefin~ on the National Le~islation The Chairperson also informed the Commission that four major departments will serve as government liaisons to the Commission. These are Department of Education (DOE), Department of Labor (DOL), Department of Social Services (DSS), and the Department of Management & Budget, Office of the Services to the Aging (DMB I OSA). 2 �Each representative of these departments will attend the Commission meetings, and serve as resources to the Commission as the need arises. Diana Algra then provided the Commission with a general overview of the National Legislation. Noting that until regulations are finally out, some changes could still occur. The National and Community Service Act of 1990 is divided into the following titles: TITLE I THE NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE STATE GRANT PROGRAM • SubtitleA States apply to the Commission on National and Community Service to fund one or some combination of the following program options in one consolidated application. Local applicants must seek funding from the state. If a state does not apply, local applicants may apply directly to the Commission for funding. • Subtitle B: School-Aged Service (a) Part I- School and Communities -Based Programs for Students and Out of School YouthPrograms and activities that might be funded under this section are: 1. State planning and capacity building. 2. School based service learning. 3. Community service programs targeted to out-ofschool youth. 4. School-based adult volunteer and partnership programs. Funding Level- 1992 is at $16.8 million. (b) Part II - Higher Education Innovative Projects for Community Service. Programs and activities that might be funded under this section are: 3 �1. Community service projects designed by college students. 2. Service integrated into the college curriculum. 3. Training for teachers and other community leaders on how to design and implement service program. Funding Level- 1992 is at $5.6 million. • Subtitle C: Full-time and Summer Youth Service and Conservation Corps. Such programs offer full-time productive work with visible community benefits in a natural resource or human service setting and give participants a mix of work experience, basic and life skills, education, training and support service. Funding Level - 1991 is at $22.5 million. • Subtitle D: National and Community Service Full/Part-time Programs. These are to be civilian service programs that can address unmet educational, human service, environmental service, or public safety needs in a community. Funding Level- 1992 is at $22.5 million. • Subtitle E: Innovative and Demonstration Programs and Projects. Part I - Limitation on Grants: the Commission shall make grants for not fewer than three programs authorized in this subtitle. Programs under this section can cover the following: Part II - Governor Innovative Service Program: E.g. conduct research, provide technical assistance training and staff development to expand service programs. 4 �Part III - Peace Corps/VISTA Demonstration Program Commission can and may provide grants to PEACE CORPS or ACTION to fund 2 years of undergraduate study for 50 college students. They must, however, serve 3 years as a PEACE CORPS or VISTA volunteer. Part IV- Other Volunteer Programs: 1. Rural Youth Service Demonstration Project. 2. Foster Grandparents in Head Start programs. 3. Employer-based retiree volunteer programs. Funding Level - 1992 has not been determined at the present time. At our next meeting we also hope to have a representative of the Govemor's Washington office attend our meeting and assist us in a more in-depth review of the legislation. 5. Update on the National Commission and Federal Grant Time Line. The Chairperson outlined for the Commission the following tentative time lines regarding the funding. • Mid-November 1991 -Preliminary regulations out with a 30-45 day comment period. • January 1, 1992 -Final guidelines for states to begin their process. • Mid-January 1992 -State must declare its intent to seek funds. • Mid-March 1992 -Deadline for state application to National Commission. • May 1, 1992- Awards announced. Again, these are tentative. The Chairperson did encourage all the members of the Commission to take the opportunity to comment on the regulations once they were available. 5 �Commissioner Williams requested that copies of the regulations be made available to all the members and also encouraged some guidance from staff with regard to issues that could be addressed or raised, in order that the Commission would comment with a united voice. Commissioner Orosz was in agreement with the above request. Trabian Shorters suggested that the review of concerns with specific guidelines would be an agenda item for the next Commission meeting. 6. Review of Commissioner Briefing Notebooks The Executive Director walked the Commissioners through the various sections of their briefmg notebooks. 7. Discussion of Goals and ObJectives of the Commission. Chairperson Engler emphasized that we would not deal in-depth with development of goals at this meeting. However, by the next meeting the staff would draft proposed goals and objectives for the Commission to look at and use as a basis for the development of our goals and objectives. Commissioner Orosz addressed the concern of how to convey the message that the Commission is not interested in replacing or taking over those programs already in existence and doing excellent work. Diana Algra responded by saying that all of the participants in our summer meeting would be informed of the creation of the Commission and its members, and that the Commission would help to strengthen the work already being done by many of the participants. Chairperson Engler discussed meeting dates, times of the meeting and the issue of having alternate representatives and proxies. After much discussion, it was decided that the Commission staff will prepare draft operating procedures for the Commission which will outline issues of quorum, meeting dates and absentees. A motion was made that the Commission wait until the next meeting to approve procedures. All Commissioners approved the meeting dates except for the April, 1992 date. All Commission meetings will be held in the mornings beginning in January 1992. The motion was seconded by Paul Hubbard and passed unanimously. 6 �The chairperson mentioned that the Commission would appreciate having Commission members offer to host Commission meetings at a location other than the Olds Plaza building in Lansing. At that point, Usa Ilitch Murray offered to host a meeting at the Fox Theater, Dr. Orosz at the Kellogg Foundation and Dr. DiBiaggio at either MSU Kellogg Center or the Troy Management Center. Discussion then turned to proposed working subcommittees for the Commission. Chairperson Engler suggested the following ones for consideration: 1. 2. 3. 4. Community Partnership Corporate Involvement Philanthropic Involvement Outreach Network The Commission members felt it might be premature to establish any subcommittees at the current time. Commissioner DiBiaggio suggested that we wait until our state plan is developed and then consider what needs we have before we develop subcommittees. All present agreed. 8. Introduction of Youth Engaged in Service Ambassadors. Cynthia Scherer and Trabian Shorters. The Ambassadors introduced themselves and outlined their goals and objectives. Trabian then introduced Mr. Chuck Supple from the Points of Light Foundation. Mr. Supple talked about the Youth Engaged in Services Program and the YES Ambassadors in Michigan. Mr. Supple outlined that the Points of Light Foundation's mission is to help make direct and consequential community service aimed at serious social problems central to the life of every American and to increase the opportunities people have for that kind of service through their workplaces, schools, houses of worship and civic organizations. The foundation also serves as a catalyst in the creation of new voluntary service initiatives. He also stated that the Ambassador Program is a pilot program and that the youth ambassadors are a resource to their host organization (Michigan Community Service Commission) and should be called upon to assist the Commission in its initiatives. 7 �9. Next Meetln~ The Chairperson adjourned the meeting at 2:00p.m. It was announced that the next meeting would be held November 22, 1991 from 1:00- 4:00p.m in the Olds Plaza Building in the Governor's Cabinet Room. An agenda and other meeting details will follow. A motion was made, seconded and approved to adjourn the meeting at 2:00 p.m. 8 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our State of Generosity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Description An account of the resource Collection contains the records of four Michigan nonprofit organizations: Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Community Service Commission, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU. The documents are compiled by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, and records document the history of the organizations from the 1960s to the 2010s. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1968-2014 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Council of Michigan Foundations Michigan Nonprofit Association Michigan Community Service Commission Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Council of Michigan Foundations; Michigan Nonprofit Association; Michigan Community Service Commission Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04 Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04_MCSC_1991_CM_1991-10-31_Minutes Title A name given to the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting minutes Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michigan Community Service Commission Description An account of the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting minutes. Records are compiled in the Our State of Generosity collection by the Johnson Center, along with the files of the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA), the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Originals are at the Michigan Community Service Commission. Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Community Service Commission Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49407 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-10-31 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/b53d55e56ef336a46b25f2612acff372.pdf 308e6cdf9fb5795a097ece0c4114ffce PDF Text Text MEMORANDUM lD: FROM: Frank Dirk DATE: August 19, 1 RE: Draft Recommendations to the Michigan youth service commission As promised you will find a compilation of the work produced during the June youth service conference and the subsequent planning meetings. This includes an outline of · proposed recommendations for the state youth service plan. I have also included a copy of the UCS survey that Geneva Williams mentioned on July 15. I will revise this draft document based on the comments that I receive from you. A final report will be submitted to the state youth service commission in early September to serve as both background and base for their planning. Youth Service America will continue to provide technical assistance to the commission through the end of the year. The fmal report will contain more detailed recommendations than those contained in this draft. The final recommendations will include technical reference to provisions contained in the Act. The outline before you however reflects the basic tone and approach accepted by a consensus of the members of the planning meetings. Please feel free to raise whatever questions or concerns that you may have regarding the outline. The final report will also contain extensive appendixes that include the written comments submitted at the July 31 meeting, copies of the letters sent to the Nonprofit Forum. the most current summary of strategies adopted by other states, and certain survey instruments. If there is anything else that you believe should be included. please let me know. Sixteen of the National Commission members have been confirmed by the Senate. We anticipate that they will meet soon to discuss administrative requirements. We still expect that FY91 funds will be carried over. We estimate that the application process should begin well into the Fall. The extra time will help to strengthen Michigan's efforts. With a Governor's Commission, the fine support of the First Lady, two Youth Ambassadors from the Points of Light Foundation, and the impressive work of each of the contributors this planning and development effort the state is well on the way to making youth service an enduring pan of life in Michigan We will try to get the final report to the state commission by no later than September 10. Please tty to get your comments to me by September 4. You can call or write to me with your comments and further suggestions at: (202) 783-8855 Youth Service America 1319 F Street N.W. Suite 900 Washington, D.C. 20004 �INTEREST GROUP CAUCUS DISCUSSIONS Groups from five youth service interest areas, Community-Based Organizations, K-12, Service and Conservation Corps, Higher Education, and Youth Involvement, met to discuss youth service issues in their respective fields and opportunities for program development Below is a summary their recommendations. COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATIONS The group representing Community-Based Organizations began their discussion by identifying common goals. They were most interested with developing means for drawing youth into their organizations. They recognized youth service as both a method of youth development and a practical approach for recruiting youth into their organizations. Common Goals: • • • • • • • • Design a system that values young people as resources Promote educational development and growth Encourage young people to commit to community service Involve young people in issue areas that concern them Recognize service as pan of personal development Identify collaboration links and program resources Expand positive opportunities for young people Recognize the shon- and long-term value of youth service The group produced a ten point list for developing opponunities for youth service. The group emphasized the imponance of training and state-wide, inter-organizational network development They also stressed the imponance of providing meaningful opponunities for youth to share in this process. There should be a sustained and coordinated connection between youth service programs and broader volunteer efforts. Points for DevelQpment: • • • • • • • • • • Training programs for adults, youth, and agencies Inter-organizational information networks Youth Ownership Community agency ownership Long-tcrnl, broad-based community suppon Instirutionalize youth service Evalua~e individual and state-wide programs Voluntecl' Recognition Criteria for program development Link youth service and other voluntary efforts Limited training, staffing, and funding are seen as challenges to attaining these goals. Young people must also have visible leadership roles.. The task of increasing youth leadership opportunities in these effons without causing concern among adults in established roles requires careful attention. �Challenges: • • • • • • Limited training resources Limited staff Creating youth ownership Turf issues Limited funding Involving youth who are not students K-12 EDUCATION This group looked at ways of institutionalizing service in the schools. Common Goals: • • • Service opportunities in every middle and high school Service integrated into the curriculum Service as an important consideration for college admission Each local school program should be allowed to develop according to its owns needs. However, all schools should participate in the public promotion of youth service, emphasize multi-cultural programming, and establish formal evaluation processes. Workshops and conferences should be conducted for youth and agency contacts. Transportation assistance and liability coverage issues require further consideration. Points for Development: • • • • • • • • Create local ownership by principals, counselors, teachers and students Promote model programs Emphasize multi-cultural programs Develop means for qualitative program evaluation Conduct workshops for schools and agencies on collaborative youth service program development State conferences for young people involved in community service programs Develop a transportation infastructure Establish a standard policy for volunteer liability SERVICE AND CONSERVATION CORPS This group concentrated on new directions for corps programs. Sustained funding is a major concern. 'The group recommended that a bipartisan swe commission on youth service explore creative funding strategies drawing on public and private resources. Future program viability will also depend on strong local community support, including the private sector. Youth service needs greater recognition; a leader and spokesperson to carry the youth service message across the state. On a more philosophical level. the definition of youth service must be inclusive. �Points for Development: • • • • • • • • • • Joint (MCC/NBA) use and development of resources and programs Create a state-wide youth corps advisory council Involve educators in corps efforts Increase leveraging of JTPA, Vocational Education, CDBG, and Vocational Rehabilitation funds Develop overall (MCCINBA) coordination Identify a spokesperson for youth service Explore the feasibility of a state-wide youth service corporation Create a bipartisan state commission with representatives from corporations, corps, community-based organizations, foundations, youth, labor, and state agencies Involve the private sector in funding, personnel, training, and mentoring Improve private sector local suppon Additional Points: • • Ensure that the definition of service includes corps programs Explore broad collaborations based on more than those suggested in the National and Community Service Act HIGHER EDUCATION Representatives from colleges and universities drew up a list of imponant points that will advance service in their instirutions. Youth community service should be fully integrated into all aspects of campus life. Colleges and universities should increase their collaboration with other organizations that are involved in youth service. Special emphasis should be made in linking campuses to the communities around them. Training workshops and community service programs on all campuses throughout the state are also priorities. Points for Develm>ment: • • • • • • • • Push for a Governor's comprehensive youth service plan Promote an integrated service cmriculum Promote service research Promote collaborative programs with K-12, teacher training, community activities, and youth leadership Create new service approaches such as: College srudent corps programs Involving non-traditional srudents Internships Develop active programs on all Michigan campuses Use college students in building other programs Instirutionalize service learning in the university structure YQU1H INYOL YEMENI The youth attending the conference came up with three broad categories of interest: service opponunities. quality and quantity of programs, and ways to instill a lifetime ethic of service. �Organizations should work collaborativly to establish regional and state networks and clearinghouses to assist in spreading information. Increased youth involvement in policy development and implementation would allow young people to feel a sense of ownership in their programs. Greater participant diversity will improve the educational value of programs. Common Goals: • • • • • Create a state-wide Volunteer Clearinghouse Agency that would promote: Infonnation and dissemination on youth service Program networking Volunteer recognition Local and regional clearinghouses State and community coalition building Youth involvement in policy development and implementation Diversity of participants Service and Conservation Corps, school-based, mentoring, and community-based programs should be expanded. Broader training opportunities and common quality standards for all programs are imponant. Points for Development: • • • • • • • Expand service and conservation corps programs Improve school based programs: Integrate service into the curriculum Train school coordinators aware of service opportunities Strengthen community-based programs Develop collaborative models among community-based programs, service corps, and school programs Develop mentoring programs: Students as mentors Peer to peer relationships Link service reflection to learning about relevant social issues Broadly implement quality standards accepted by the youth service field The development of a lifetime ethic of service is an overarching goal. The importance of youth service, for the community and young people should be demonstrated by recognizing achievement, forgiving and/or deferring student loans, and promoting career opponunities in the non-profit, public service sector. PromorinK a Lifetime Commitment: • • • • A wards and recognition Loan forgiveness and deferral for students involved Evaluation and reflection which allow young people to understand the significance of their actions Encouragement of youth to enter careers in the non-profit and public service sector. �COLLABORATION CAUCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS On the second day conference participants were divided into four inter-interest groups to collaborativly explore future directions for youth service in Michigan. The recommendations of the four groups shared similar themes. Therefore the summary combines group repons into three thematic categories: diversity, youth leadership, and educational issues. DIVERSITY Youth service programs should emphasize diverse participation. Diversity should reflect gender, age, culture, race, and class. Intergenerational and mentoring programs are important models with which to connect. The caucus groups indicated that young people, Native Americans, youth service program operators, and people from northern communities and Detroit should have greater representation in future youth service activities. Increase Participation of: • • • • • Youth, including at-risk Metro Detroit Northern Communities Native American communities Youth service program operators Consider Linkin&: • • • • Intergenerational projects Mentoring programs Joint projects (Higher Ed. and K-12) Collaborative community action councils YOUTH LEADERSHIP Community agencies must develop and display ttust in young people. Community organizations and schools should be encouraged to take risks and try new things to involve young people. Public relations campaigns to highlight positive contributions of youth service can improve perceptions about the value of youth contributions to the community. Agencies shouJd create development tracks for young people to grow into positions responsibility. Young people should be involved in program planning. Youth should be allowed to share in program ownership by contributing to projects from inception through implementation. Youth involvement should not be limited to established youth leaders. Youth service can develop new leaders among young people. Enhancin& Community A&ency-youth Relations: • • • • Give project operators and schools room to try new things Create a broad range of opponunities for youth Promote youth accomplishments Establish local advisory groups to ensure projects meet local needs �• Develop roles for young people that allow them to grow in responsibility Advancine Youth Leadership Opportunities: • • • • Young people should be seen as resources Young people need to be able to advance issues and ideas of interest to them Development of Youth Action Councils Establishment of regular youth conferences and workshops Mini-grants to fund innovative ideas Use service as an opponunity to develop new youth leaders EDUCATIONAL ISSUES A important goal of youth service is to teach civic responsibility. The concept of service needs to be expanded to include various types of programs. Service must become a part of the curriculum. Goals: • • • Instilling civic responsibility as goal of youth service should be emphasized in all service reflection activities Use service to enhance the teaching of values Expand the definition of service to allow all communities to participate Points for DevelQpment: • • Expand to view of educators to include the world outside the classroom Integrate service into the curriculum �COLLABORATION CAUCUS RECOMMENDATIONS SHORT-TERM The most important step for Michigan take at this time is the formation of an advisory committee to determine the state's plan for applying for federal funds available through the National and Community Service Act of 1990. The committee should decide on goals and draft a comprehensive proposal for the federal funding. The committee should seek reaction from various organizations and individuals before submitting the application and continue to seek the advice and counsel of program practitioners in future initiatives. Goals of steerin~ committee: • • • • Review notes from conference Draft proposal of state-wide youth service plan Circulate proposal to various groups Draft final plan for federal funds and long-term strategy Conference participants expressed concern that steering committee membership should be diverse ba~ed on age, geography, and program background. Young people should be included An appropriate size for the group should be 15 people. The committee should be a working committee. Lansing is an appropriate central meeting location. Committee membership: • • • • Should be 15 Must be include people of various backgrounds The committee should be a working Must be include young people Groups and individuals should be encouraged to fonn local coalitions in their communities. Information from the conference should be shared with non-participants. Activities outside the Committee: • • • Formation of local coalitions Spreading of information to conference non-participants YSA will Disseminate follow-up materials to all participants LONG-TERM Although the conference participants could not anticipate the results of the federal funding process, they began formulating long-term goals for the state's youth community service initiative. The steering committee should evolve into a bipartisan, state task force with responsibility of coordinating technical support for all programs throughout the state. Assistance necessary includes state-wide training and networking conferences for youth and agencies, �a research group to develop new programs, legislation to limit volunteer liability, the creation of a mini-grant program to fund innovative projects, a coordinated public relations campaign to share success stories, and the implementation of a quality control efforts. Diversity of programs and participants should be increased whenever possible. Participation of young people in planning should continue. Long-term goals: • • • • • • • • • Formation of a bipartisan Task Force Conferences for youth and agency representatives to provide training and networking Passage of volunteer liability legislation Creation of a mini-grant program Beginning of public relations activities Creation of a newsletter for agencies Development of a quality control program for individual and state-wide programs Diversity of opportunities-a program for everyone Youth involvement in planning and implementation �THE FIRST FOLLOW-UP PLANNING MEETING July 15, 1991 at the Holiday Inn, Lansing, Michigan Hosted by the Council of Michigan Foundations On July 15, 199 1 the Council of Michigan Foundations hosted a day-long meeting in Lansing for self-selected panicipants of the June 10-11 conference and additional interested parties to continue planning for the Michigan youth service initiative. Dorothy Johnson, the President of the Council of Michigan Foundations welcomed panicipants and called the meeting to order. Ms. Johnson and members of her staff including Kathy Agard and Jim McHale were joined by representatives of the meeting's co-sponsoring organizations: Diana Algra, Executive Director of the Michigan Campus Compact; Maryellen Lewis, Executive Director of the Michigan NonProfit Forum; Roberta Stanley, Executive Assistant Superintendent for State and Federal Relations, Michigan Department of Education; and Frank Dirks, Field Organizer for Youth Service America. · The special guest for the meeting was Michelle Engler, the First Lady of Michigan. Ms. Engler was accompanied by Stephanie Comai-Page, Social Welfare Policy Advisor from the Governor's Office. Maura Wolfe, Youth Engaged in Service Coordinator for the Points of Light Foundation also attended the meeting. After Ms. Johnson's opening remarks, Ms. Engler outlined the state's response since the June Conference. • Governor Engler will appoint a commission on youth service. • Michelle Engler will chair the commission. • The commission will develop Michigan's funding application to the National and Community Service Commission. • Michigan's commission will focus on youth service. • The commission will be housed, at least initially, in the Executive Office of the Governor. • The commission should be appointed by mid-August. • Projections of size range from 15 to 21 commission members. • The commission will be representative of the diversity of the state. • The commission will have an indefinite term. It will be created by executive order and can only be ended with an executive order. • Initially, commission members will have staggered tenns- 1/3 for 1 year, 1/3 for 2 y~ and 1/3 for three years. Ultimately, membership will be three years. • Meeting participants should submit nominations for commission members to Stephanie Comai-Page. The Governors Office has already collecting names. • Young people will be represented on the commission. • Provisions are being made to staff the commission. The Governor's Office is also seeking names for the position of Executive Director for the commission. • The participants of this and the June meeting will serve as an informal advisory group for the commission. Following Ms. Engler's comments the co-sponsors offered some remarks. �Robena Stanley • The State Board of Education is interested in youth service. • The State Board is holding a conference in September on related issues. • Michigan's congressional delegation is imponant to the future of federal funding suppon for and implementation of this initiative. The delegation in Washington needs to become aware of the state's increasing interest in youth service. DianaAlgra • Service is important issue for college and university presidents in Michigan. • Program parmerships linking colleges and communities are will be valuable to promote. Maryellen Lewis • The Forum is disseminating infonnation throughout its network. Frank Dirks (Mr. Dirks served as facilitator for the rest of the meeting.) • The task of this planning meeting is to begin to formulate a series of recommendations for the state commission to consider for the state plan. The planning tirneline will be very short. • The appointment of the state commission advances Michigan to a strong position among the states developing youth service plans. • The White House is supposed to submit National Commission nominees to the Senate for confirmation before the August recess. • State applications could be due as early as early October. • YSA anticipates a carry-over ofFY '91 funds that have not been spent • The federal legislation provides the context for this discussion but should not be a limiting factor. The development of a statewide youth service plan is the right thing to do whether or not there is federal funding. • The National Commission will have 21 mem~rs serving 3 year terms. Initially. tenns will be staggered. The Secretaries of Education, Health and Human Services. Labor, and Agriculture, and the Director of AcnON will serve as ex-officio members. • This group should continue to advise the new state commission and serve as a broader pool of program technical resources. The group reviewed and discussed the funded titles in the National and Community Service Act and the status of other state development efforts. Infonnation related to this review is reflected in the appendix. �The group reviewed the basic themes drawn from the June conference. • • • • Promote collaboration. Build program capacity. Ensure program sustainability beyond suppon through the Act. Draw on the strength and experience of existing programs and organizations. • Consider new and alternative program and organizational approaches and arrangements. • Promote program and participant diversity. The group then reviewed issues of particular interest to the National Conunission that should be addressed in a state application. • The plan should be comprehensive. • The plan should promote and suppon program and organizational collaboration. • The plan should be sustainable. • Funding drawn from the Act must supplement not supplant current . state funding for programs targeted in the plan. The group recessed for lunch. The luncheon speaker was Maura Wolfe, of the Point of Light Foundation. She provided an overview of the Foundation's activities and introduced the Youth Ambassador program. The Points of Light Foundation efforts to promote and encourage volunteerism across the generations include: • National advertising campaigns. • Coordinating and mobilizing existing resources including corporate leaders to promote volunteerism. • Identifying effective programs disseminating information about them. One of the administrative divisions at the Foundation is called Youth Engaged in Service (YES). YES is about to launch a major new program to promote youth service, the YES Youth Ambassadors. The program will be piloted for one year in three states beginning in September 1991. Michigan is being considered as one of the three states. Below is a summary of the program. • 1be goals are to connect people, build coalitions, and share informacion at state, regional and national levels. • Two young people will be serve as full-time state liaison/organizers for the Foundation. • They will be assigned to work for a lead state agency/organization, such as the Governor's new commission. • They will host a minimum of two Points of Light Action Forums to inform state groups about youth service. • They will actively work to involve youth in service. • They will help to organize a data bank of services and resources. • They will be trained by Points of Light in Washington. • They need to be on the job by September. �• They should reflect diverse youth panicipation. • Points of Light is looking at Michigan as a model of state development • The state organization/agency to which the ambassadors are assigned must: -Provide them with office space, -Provide direction and guidance for works plans and activities. -Make a one-year commionent to the program. -Provide assistance in "opening doors ". The group re-convened after lunch to continue discussion of considerations imponant to a state plan. These considerations can be broken into four broad categories- the process for and structure of the youth service initiative in Michigan; youth empowerment through program and process design; education and training for program practitioners and policymakers; and best approaches for program design. A summary of issues raised and recommendations made in each of these categories follows. · PROCESS/STRUCTURE Can the state commission members represent organizations that will want to be funding recipients? How will this potential question of conflict of interest be handled? Ensure that the state process encourages local groups to build coalitions in order to pursue funding through local initiatives. The term "community service" carries connotation of alternative service for adjudicated violators of law. The language needs to be clarified. Emphasize family involvement .. many students need family members to provide transportation... youth service can be a way of involving families in volunteerism. Ensure that the efforts developed through the initiative creates a "seamless" state youth service structure. Local neighborhood service activities are preferred among young people because of transponarion concerns, time barriers, and the reward that comes from seeing the result of efforts in your own neighborhood. Programs and projects should come from the community rather than being imposed from the top. Longevity is dependent upon this ownership. Labor union involvement is imponant Youth service must not be seen as a way of supplanting jobs. Representatives of organized labor need to be a part of the process. What is the goal of the Act- youth development or community development? The federal support should be used to jump-start sustainable programs/projects. Include Michigan's many resources for long-term planning and support. Don't just rely on the federal money. �Develop incentives and rewards for local collaboration. Volunteer Action Centers can play important roles by serving as information clearinghouses, providing student mini-grant, and coordinating new project development. Funding must flow directly to local levels. Require collaboration in mini-grant requests at the local level. Consider developing a competitive grant process. Guidelines need to be shared on principles of good practice with the service organizations. Make volunteerism more accessible for "at risk" youth and families. Set up mechanisms for local communities to solve problems on their own. Ensure that people from the grass-roots can contribute to the planning process. Ensure that students, teachers, and agencies can contribute. Create a state service and conservation corps advisory committee. Creatively use and involve the 4-H and community college systems. Look at the strengths and weakness of the Minnesota model. Learn what happened with the state volunteer clearinghouse under Gov. Miliken. Develop a centralized data system with direct local access and satellite local data systems. Create incentives that emphasize the value and importance of service and volunteerism Teach volunteers to develop a volunteer portfolio of experiences. Include corporations as a strategy for long term planning. K-12/corps/service relationships. YOUTH EMPOWERMENT Use the resources of groups like those represented in this room to survey young people across the state on how grant request should be structured and use those responses in the application. Establish local community panels that include youth to assess local projects and service opportunities. Train organizations in the development and implementation of volunteer programs to make them "volunteer friendly". Need to be "youth friendly". Involve Youth at-risk �• Impvrtant to allow youth to participate in problem and solution identification. The youth perspective important. EDUCATION/TRAINING Special efforts must be made with MEA and other unions to assure that the schools are welcoming to youth volunteers, youth service curriculums and education. Be sure to recognize and answer concerns about job potenital displacement. Education and training should be a theme including opportunities for youth reflection and civic responsibility. Youth volunteer jobs should have an educational component. Make sure we have peer-tutoring/counseling links For practitioners at the state level we need: -training for management of volunteers -educators -program operators Intermediate school districts could be an excellent source for teacher training/service learning curriculum Higher education mini-grants for: Service/Learning curriculum Teacher Training May need some training re: -process for applying for funds -regional team training -volunteer program steps- "how tos" -applying for money Technical assistance/experts Mentoring/parmerships PROGRAM DESIGN The quality of experience is important -Students should not be used for meaningless work -Jobs should have learning potential -reflection/potential component should be included -evaluation must be built into process -provision of a variety of experiences -clearinghouse for volunteers -youth empowerment and involvement important Neighborhood efforts/local- "hard services" need to see the product Over arching issues: -K-12 training -remember 5-6 million dollars available �-inter-c~ganizational youth collaboration At the state level the following could be possible: -clearinghouse of collaborative projects -training of community educators and agencies -linking community projects with schools (corps/schools connected) -model job descriptions record keeping/evaluation of programs Need for intergenerational programming Incentives: -Scholarships -Work The group was left with the following tasks for the next meeting. • • • • Review the draft repon from June 10 and 11. Review minutes of July 15. Review the Act summary. Come to the next meeting prepared to answer the following questions: - What principles should guide the state commission's planning? - What should be the measurable outcomes? - What should be the organizational structu:re of the state commission? - What resources could your organization contribute to the initiative? �THE SECOND FOLLOW-UP PLANNING MEETING July 31, 1991 at the Kellogg Center, East Lansing, Michigan Hosted by the Michigan Nonprofit Forum On the afternoon of July 31, 1991, Maryellen Lewis of the Michigan Nonprofit Forum hosted a second planning meeting at the Kellogg Center on the campus of Michigan State University. Ms. Lewis was joined by representatives of the meeting's co-sponsoring organizations: Kathy Agard, Program Director for the Council of Michigan Foundations; Diana Algra, Executive Director of the Michigan Campus Compact; Robena Stanley, Executive Assistant Superintendent for State and Federal Relations, Michigan Depamnent of Education; and Frank Dirks, Field Organizer for Youth Service America. Stephanie Comai-Page, representing the Governor's Office was also in attendance. Participants had been asked in a memo sent to them prior to the meeting to record their responses to the questions posed at the end of the July, 15 meeting. The following in a summary of the questions and the written answers that were submitted. What are principles you believe should guide the Governor's Commission to create a youth service plan for Michigan? • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Build upon success while encouraging innovation. Consider the benefits for participants and the state. Quality is more important than quantity. Include all sectors in planning and programming. Involve young people in planning. Ensure that youth are members of the commission. Encourageinnovation. Consider a variety of programs from a variety of areas. Ensure geographic representation. Link to existing business and education partnerships. Give special attention to urban areas. Ensure local community suppon and ownership. Promote outcome driven efforts. Maintain realistic expectations of financial and human requirements and availability. Address real community needs. Institutionalize new programs and expand established programs. Ensure that youth service experiences are meaningful for youth. Give priority to actual projects over clearinghouse models. Collaboration must be defined as involving community residents, not just community agencies. Maintain consistent and broadly disseminated standards for program practice. Involve youth in community partnerships. What are measurable outcomes that should be specified for a successful local collaboration for youth community service under the Michigan youth service plan? • • • • • Project progress. Impact on participants. Value of work accomplished. Number of persons effectively served. Program efficiency. �• • • • • • • Long term effect. Diversity of participants and agencies, and services provided. Leadership roles taken by youth. Extent of business partnerships. Retention of youth in programs. Sustainability of programs. Level of youth involvement in program planning and decisionmaking • The scructure, intent, and practice of youth advisory councils. • The level and quality of local community agency support. What should be the commission's development plan and the process for fund distribution? • Grant applications should demonstrate- the buy-in of local partners, youth involvement in planning process, and should include expected outcomes, an operating plan, and a monitoring system. The grant review process should be inclusive and measure against the items above. • Use funding to support the formation of a program development infrastructure. Match existing resources. Local programs should be responsible for sustainability. • Support regional clearinghouses that promote the development of local coalitions and provide technical assistance and support that: - trains youth for service opportunities. - trains agencies to provide quality service experiences. - trains coalitions to raise funds to become self-supporting. • Utilize existing networks. Do not create a new bureaucracy. • The Governor's Commission should determine the criteria for grant proposals and selection. The Governor Romney, Janet Blanchard, Michelle Engler co-chaired Coordinating Committee on Voluntarism should have an equal role in selecting local grantees. Local grantees should demonstrate the implementation of a local inter-agency committee on youth initiatives and the role of young people in the design and implementation of~ local program. What are resowces your organization or network will contribute towards the success of the Michigan youth service plan? Staff Expertise in: Program development Statewide program implementation and operation Administration Sub-granting Experience with past and present highly successful programs Information dissemination Access to student volunteers Limited Staff Support Expertise on and access to resource materials �Information on colb.~ration models Video tape and handbook/guide may be reproduced and distributed Programmatic statistics and information may be shared Grantsmanship expenise Technical assistance to communities wishing to develop youth action councils Identification of local individuals and organizations The above questions served to frame the group discussion. Frank Dirks, of Youth Service America served as facilitator. Listed below is a summary of the points raised during the discussion. GUIDING PRINCIPLES Use existing systems, build on strength while encouraging innovation. Involve youth at all levels. Respond flexibility to local circumstances. Involve local coalitions. Applications should be judged on a point system where points are earned for each type of collaboration Youth Educators Business and private industry councils Seniors Handicapped Churches Collaboration requires community residents not just community agencies. Expand from existing programs. Outcomes should be based on community needs assessment Broadly target "at risk" youth by giving additional points to those proposals. Involve those served in the planning and evaluation process. Make the process easy to understand and accessible. Make it easy for youth inpul Ensure that suppon is not exclusively directed toward strong and well established programs. Mixture merit and potential. Suppon sustainable programs. Maintain a long-range plan. Emphasize quality over quantity. �OUTCOMES There is very little research on the effect of service on youth development. Building a research base for youth service should be integrated into the plan. Research will help advance the initiative and guide new program development. Head Start research has influenced policy development. A sampling of suggested measures: Continued volunteer service. Service impact on the community. Attitude changes among youth servers and community members. Leadership roles taken by youth servers. Level of community agency involvement Measures must look at the effect on servers and the community served. Use research to educate funding sources and win their support Consider a "human service unit" served. formul~ for instance, how many older Americans are Consider measures for the type of service provided. Enlist an independent evaluator to assess state-wide initiative. Establish an easy, yet uniform, reporting mechanism in order to build a comprehensive database. Link this to the independent evaluator. Include service benefits for youth: employability, group process skills, education goals. Link to national education goals. Research should not drive projects. Overall outcomes: community awareness, willingness to continue project, increased local funds for youth service programs. · RESOURCES TO BE SHARED Council of Michigan Foundations - Community and funding resource information and training. Department of Education - Information on successful school-based programs • Michigan Campus Compact - Information on successful college programs, experience in making service mini-grants. Detroit Compact - Training. �4H staff- Community program collabon1tors, extensive network resources, technical assistance, and training. Bloomfield Hills School District- Program development experience in school-based programs. Catholic Youth Organization in Detroit - Information on "Youth on Board" program and information on leadership development. Volunteer Center Network- Assistance in volunteer management, convening local networks. Neighborhood Builders Alliance - Assistance in program organization, local grant-making procedures, and project evaluation. Michigan State University Service Learning Center- Materials on program operation, and evaluation support and guidance. United Community Services- Training, volunteer management database, and training for community assessment and planning. Nonprofit Forum - Promotion in connection with the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, linkage to Year of Volunteers in 1992, and will dedicate newsletter to youth · service in Michigan. Michigan United Way- Training and local fundraising support. Campus Outreach Opportunity League- Support in organizing college student coalitions to promote service. Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals - Information dissemination, and support in recruiting speakers and advocates. Children's Charter- Information on youth involvement on boards. Urban League Network- Infonnation, referral, facilities, recruitment, and advocacy. ELEMENTS FOR A STATE PLAN Use the grant-making research and experience of Department of Education mini-grant programs. Use the experience of the Michigan Campus Compact venture grant program and explore linkages. Make application process easy so a group of students could apply (through a fiscal agent). Establish different categories for grants. Some grants should be large enough to provide significant support. Do not allow a term like "mini-grants" to define the program. Some grants should not be mini. Support noc only sustainable programs but also specific projects that may have a limited duration. �Consider funding networks to support program development Look at how local projects fits into larger strategic plan-- they relate to the long-term goals of the initiative. Involve youth in aJI elements of the initiative. PARTICIPANTS July 31. 1991 Donna Clarke Michelle Strasz C.J. Howell Paulette Ethier Les Schrich Darryl White Neil Davis Dana Cole Mary Cady Kate Stuttnaner Beth Gibbs Jim Vollman Jim McHale Ross Dodge Michigan Non-profit Forum Children's Charter Youth Advisory Council United Community Services 4H Youth Program Volunteer Centers of MI Battle Creek Area Urban League Governor's Office MI Association of Volunteer Administrators Catholic Youth Organization (Detroit) Bloomfield Hills Public Schools Detroit Compact Council of MI Foundations MI Dept of Natural Resources/MI Civilian Conservation Corps MI Campus Compact Urban League of Aint ACTION Aint Youth Service Corps/Urban LEague United Way, Grand Rapids . Grand Rapids Public Schools Ml ASIOCition of Seconct.y School Principals Ml Auociation of Na.Publ.ic Schools Uniaed W"'J of Ml Greaw Kalamazoo United Way MSU Service Learning Center MSUACilON MI Dept of Education . MI Labor Dept Neighborhood Builders Alliance Muskegon County DET Council of MI Foundations Governor's Office DianaAlgra Harold W. Jones Stanley Stewart Jacquline Tortr Alida Zeilstra Fritz Crabb Jack Bittle Billie Kops Wi11'11Jla' Gene Keilitz Brenda Hint Mary Edens Darin Day Robena Stanley Deborah Grether Rick Balllld Glen Jenkins Kathy Alpnt Stephanie Cornai-Page � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our State of Generosity Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Description An account of the resource Collection contains the records of four Michigan nonprofit organizations: Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Community Service Commission, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at GVSU. The documents are compiled by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, and records document the history of the organizations from the 1960s to the 2010s. Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 1968-2014 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Council of Michigan Foundations Michigan Nonprofit Association Michigan Community Service Commission Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49401 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Council of Michigan Foundations; Michigan Nonprofit Association; Michigan Community Service Commission Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04 Language A language of the resource eng Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JCPA-04_MCSC_1991_CM_1991-10-31_MI-Youth-Service-Commission-Draft-Recommendations Title A name given to the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting Michigan Youth Service Commission draft recommendations Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Michigan Community Service Commission Description An account of the resource Michigan Community Service Commission 1991-10-31 commission meeting Michigan Youth Service Commission draft recommendations. Records are compiled in the Our State of Generosity collection by the Johnson Center, along with the files of the Michigan Nonprofit Association (MNA), the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) and the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy. Originals are at the Michigan Community Service Commission. Subject The topic of the resource Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Charities Philanthropy and Society Fundraising Records Michigan Community Service Commission Michigan Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Language A language of the resource eng Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI, 49408 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/515">Our State of Generosity collection, JCPA-04</a> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1991-10-31