Explore the Military Timeline at the Atlanta History Center
Spend the day traveling the military timeline from the Revolutionary War to current conflicts. Visitors journey various eras while encountering veterans, re-enactors, simulated adventures, and kid-friendly crafts. See military vehicles, historic characters, and dance to live music.
WHAT: Military Timeline, Atlanta History Center’s annual family program
WHEN: Saturday, May 23, 2015; 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
WHERE: Atlanta History Center; 130 West Paces Ferry Road; Atlanta, GA
INFORMATION: 404.814.4000; AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Family
ADMISSION: This program is free to members; included in the cost of general admission for nonmembers. Active duty military as well as veterans and their families receive free admission. For more information about this program or to purchase admission tickets, please visit AtlantaHistoryCenter.com/Family or call 404.814.4000.
SUPPORT: Funding for this program is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of Fulton County Arts Council.
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:
McElreath Hall Activities
Featured Speaker: Nancy Sherman, Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our Soldiers
2:00 pm
2.6 million soldiers are currently returning home from war, the greatest number since Vietnam. With an increase in suicides and post-traumatic stress, the military has embraced measures such as resilience training and positive psychology to heal mind as well as body. But the moral dimensions of psychological injuries – guilt, shame, feeling responsible for doing wrong or being wronged – still elude much treatment. In Afterwar, philosopher Nancy Sherman turns her focus to that challenge.
With twenty years of working with the military, Sherman draws on in-depth interviews with servicemen and women to paint a richly textured and compassionate picture of the moral and psychological aftermath of America's decade of war.
Nancy Sherman is a University Professor at Georgetown and Guggenheim Fellow (2013-2014) and has served as the Inaugural Distinguished Chair in Ethics at the United States Naval Academy. A philosopher with research training in psychoanalysis, she lectures worldwide on moral injury, resilience, and military ethics. She is also the author of The Untold War and Stoic Warriors.
Veterans Voices: Veterans History Project
11:00 am
The Veterans History Project at the Atlanta History Center is an extraordinary collection of video and audio interviews that document the experiences of over 600 men and women who served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, and the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The stories cover a broad spectrum of military life and range from the humorous to the tragic. Join Senior Archivist Sue VerHoef as she shares some of these remarkable accounts of war, remembered by those who lived it.
Bruce Gamble, The Far Side of the World: America Goes to War in the Pacific
Noon
Former naval flight officer Bruce Gamble, author of six nonfiction books on World War II, discusses the first year of warfare in the vast Pacific, a hemisphere almost completely unfamiliar to Americans prior to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. After surviving the initial Japanese onslaught, American forces struggled to preserve Australia before launching the bloody campaigns that would eventually lead to victory.
Meet and Greet Veterans: Personal Stories of Wartime Sacrifice
Ongoing
Atlanta World War II Roundtable
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Korean War Veterans Association
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Vietnam War Veterans Association
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Swan House Activities
Military Glider and Vehicles with the CAF Dixie Wing
10:00 am – 4:00 pm * weather permitting
Celebrities in their own right, military vehicles played an important part in carrying soldiers to, from, and through the combat zone.
The Commemorative Air Force – Dixie Wing has their 1943 Willy’s Jeep, 1942 Chevrolet Staff Car, and WWII Laister-Kauffmann TG-4A glider trainer on display along with several WWII re-enactors. Take your picture with a World War II Jeep and much more!
The CAF Dixie Wing is located in Peachtree City, Georgia, and flies a P-51D Mustang “Red Nose,” FG-1D Corsair, and a rare SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber along with other WWII-era flying aircraft and restoration projects.
Re-enactors from World War I through Current Conflicts
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Living historians representing World War I, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War discuss how warfare changed throughout the 20th century.
WWII Encampment
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Encounter World War II re-enactors and discover the many different experiences of those involved in the war effort during the 1940s
Military Memorabilia
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
View World War II era Red Cross uniforms and other items from the Atlanta History Center’s textile collection.
Hands-on Activities
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Hang out in the grandchildren’s room and make World War II crafts. Make your own ration book and spotter airplane models. Learn how to spell your name in Navy signal flags and make your own Rosie the Riveter or Keep ‘em Flying Poster.
Meet the Past Museum Theatre Experience: Swan House
Encounter characters in the Swan House and learn how each American contributed to the war effort on the home front.
Ruby Ross Wood
10:15 am, 11:15 am, 12:15 pm, 1:15 pm, 3:15 pm
City leaders have asked Atlantans to participate in air raid blackouts. Help Swan House decorator Ruby Ross Wood choose the best blackout curtains for the house.
Lilly Richardson
10:30 am, 11:30 am, 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, 3:30 pm
Encounter Swan House maid Lilly Richardson as she gathers materials for a scrap metal drive. Learn about wartime contributions of families on the home front
Vietnam Patrol Simulation
10:30 am, 12:30 pm, 1:15 pm, 2:30 pm, 3:30 pm
Duration: 30 minutes
Take point as new recruits out on your first reconnaissance patrol. Based on real documented experiences, you follow two soldiers through the jungles of Vietnam gathering information on the enemy. Make real life choices that could affect your platoon, and try to make it out before anyone knows you are there.
Meet the Past Museum Theatre Experience: Margaret Mitchell
11:30 am, 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, 3:30 pm
Listen to Margaret Mitchell as she campaigns on behalf of the American Red Cross. Hear about the importance of the organization during World War II, and how you can help today.
Mable Dorn Reeder Amphitheater
Alison Chambers and the Freedom Belles
11:30 am and 1:00 pm
Dance to live music as the Freedom Belles bring to life popular World War II era music.
The Freedom Belles are a trio of singing pin-ups committed to commemorating history in three-part harmony. They offer shows from the WWII, Korea, and Vietnam War eras and have the best job in the world – putting smiles on veterans' faces.
Atlanta History Museum Activities
Filming The Camps – John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens: From Hollywood to Nuremberg
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
This new exhibition explores the military service of three Hollywood directors who were assigned to film the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. View rare footage of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Dachau with detailed notes, narratives describing burials at Falkenau, and the documentary produced as evidence at the Nuremberg trials, among other historic material. Facilitators are available to answer questions regarding the exhibition.
Character Encounter: General Douglas MacArthur
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Hear General Douglas MacArthur discuss his experiences in the Pacific theatre of World War II – from the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 to the Japanese surrender in September of 1945.
Soldier Experience
10:15 am, 11:15 am, 12:15 pm, 1:15 pm, 3:15 pm
Duration: 50 minutes
Take on the role of a real soldier who fought in the Civil War. As you are presented with various real-life scenarios, you must make vital decisions that could affect your life and well-being.
World War I Trench Warfare Activity
10:45 am, 11:45 am, 12:45 pm, 2:45 pm, 3:45 pm
Duration: 20 minutes
Role play and experience what it was like to be a WWI soldier. As the sound of gunfire begins to wane, cautiously climb out of your trench and greet your enemy in no man’s land.
Quarry Garden
Re-enactors from Early Conflicts up to the Civil War
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Learn what it was like to be a soldier during the first hundred years of our nation’s history. See how soldiers and those on the home front experienced these conflicts and how weapons of war changed over time.
Veterans Park
Self-guided Tours
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
View the outdoor display in Veterans Park honoring those who served the United States Armed Forces. Use your smartphone to access recordings of stories shared by veterans in their own voice.
Food for Sale
Coca-Cola Café – serving a limited Chick-fil-A menu
Available Noon – 2:00 pm
Nerd Dawgs
Available 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
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