Highlights Archives
A Memorial Day Remembrance
While many people think of Memorial Day as the start of summer, it is much more than a three-day weekend. Memorial Day is for many people, especially the nation's thousands of veterans and their families, an important celebration of those who served and gave their lives for their country. Combat experiences have profoundly shaped the lives of millions of Americans both at home and abroad, and award-winning Wisconsin Historical Society Press author Richard Carlton Haney brings that story close to home in his book "When is Daddy Coming Home?" An American Family During World War II.
In this emotionally powerful book, Haney, the recent recipient of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Distinguished Alumnus Award for Professional Achievement and Service, explores the impact of war on his own Janesville, Wisconsin, family — a family forever changed by the telegram that brought word of his father's death. Through his father's letters, Haney reveals the war's effect on a man who fought in the Battle of the Bulge with the 17th Airborne but wanted nothing more than to return home, expressing the feelings of thousands when he wrote to his wife, "I've seen and been through a lot but want to forget it all as soon as I can." Haney also illuminates life on the home front in small-town America as well, describing how deeply the war changed such communities. Haney's memories of an idyllic family life make clear what soldiers like his father, Clyde Haney, felt they were defending.
Author Haney graduated from UW-Whitewater in 1963 and earned both his master's and doctorate in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He graduated from the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania's National Security Seminar in 1984, and from West Point's postdoctoral military history seminar in 1989. A professor at UW�Whitewater for 40 years, Haney's selection for the university's Distinguished Alumnus award recognizes his notable professional, personal and career achievements, all amply demonstrated in his book about his father in World War II.
Haney's father was just one of the roughly 320,000 Wisconsin men and women who served in the armed forces during World War II. Wisconsin's National Guard formed a substantial part of the new Red Arrow Division and helped to maintain the respected reputation of its predecessor from World War I by remaining undefeated in the Pacific. Most Wisconsin soldiers were draftees who served in units composed of men from around the country while most women worked in health care. Some women also served as parachute riggers, cryptographers, weather observers and ferry pilots. Read letters from some of these Wisconsin men and women, including excerpts from some of the more than 1,300 letters John and Priscilla Holloway of Milwaukee wrote to each other during World War II. When World War II ended in 1945, more than 8,000 Wisconsin soldiers had died and another 13,000 had been wounded in combat.
Memorial Day is a time to remember and reflect on soldiers from all communities, from all wars, who died while fighting for the country they loved. Read a story of one Wisconsin family's sacrifice during World War I and view the Wolrd War I "Sons in Service" Flag in the Museum's collections.
:: Posted May 26, 2006
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