The Project's Reach

Our project has been the subject of two newspaper stories, in the Doylestown Intelligencer earlier this winter and more recently in Lancaster's newspaper. That article might still be available at this site on Lancaster Online. Jen Kopf, the reporter, did a very nice job summarizing what Lauren has learned and included a lot of images we've found so far in our work.

The article included one of the neatest artifacts we've found. There was a picture of five generations taken in the late 1940s. The boy in the photo is Patrick Duckworth, son of 1st Lt. Edmund (Bill) Duckworth. The man holding Patrick is Jim Duckworth, who still lives in Arizona. Lauren spoke with him last week.

In just a few days (the article ran Friday) Kopf's story led two people to reach out to me. Today I heard from one of Bill's relatives who still lives in Lancaster. She was thrilled to see the story in the paper, had hoped we knew of Bill's brother (yes), and requested that we record Lauren's eulogy and send it to the family.

Earlier, someone reached out to me who identified himself as a genealogist, but I suspect he might be a military historian. I don't know of any connection he has to Bill's family. He was bothered that, in his opinion, Lauren and I had the details of Bill's death all wrong. I had the chance to tell him that there are conflicting reports of the precise nature of Bill's death, though it's not in doubt that he died as a result of enemy fire on Omaha Beach.

The Institute makes it a point to put out press releases to the hometowns of our soldiers, and I can see why they do. History matters. There is an audience of people who crave to learn from the work of others for reasons that are obvious (family) and not really that obvious (the mysterious figure who questioned our historiography). Lauren's work won't just happen in a vacuum, and it won't simply get shelved never to be seen again.

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Those whom we honored (the final eulogies)

The chapel interior at Luxembourg American Cemetery. Most of us on the trip completed research for soldiers buried at Luxembourg American Cemetery. It's situated right outside of Luxembourg City and it receives a good number of visitors every year. The fact that General George Patton is buried there has something to do with their high visitorship. In fact, the initial attempt to bury him along with the soldiers failed when the foot traffic to his grave wore out the grass. Patton's grave now sits by itself near the top of the hill at the cemetery, near the chapel and tablets of the missing. Suzy's soldier. Six of us delivered eulogies that day: five teachers and Kaat. When I had the chance to listen to students' eulogies back in 2017, I was struck by how something of each student's character worked itself into the story they told. I still get a bit of a sense of that with eulogies delivered by teachers. However, the element that works itself more powerfull

Some Thoughts on Liberation

One of the markers placed by the French and Belgian governments to mark the path of the liberators. My greatest takeaway from this most recent trip involves some refined feelings about liberation. I'm writing this post in a time of high cynicism. And the were matters of which one could be cynical back in 1944, the year in which Charlie fought and died. This trip, however, left me with renewed appreciation for what our country did back in that war, helping me refocus on what I've had the chance to see and do the past few years. Christopher is the military historian who accompanied us on this voyage. In one of our webinars this spring, he made an offhand reference to a piece of scholarship about the Holocaust he said was worth reading. It's entitled Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. It's heavy. I can't say I read every chapter. But I read most of it on our bus rides this summer. And I'm glad I did. My unassigned reading. Saying that Bloo

Eulogizing Charlie

By Charlie's graveside in Luxembourg. You may find the eulogy I wrote for Charlie interesting. I have it copied here. The marker by which we stand today identifies Staff Sergeant Charles F. Simcox, Jr., as a hero who gave his life in service to our nation. Before entering the service, his family knew him as Charlie. To this day they keep the memory of Charlie, or Uncle Charlie, alive. Many of the members of this closely-knit group still live near West Chester, Pennsylvania, where Simcox grew up. They have not grown apart in the decades of peace and prosperity that Simcox’s service and sacrifice made possible. Something that I wanted to convey, but that seemed very difficult to convey, was the joyous and warm sense of his family. When I reached out to them this winter, they were more than happy to meet with me. I felt like something of a guest of honor. And so many of them came out to meet me that I lost track of who was who. A warmly receptive family isn't a

Mr. Johnson in Normandy

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