Author Archives: Matt
April 2018 Roundtable Meeting
“The First Shot of the Civil War”
Presented by David Beatty
Thursday, April 12, 2018, at 6:30 p.m.
Highlands Museum & Discovery Center
The first shot of the Civil War occurred in January 1861 by Citadel Cadets towards the Union supply ship “Star of the West.” The ship was coming into Charleston harbor to resupply Fort Sumter after South Carolina had recently seceded in December 1860. The “Star of the West” then turned around and went back to sea.
Our speaker will be longtime Ashland resident and Citadel graduate David Beatty.
March 2018 Roundtable Meeting
“Battle of Wilson’s Creek”
Presented by Bob Long & Tom Wilson
Thursday, March 8, 2018, at 6:30 p.m.
Presented by Bob Long & Tom Wilson
Thursday, March 8, 2018, at 6:30 p.m.
Highlands Museum & Discovery Center
The Missouri-Kansas border is where the Civil War started in the 1850’s. Missouri was divided about leaving the Union. Loyalist German immigrants were densely populated in St. Louis. Pro-south secessionists were equally represented as well. Gov. Jackson tried to take Missouri out of the Union. Capt. Lyon thwarted his plans in St. Louis.
Bob Long and Tom Wilson will discuss early Civil War history in Missouri including the Battle of Wilson’s Creek.
November 2017 Roundtable Meeting
“Major Glenn Miller Missing”
Presented by Bill Martin
Thursday, November 9, 2017, at 6:30 p.m.
Presented by Bill Martin
Thursday, November 9, 2017, at 6:30 p.m.
Highlands Museum & Discovery Center
Glenn Miller, the most popular orchestra leader of the late 1930s and early 1940s, left a lucrative profession to bring his talent to the men and women fighting in World War II. Though well beyond the age for military service, he enlisted and formed the Army Air Force Band that gave concerts at bases throughout the nation from 1942 till 1944. In June 1944, he took his band to England to broadcast his music throughout Europe. Traveling to Paris on December 15, 1944, for a Christmas show, the small plane, in which he was riding, disappeared, never to be found. Bill Martin will present a program that gives insight into this 73-year-old mystery.
August 2017 Roundtable Meeting
“Marine Corp Anti-Aircraft Battalion 1950-1952”
Presented by Bob Long
Thursday, August 10, 2017, at 6:30 p.m.
Highlands Museum & Discovery Center
Come listen to the account of Stacy Long as told by his son Bob Long. Stacy Long was activated during the Korean War and sent to Camp Lejeune, N.C. He took his Argus camera with him and Bob recently came into possession of many color slides. We will go through these slides during a presentation on the USMC anti-aircraft BN and its weapons/ capabilities.
July 2017 Roundtable Meeting
“THE WAR THAT MADE AMERICA”
Presented by Tom Wilson
Thursday, July 13, 2017, at 6:30 p.m.
Highlands Museum & Discovery Center
The most important event to occur in eighteenth-century North America, the Seven Years’ War (or as the colonists called it, the French and Indian War), figures in most Americans’ consciousness of the past as a kind of hazy backdrop to the Revolution. As citizens of a nation created by an act of collective secession from the British empire, we Americans have always tended to take as our point of reference the thirteen rebelling colonies, not the empire as a whole-or the North American continent. This perspective has generally limited our ability to see the continuities between our pre-Revolutionary past and the rest of our history.
Coming to grips with the Seven Years’ War as an event that decisively shaped American
history, as well as the histories of Europe and the Atlantic world in general, may therefore help us begin to understand the colonial period as something more than a quaint mezzotint prelude to our national history. For indeed, if viewed not from he perspective of Boston or Philadelphia, but from Montreal or Vincennes, St. Augustine or Havana, Paris or Madrid – or for the matter, Calcutta or Berlin – the Seven Years’ War was far more significant than the War of American Independence.
June 2017 Roundtable Meeting
“A Lad in Nazi Germany”
Part 2: Surviving the War’s Aftermath
Thursday, June 18, 2017, at 6:30 p.m.
Highlands Museum & Discovery Center
Klaus Staerker was born in 1936, three years after Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Nazi Party, had come into power. Klaus and his family lived in Duisburg, Germany, a major logistical center in the Ruhr Valley – location of chemical and steel industries – that proved to be a critical target for Allied bombing during WWII. He and his family endured countless attacks, but were fortunate enough to survive. Klaus migrated to the United States in 1957 and two months later enlisted into the U.S. Army. He became a U.S. Citizen in 1960 and came to Ashland in 1970 to began a 22-year career at Armco Steel. Even today, 75 years later, Klaus is momentarily startled when flocks of birds pass overhead, as visions of American B-17 bombers have been permanently etched into his memory. His presentation will be in two parts – May 2017: “Surviving the Allied Bombing” and following in June 2017: “Surviving the War’s Aftermath”
May 2017 Roundtable Meeting
“A Lad in Nazi Germany”
Part 1: Surviving the Allied Bombings
Thursday, May 11, 2017, at 6:30 p.m.
Highlands Museum & Discovery Center
Klaus Staerker was born in 1936, three years after Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Nazi Party, had come into power. Klaus and his family lived in Duisburg, Germany, a major logistical center in the Ruhr Valley – location of chemical and steel industries – that proved to be a critical target for Allied bombing during WWII. He and his family endured countless attacks, but were fortunate enough to survive. Klaus migrated to the United States in 1957 and two months later enlisted into the U.S. Army. He became a U.S. Citizen in 1960 and came to Ashland in 1970 to began a 22-year career at Armco Steel. Even today, 75 years later, Klaus is momentarily startled when flocks of birds pass overhead, as visions of American B-17 bombers have been permanently etched into his memory. His presentation will be in two parts – May 2017: “Surviving the Allied Bombing” and following in June 2017: “Surviving the War’s Aftermath”
April 2017 Roundtable Meeting
“The Doolittle Raid”
Bringing the War to Japan
Thursday, April 13, 2017, at 6:30 p.m.
Highlands Museum & Discovery Center
Aviation historian Bill Martin will lead us in a 75th Anniversary commemoration of one of the most daring missions of World War II – The Doolittle Raid. Of the eighty brave volunteers who took part in this highly secretive action, only one member remains today. In 1995, Bill had the privilege of personally meeting twenty-six of the survivors.
The raid took place on April 18, 1942, and was the first offensive action taken against the Empire of Japan following its attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7. 1941. It was a joint operation of the U.S. Army Air Forces and the U.S. Navy. Sixteen Army B-25 bombers, destined for Tokyo, were launched from the Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet.
Sixteen crews under the direction of Army Air Corps Lt. Col. James Doolittle, a former racing pilot, carried out the brazen daylight attack. The unexpected bombing of its cities resulted in Japan’s having to reallocate forces to defend its homeland. Learn how the mission came about, how it was put together, and how it was successfully carried out.
March 2017 Roundtable Meeting
Join us Thursday March 9th, 2017 6:30 PM at the Highlands Museum & Discovery Center,1620 Winchester Ave, Ashland, KY. Our meeting will include USMC Engineer and 2003 Iraq War Veteran Greg Elliott. The public is invited to attend.
EKMHS 
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