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.
Military History Roundtable Postponed
Due to road and sidewalk conditions in the Downtown Ashland area, the Military History Roundtable scheduled for TONIGHT (Tuesday, Feb. 16th) is postponed until NEXT TUESDAY (Feb. 23rd). Stay warm and safe out there!
December Roundtable to Feature Presentation on “Experimental Flight for the Ages & the SR-71”
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2015
6:00 PM
HIGHLANDS MUSEUM
Presented By: Lt. Col. Ed Schneider
6:00 PM
HIGHLANDS MUSEUM
Presented By: Lt. Col. Ed Schneider
Edward T. Schneider was a research test pilot at NASA’s Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, from 1983 to 2000.
During his 18-year career at Dryden, Schneider was best known for his work as project pilot for the F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) over a nine-year span, becoming the first pilot in history to conduct multi-axis thrust vectored flight.
Schneider also served as project pilot for the F-18 Systems Research Aircraft, the F-8 Digital Fly-By-Wire research program, the Boeing 720 Controlled Impact Demonstration, the F-14 Automatic Rudder Interconnect and Laminar Flow research programs, the F-104 Aeronautical Research and Microgravity programs, the F-15 ACTIVE, the SR-71 High Speed research project, the NASA B-52B launch aircraft, and the F-15B aeronautical testbed aircraft.
Schneider took on additional management functions during the latter part of his tenure at Dryden. From July 1998 through March 2000, Schneider served as the acting chief of the Flight Crew Branch in the Flight Operations Directorate, heading a team of 13 research pilots. He then served as deputy director of Flight Operations at NASA Dryden from March through September 2000. In this position, Schneider helped to manage the Avionics, Operations Engineering, Flight Crew, Quality Inspection, Aircraft Maintenance and Modification, and the Shuttle and Flight Operations Support branches.
Schneider transferred from Dryden to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, in September 2000 where he was a staff pilot and T-38 instructor pilot. When he left Dryden, he had accumulated more than 6,700 flight hours in 84 different models of aircraft and had flown “first flights” on five unique aircraft configurations. Schneider retired from NASA in 2004.
Prior to joining NASA, Schneider served on active duty with the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1983. Following squadron service, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, Patuxent River, MD, in 1973, as the youngest graduate in the school’s history. He then served as an engineering test pilot and test pilot school instructor at the Naval Air Test Center. He also served as the F-4 program manager, and senior test pilot at the Naval Aviation Depot, North Island, CA.
Schneider received his bachelor’s degree from Thomas More College, Crestview Hills, KY. He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval War College Command and Staff course and earned a master’s degree from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, in 1978.
An active member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots since 1974, Schneider became Fellow of the Society in 1993 and served as its president in 1993-94. He also served as a director of the Warbirds of America. In 1996 he received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chanute Flight Award for the conduct of hazardous F-18 high-angle-of-attack flight testing. In 1998 he was inducted into the James B. Taylor Jr. Memorial Room and Carrier Aviation Test Pilot Hall of Honor on board the USS Yorktown (CV-10). Schneider was honored with the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 2004, and was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, CA, in September 2005.
For More Information, please call Matt Potter at
EKMHS 
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