For a WWII researcher having ready
access to our National Archives must be like a bear camped out at a honey
tree. By “ready access” I mean being in
the Baltimore or Washington, D.C. area.
For the rest of us, we have to travel thousands of miles to get there
and what is the reward? It must be
something like what the scientists and history professors experienced at the discovery of King
Tut’s Tomb.
I suspect our archives
present a much larger challenge by their sheer size and the perception of a
bureaucratic hurdle to get to them.
You’ve must have seen the last few minutes of the Indiana Jones movie
where the liberated Ark of the Covenant is placed among thousands of dusty crates
in a huge obscure warehouse. Just think
of the potential discoveries that have been dead-ended there! Believe me, I know warehouses; thousands of
little GSA clerks too fearful of their jobs to throw the stuff away. I’m even running into WWII supply documents
just declassified in 2007.
If you guessed I’m planning a trip to College Park for WWII research, you’re right. I
gave up on researching the Eisenhower Library for information on the 1st
Infantry division as well as the 1st Infantry Division’s museum in Illinois. I was never
satisfied I’d learn much at those places, especially after a few disappointing e-mails. The Mother Lode appears to be at “Archives
II” which means College Park, Maryland.
My personal interest is in the Mediterranean
Base Section in North Africa and Italy (PBS) from 1942-1945. I’m sure I’m not alone because of the 80
million Baby Boomers, there are thousands who should be curious about retracing
their father’s footsteps in that forgotten theater of war. Services of Supply (SOS) was more than beans
and bullets. It included medical,
transportation, engineering, signal (communications), chemical, and more – all
that was required to sustain combat units that made up a much smaller
percentage of American troops. The
allure of a story is strong because there are few grass roots and personal
accounts written about the place and time.
So far, what’s impressed me is the size and scope of it all – the huge
ships and convoys, the distances, the setting (deserts, the sea and islands),
and the impersonality of it all where one GI is basically on his own among
millions who will be here one day and gone the other.
It would be wishful thinking for
there to be a research tour to the archives for older Americans especially
after all the cutbacks I’ve been hearing about like the Saturday Shuttle
service and the diminished research times. Although
it’s an individual undertaking, the trip should not have to be stressful, so for now I’m
trying to figure out the trip’s logistics. The only thing I want on my back this time is
a coat.
