Internships Blog

This week I just learned about the inner workings of a museum. On the first day I went through a tour of the museum. I walked through all the exhibits and archives rooms. I picked out what I did and did not like about the exhibits. This was done to teach me to see what looks good and what doesen’t the the casual veiwer.

After that I started some research on the salem greenway, Longwood, Lake Spring, and Greenhill park. After I finished up this research I worked on condensing the information into 100 words or less to practive putting it on plaques. These will be used later in the new exhibit that are making. It was also done to teach me how to summarize all this information and become better and making the plaques. Next, I learned how to log items into the archive system and look them up. Overall this frist week has gotten me excited for whats coming in the next 5 weeks.

This past week I was given the opportunity to present my work to my department during our weekly meeting. Within this call I was able to identify why it is so important for us to collect Oral History, especially when working within an archive. I discussed everything seen on the slide above, as well as covering the specifics of our project over at Carilion.

This was also a sort of send off as this week will be my last with Carilion. I enjoyed all of it fully and I hope to see parts of my work, combined with the number of others who worked on the 125th, in the future. I cannot wait to see what wonderful histories are collected during this project, and I am so proud that I was able to be a part of it.

We had a new item enter the archive recently which I was able to help with. This was a nurses coat from the late 20th century. I worked together with my mentor to ensure that it was safely packaged and correctly documented. This coat will join our ever growing Carilion Archive thanks to a very generous donor.

This was the first non-paper item that I have helped place into an archive box and label so it was incredibly beneficial for me to learn how to do it hands on!

Good Morning from the National D-Day Memorial did you know if you live locally in the New River Valley area…you could save hundreds of dollars in gas and hotel fees and avoid DC traffic and see the Japanese Cherry Tree Blossoms locally here at the Memorial. There are 116 trees planted here that are dedicated to the 116th Virginia National Guard Unit which still exist today. In fact the 116th Virginia National Guard returned from a one year deployment to the Horn of Africa on January 30, 2023.

During World War II, the 116th would join with units from Delaware, New York and Maryland to form the 29th Division the first unit to land on Omaha Beach at 630am Dec 6, 1944. By nightfall that fatefull day of the 175 men who formed Company A,B,C,D and F only 15 lived to fight another day the Division suffered a 90 percent casualty rate and the memorial was built here in Bedford because Company A came from here and it alone sustained 20 deaths that day making this small town have the largest per capital rate for casualities during opening phase of D-Day. For this reason Japanese Cherry Blossoms have been planted at the Memorial to honor the memory of the 116th Virginia Regiment and the 29th Division..please come out and enjoy the Cherry Blossoms while remembering the sacrafice of the Bedford Boys and the 29th Division.

This Tuesday I spent time reading through old Newspapers so that I could prepare a timeline for Carilion Clinic in the 21st century. It feels odd calling a newspaper from the 2010s old, since I was actually alive for most of these events. The story I have open currently is about a man who went into caridac arrest while at a fitness class. This story goes on to discuss how important it is to have AEDs open for the public incase an accident like this ever happens. This was just one of the many stories about healthcare that makes up the rich history of Carilion Clinic!

In preparation for conducting an oral interview with the last president of the Jefferson College of Health Sciences. With around decades of history within these magazines I had a plethora of questions come up (most of which answered by another magazine), however from here I was able to start writing my questions for the oral history. From here I created a timeline of everything that I learned from the magazines and the scrapbooks that I previously looked at.

This is another one of my internship projects recently given to me…there are between 450 to 600 of these plaques at the D-Day Memorial my task is to record each one, then build a data base as to where each one is located, so that future visitors or family members will be able to quickly locate plaques or tributes given by family members, associations/organizations or locate units their loved ones served with on D-Day. Do I have any volunteers locally would like to help if not this by myself is going to take at least 6 months just to record then build the database…in the immortal words of JFK “Ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country” I’ve completed Zone A it’s just about 10 to 12 more zones to go lol.

Today I continue my series of Hidden Stories of Operation Overlord or the D-Day Landing in Normandy, France 6 June 1944.

In Honor of Black History Month I’m proud to introduce to you.

SSgt Waverly Bernard Woodson Jr.

(Aug 3, 1922-Aug 12, 2005)

SSgt Woodson was an American staff sergeant and health professional. He is best known for his heroic actions as a combat medic during the Battle of Normandy in World War II. A pre-med student at the start of WWII, after Pearl Harbor, Woodson voluntarily left med-school at Lincoln University and enlisted in the U.S Army and was subsequently assigned to the 320th Barrage Balloon Company. After successfully completing training as an Anti-Aircraft Field Artillery Officer-in which he was one of two African Americans who completed the program only to be told he would not be commissioned because there were no officer positions for people of his race. He was retrained as a combat medic. The 320th Balloon Company would be the only African American unit assigned to the D-Day Landing. Woodson’s landing craft enroute to landing zone struck a land mine and shrapnel injured his leg and his groin–he requested a fellow medic bandage him up and he returned to the battlefield where for over the first 24 hrs of the D-Day Operation his knowledge and expertise as a medic is estimated to have saved over 200 lives of Allied soldiers regardless of race.

Recommended for the Army’s 2nd Highest Medal the Distinguished Service Cross–his commanding general wanted his medal upgraded to the Congressional Medal of Honor with President Roosevelt to present it–In 1997 President Clinton called for an inquiry into why no African Americans were awarded the Medal of Honor for World War II. This honor was subsequently awarded posthumously to 7 African American World War II veterans over a 5 year time period after 1997. SSgt Woodson wasn’t among this group his Distinguished Service Cross was subsequently downgraded to a Bronze Star and Purple Heart because the then War Department in Washington, DC discounted the service of African American military personnel during World War II. Additionally Woodson’s military records were lost during a fire at Army Archives Center in 1973–therefore making verification of his actual service and actions at D-Day impossible in 1997. Since 2020 there has been a renewed push to get SSgt Woodson awarded the Medal of Honor Posthumously the package as slowly been working its way through both the Congress and Pentagon and President Biden has said he will sign off on awarding SSgt Woodson’s Medal of Honor Package if the Congress will send it to him. Both the story of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion and SSgt Waverly Woodson have been lost to the archives of time and one of the hidden stories of D-Day that I have been uncovering during my research ” Hidden Secrets of D-Day”. Time doesn’t permit me to tell this entire story for more information on the 320th BBB and SSgt Woodson please read the following book ” Forgotten” by Linda Hervieux. Despite training in the segregated south at Camp Tyson, Tennessee each went on to serve with honor at Operation Overlord. You may know their story of training from the hit movie “A Soldiers Story” a play on Broadway and also a hit movie in 1984 is loosely based on the 320th Balloon Battalion.

Footnote:

In September 2020, United States Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) introduced bill S.4535: “A bill to authorize the President to award the Medal of Honor to Waverly B. Woodson, Jr., for acts of valor during World War II”.[40] An equivalent bill, H.R.8194, was also introduced in the United States House of Representatives by David Trone (R-Md.).[41] Woodson’s widow Joann has announced that, if Woodson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, she would donate it to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.[39] In June 2021, Commanding General of the First United States Army Thomas S. James Jr. wrote in favor of Woodson receiving the Medal of Honor.[32]I

Day 3 of Orientation/Training at the National D-Day Memorial–2hrs of classroom training followed up by walking the monument training with our Trainer Bob Garst who is phenomenal both me and Joelle pictured with her back to my camera in photo 2 are blessed to work with Bob his knowledge of the Bedford Boys, D-Day and World War II is beyond measure– We still like him even though he gave us 2 must read books neither one under 300 pages due by next Saturday plus 2 videos. Me and Joelle come from rival schools me from Roanoke and she from Virginia Tech doesn’t help that she is Army and I’m Air Force, but I think we may put those differences to the side and try to survive this internship since it’s only the two of us. It may snow tomorrow here in the Roanoke Valley so we won’t have class or have to do tours the museum might be closed–I hope so this way I get a week to work this assignment. The 5th picture is Bob and Gerald two of my trainers at the museum–Gerald’s father recently passed he was one of the survivors of the D-Day landing in France, we are losing so many WWII Veterans I am hoping that at least one will come to the museum so I can get some knowledge from them as well. Our oldest Vet who does tours is Richard a sprite young man of 90 years old he was too young for WWII, but he did fight both in Korea and Vietnam and has a ton of energy for a man his age. Last is a picture of General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower also the 34th President of the United States his statue sits at the center of the garden surrounded by his 6 subordinate commanders of the D-Day/Operation Overlord campaign. I will get a better picture of the Garden next time–that’s all for now from the tiny town of Bedford.