A number of years ago I received the military archives of a family friend, Victor Wilson, from his wife, Margie. At the time she told me she didn't want to place the memorabilia with a museum because she felt like that would limit access to the materials and she wanted them to be more widely available. During my time at Leander I used the materials as part of our Veteran's Day Display and in class when we studied World War II; today I am launching the first digital project from Vic's archives, his combat diary.
I have created a 3D Timeline movie which connects the events in the combat diary to Vic's photos. Although photos are not always 1:1 representations of the diary info (although there is some 1:1 correlation) I have tried to connect relevant photos that are representative of what is being discussed in the diary (for example, photos of planes with flak damage paired with a description of flak damage within the diary).
The material represented here is but a small part of the larger stash of materials that I am s-l-o-w-l-y digitizing. This is more of a labor of love than a research project and so I tend to work on it between semesters and during the summer. My goal this summer is to get the photo albums online, along with some of the memorabilia Vic collected. Over the long term I hope to get everything digitized, from commendations and flight school, to war time service to post-war service within an interactive website that links the materials together (and to other relevant historical sources).
First, some context. Vic served as part of the U.S. Army Air Corp serving in the North African and Italian fronts between 1943 and 1944. During this time he participated in air raids on Anzio, Battapaglia, and Sicily, amongst others. The diary is Vic's combat story.
