Hi all

Participating again in this forum and a few converstions over the past week made me think of this question:

"If you had the opportunity to immerse yourself in any activity/task concerning the field of history (archaeology, research, living archaeolgy, reconstruction, museum) in any era, and you would be able to achieve that goal, what would it be?"

The condition is that it should be a realistic goal, even though success might not be guaranteed. It must be something that a normal person could be able to achieve in his or her lifetime... Try to restore an armored vehicle would fit the mold. Restore everything that is displayed at the field at Aberdeen (IIRC), or a complete battleship would not. Restoring a house would be feasible, restoring a whole city, a cathedral or a palace like Versailles would not. Writing a serious, in depth book about a single unit, single person or a single military campaign would fit. Writing the same for every German division, every Roman Emperor or every battle of the US Civil War would seriously stretch it (IMHO stretch it too far)
The limit would be something that you could be able to set up with a small group of friends (say 5 - 10 max) with an average income (so no Bill Gates!).

For me that would be the following:

1) Writing a biography of Hannibal Barca. Why? Because for me he is the most fascinating person in history. Of course with the hope to make shed a new light on things, and make it a standard work.

2) Writing a similar biography, but then about Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. Why? Because I see him as the silent power behind Augustus. Without Agrippa, there would not have been an Augustus.

3) Write a monograph on at least one allied unit in the mold of of K-H Munch's monograph on schwere Panzerjäger Abteilung 654. My first choice would be either an American, British or Russian TD unit usually used as an independen command at Corps level.

Greetings,

Harm

Nice question. One thing I would love to do, if I had the training, and could afford to do so, would to be a park ranger and a historic battlefield. I'm thinking along the lines of Daniel Martinez, I'm pretty sure that's his name, who does so many of the things about Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona. I would think this would be a doable goal. I just can't think of what park I'd like to work at. Something to do with ships. Perhaps one of the battleships that have been preserved.

Hmmm... For me it would probably be curator or head of preservation at a museum like Aberdeen, or something similiar. I really like working with old miltary things.... must be that moldy old miltary smell that I like so much :-)

Good question! As for me I love to wrench on things so my dream would be to work at the Smithsonian or something like it restoring old armor and aircraft. I drool everytime I think of trying to get a Tiger or Sherman engine running after all those years and everything it's been through. Or, doing some metal work on the "Enola Gay" or "Bockscar"! If anyone out there has any leads let me know! :-)

restore bi-planes..... to flying condition.
But at my age, my next dream job is retirement and fishing.... :-)

Thanks for the answers and positive response guys...

Just throwing it out here, but what would be a suitable American TD unit? Have any idea?

Because the idea of doing the K-H Munch type book is growing on me...

BTW, if one is interested in German armor, the book is worth every penny of its hefty price ($ 100). Awesome photographs, and because they used the unit war-diaries and private diaries (but then fairly to the point of the (military) activity a very interesting read...

I would like to own and run a small arms or infantry weapons museum. I think that would be cool. Have examples of everything I can find from the inception of gunpowder to the present day.

Well I already restore armored vehicles , so that's one thing covered.

Still on my list, create a website and write a book about the armoured batalions of the Brigade Piron or for that matter about all the vehicles used by the Brigade during WW2

Kris

There is a fellow out here in Colorado Springs who pretty much has achieved your dream David. I don't know his real name but he's known as The Dragon Man. He's got a place outside town on the plains east of here. Part of his operation is a paint ball park. The other part is he has a museum of weapons. He's got most every WWII weapon you can think of. He also has a firing range. For a price, I don't know how much, you can fire anything he's got, from a Colt .45 up to a MG-42. He's also got several military vehicles, including a few tanks. He will sometimes drive them in local parades, like Fourth of July or Memorail day.

Doing what i'm doing now, teaching History. I'm quite lucky in doing this, someone pays me to teach a subject I love. However, if all goes well i'll be teaching and researching at a university as i have got an interview on wednesday for a PhD Studentship.That is basically someone paying me to do reasearch for 3 years then i can get into Higher Education and concentrate on my research interests.

Ross

Hi Ross,

cool to know... In fact your aim is exactly the same as mine... though graduation (BA) has hit a slight delay (6 months), my aim is still to end up with a PhD, and get into higher education (with quite some research).

Where are you at? And what era is your specialty?

Harm

Hey Harm,

I'm currently at the University of Wolverhampton, finished a BA in History and War Studies and know doing a PGCE, though the PhD will be at Lancaster University. you?

My research interests are the British Military of the Twentieth Century, Air Power and the History of Military Thought.

Ross

My specialty is (going) to be ancient history, and Roman military history in particular.

Though I will get my BA from Leiden University, I am currently attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa on an exchange program to stduy (write my BA-thesis) with the help of M.P. Speidel.

I had intended to graduate in August, that is now going to be January.

For my MA, and most likely my PhD as well I will return to Leiden, though I hope to be able to spend some time as a student under J. Rich, at the University of Nottingham.

Harm,

You are very lucky I have heard of Spiedel and by all accounts he is very good. I wished I could have done a semester abroad by it was not to be. Hope you get to do your further studies. What areas you gonna specialise in?

Ross

I kind of mirror Rodger. I would love to be a park ranger. Pearl would be nice but the ultimate would be Gettysburg or Sharpsburg for me.

For my BA thesis it is the late Roman army (the mobile army) as emerged under Diocletian and Constantine; it is a completely different army from the well known Principate army (which pretty much came to an end by the mid 3rd century AD). I will be focussing on the mobile units
In many ways these seem to have resembled something of a firebrigade (akin to some German panzer-units in WW II), either in order to expell barbarians again or for use against usurpers. In the West this army came to an end around the battle of the Catalaunian fields... it is a fascinating era, with some horrendous battles (Adrianople, Mursa (where roughly 1/8th of all soldiers in the Roman army was killed!), Strasbourg, Ad Frigidus), and a wide disparity in unit quality.

For my MA (and subsequentgly PhD) it will probably be the Roman army around the era of Hannibal and the century thereafter.

So my specialty will be the Roman army (at least for now), with a possibly a focus on the earlier (Republican) army.

Cheers,

Harm

That is cool... Gettysburg is impressive to visit. I guess with Sharpsburg you are talking about Antietam? Never visited that one (it is on my to visit list).

Well if I ever win the lottery I'm thinking of opening a shop. One half would be a model shop, but very selective, only selling WW2 German kits! It would also show case local modellers work & run clubs & things, like a Games Workshop outlet. The other side would deal in old motorcycles, especially Norton & Moto Guzzi, definitely no Japs! Yeah, dream on!
Since we're dreaming, I'd also like to find an Sdkfz234 Puma in a farmer's barn. It would be all there & just require a light restoration, & he'd have no idea of it's true value, so sell it to me for £50 because he wanted it out of the way!

Harm,

Good luck. It is a very interesting field. Unfortuanatly one of my colleague's recently called Ancient and Medieval History antiquated. I think it is far from that, the military are constantly learning from Hannibal and the Romans.

Steve

That sounds cool. I have to admit the other thing I wouldn't mind is my own Book/Model shop. Just think i would have had to of won the lottery to do it!!

Ross

Wow, I'd love to visit that place. Back in SL we have very little access to firearms outside the military & police, and no real military museums, so I'm always eager to check out this sort of thing when I travel. I even walk into gun stores and stand there drooling like an idiot.

For me it would be (finally) getting my name first in the list of authors for a report published in an archaeological journal. Having a surname beginning with a letter in the middle of the alphabet is a nuisance Specially when I did most of the work.

Seeing the excavation of some legionary armourer's workshops in Caerleon that I worked on back in the 80s finally reach publication would also be nice. But not very likely - thanks NMGW

I think a park ranger would be cool, but instead of in the U.S. I'd like to be one at say...Kursk, do they have some sort of job like that?

And say...use a FAMO as a tour bus :-) ...seriously.

Well, my wife & I talked about a combo beer-bait-hobby-quilt shop but that didn't happen ....

I wanted to write a book, but just haven't spent the time to come up with anything like a unique, meaningful, or even controversial point of view that isn't a rehash of other folks stuff ... gee, maybe I should go on TV ...

I really wanted to retire near a museum where I could, as others suggested, go pull wrenches and restore/maintain aircraft or ground equipment.

That didn't happen, but I did become 1/2 the volunteer curator-docent-archivist-etc team of the Dare County Regional Airport Museum -- which doesn't sound real exciting, but our local airport was a CAP base and USN training base in WW2 -- VF-17, the Jolly Rogers, came thru here. We are deep into cataloging & reorganizing our stuff. No real aircraft ... yet. Closest I've come is to reapir a few of the large wooden models that fell from the ceiling ... I've got a couple resin autogiro & helo kits that are relevant & will build them one day - may even take 'em in on Youth Aviation Day ....

If you come to the Outer Banks, be sure to visit -- contact me ahead of time & I'll give you the tour ...

Visit our website (yeah, it needs work): http://www.co.dare.nc.us/Airport/Museum.htm

Yeah, I know this is an armor site, but I'm on the Outer Banks, Kitty Hawk, the First Flight & all that stuff ...

John

I would have liked to been a soldier. When I was young and fit enough, I had neither the motivation, nor the cajones to join. Now, all I can do is wave my Stars and Stripes and thank as many as I can for their service.