Arts of War on the Web

The state of Wisconsin is rolling out the red carpet for Vietnam veterans the weekend before Memorial Day with a three-day event known as LZ Lambeau. The sponsors are the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, and Wisconsin Public Television, along with a slew of veterans’ organizations including Vietnam Veterans of America’s Wisconsin State Council.

The event includes a motorcycle rally from La Crosse to Green Bay on Friday, May 21; the opening of Back in the World, an exhibit by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum; a Vietnam-era military vehicle exhibit; music and other performances; and the arrival of a Vietnam War era Huey helicopter.

Things get started on Thursday May 20, at 1:00 p.m., when the event opens to the public at Lambeau Field, the famed “frozen tundra,” the home of the NFL Green Bay Packers. That will be followed at 4:00 that afternoon with the dedication of The Moving Wall™. The music stage starts at 3:00.

Saturday’s events include an aircraft exhibit at Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay; a series of lectures beginning at 11:00 a.m.; music from noon to 6:00 p.m; a 7:30 p.m. Tribute Ceremony; and more music till 11:00.

The Sunday events include music at 12:30 by Vietnam veteran Lem Genovese and a “Wiping of the Tears” Ceremony at the Oneida National Veterans Memorial Wall at 3:30 p.m. The weekend is open to all veterans. For more info go to the LZ Lambeau web site.

For its annual Black History event February 25, the Newton White Museum in Mitchellville, Maryland, is looking for information on African Americans in the military, from World War I to the Vietnam War.

In you’d like to share stories, photographs, artifacts or memorabilia, call 301-249-2004 or email nwmansion@pgparks.com

The Newton White Mansion, which is in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Prince George’s County, is a Neo-Georgian-style brick mansion sitting on 586 acres. The mansion was the home of Navy Captain Newton H. White, the first commanding officer on the U.S.S. Enterprise prior to World War II.

The big National Memorial Day Parade in Washington steps off at 2:00 p.m on Monday, May 25. This is the formerly annual event that took a 70-year hiatus and was re-established four years ago.

The parade’s organizers, the American Veterans Center of Arlington, Virginia, tell me it’s the largest Memorial Day in the nation. They expect a crowd of some 250,000 to honor America’s veterans and those who did not come home from America’s wars. The parade will include marching bands, veteran units, and uniformed military personnel.

This year there will be a special tribute to the U.S. Navy that will include Navy veteran Ernest Borgnine, along with actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna, and country music star Lee Greenwood.  For more info go to the parade’s web site.

The 2008 American Veterans Conference will be held November 6-8, the weekend before Veterans Day, in Washington D.C. This is the 11th annual conference put on by The American Veterans Center. The headliner this year is Lt. General Hal Moore (above), the hero of the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, who received a VVA Excellence in the Arts Award for his book We Were Soldiers Once and Young. Among other things, the conference will feature a panel called “Baseball Goes to War,” featuring an array of ballplayer veterans including Hall of Famer Bob Feller.

For registration information and the schedule of events http://www.americanveteranscenter.org/AVC_conference-schedule.html For more information email Tim Holbert tholbert@americanveteranscenter.org or call 571-480-4152

VVA’s Chapter 604 in Topeka, Kansas, is sponsoring a tribute to Americans troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on June 14, at 11:00 a.m. Central Time, at that city’s Kansas Expocentre. The tribute, called The Reading, will include patriotic songs and a solemn reading of the names of those service personnel who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As names are read, placards with the fallen troops’ names, date of death and home state will be displayed on the stage by family members and other supporters. A bell will be rung and silenced for each of the 4,533 names. The placards will be given to family members or displayed on a hillside adjacent to the Expocentre. That night, members of the local Junior ROTC will stand vigil over the names. Members of Chapter 604 will give a 21-gun salute and a Taps will be played.

For more information, go to www.thereading.us

This year will mark the fourth annual Memorial Day Parade in Washington, D.C., put on by the American Veterans Center. The special guests this year will include Miss America, and the actor Gary Sinise (Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump),and the famed movie star (and World War II veteran) Mickey Rooney. For info go to, www.nationalmemorialdayparade.com