Virginia Military Institute Archives
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The bulk of the collection is open to research. Some individual files are currently closed per donor stipulation.
VMI at War Project collection, 1941-1995. MS 0532. VMI Archives, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.
Under the auspices of the Alumni Association, alumnus Albert Z. Conner, Jr. (VMI Class of 1966) solicited information from VMI alumni about their service in the military. He called this effort the "VMI at War Project." Conner compiled the submitted documents and subsequently donated the collection to the VMI Archives.
This collection contains autobiographical and biographical information about the military service of alumni veterans of World War II through the first Gulf War. The alumni responses range in length from short summaries to longer narrative descriptions detailing their service. Some files contain related photographs and documents.
This collection is arranged chronologically by VMI class and then alphabetically by last name within each class.
Biographical essay documenting military career of Brigadier General Guy H. Drewry, VMI Class of 1916. The essary covers the period of 1917 to 1946.
This file contains a summary of Septimus B. Sightler, Jr.'s (VMI Class of 1926) active duty service from World War II through 1960.
This file covers George P. Frazer's (VMI Class of 1929) service with the 2nd Armored Division during World War II.
DuRoc Jones Batte (VMI Class of 1930) served during World War II with the 1253d Engineer Combat Battalion.
This file contains orginal documents dating from the World War II service of DuRoc G. Batte, including: Commendations Photographs Personnel material Certificates "Synopsis of Orientation Talk to Newly Arrived Units in United Kingdom", 1944
This file includes an article written by Walter D. Hankins III about the 142nd General Hospital in Calcutta, India (1945-1946).
No military duty. Ernest L. Laughorn served as a civilian in a munitions plant during World War II.
Edward R. Massie (VMI Class of 1931) saw stateside duty during World War II.
Braxton Murray Cutchin, Jr. served as a United States Army ordnance officer during World War II.
During World War II John Mills Fain served in the United States Army Air Forces as a 5th crash boat rescue service in the Pacific Theater.
During World War II Simeon Oliver Coxe, Jr. served with the 1332nd Engineer General Services Regiment in England. He then had duty in Pacific Theater with 5202nd Engineer Construction Brigade Headquarters.
This file includes original documents (declassified 2015) concerning Operation Olympic, which was part of the planned invasion of Japan in 1945. Included is information about planning for construction projects, primarily air fields.
George Bedney Hightower (VMI Class of 1933) served in World War II with the famed Flying Tigers. The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941–1942 was nicknamed the Flying Tigers and was composed of pilots from the United States Army Air Corps, Navy, and Marine Corps. This group was recruited under presidential authority and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. The shark-faced nose art of the Flying Tigers remains among the most recognizable image of any individual combat aircraft or combat unit of World War II.
This file contains photocopies of George B. Hightower's World War II papers, including: His diary (dated January 22-May 10, 1945) written while he was Commanding Officer Forward Echelon, 68th Composite Wing Headquarters, 14th Army Air Forces, China Military orders Commendations Correspondence Photographs Printed material
During World War II Louis B. Jones served as an officer with the United States Army 2nd Training Regiment.
John Landsdale, Jr. graduated from VMI in 1933. He was called to active duty in 1941 and ordered to G-2, War Department General staff. In 1944 was transferred to the Manhattan Engineer district where he was in command of intelligence and security for the Atomic Bomb Project. Landsdale initiated the Alsos Mission that located and investigated the German atomic bomb project.
This file contains one bound typescript titled "John Landsdale, Jr. Military Service," written by Landsdale in 1997. It includes extensive information about his association with the United States Atomic Bomb Project.
During World War II John T. Meek served at Ladd Field in Fairbanks, Alaska.
During World War II, Wayne Clyde Weaver was a civilian engineer who built munitions plants for the DuPont Company.
During World War II, George Edgar Bain was an operations and training officer, Europe, Headquarters 95th Armored Field Artillery Battalion.
During World War II, Charles Pickett Lathrop (1914-?) was a Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army, 6th Field Artillery Battalion.
This file consists of typescript memoirs titled "History of the 6th Field Artillery on Fiji."
Eugene Barbour Pendleton (1913-?) was an officer in the United States Navy during World War II.
This file consists of one audiotape titled "Career in Navy, 1942," which was recorded in 1994.
Recorded on a cassette audiotape. This item has not yet been digitized or transcribed.
This file consists of a one page handwritten summary of John D. Todd, Jr.'s service in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps during World War II.
John Walter Childress served with the 177th Field Artillery Battalion during World War II.
Winfield Clary Holt (1913-2003) served in the United States Army as a: Colonel Staff Officer, Operations Division, War Department General Staff Executive Officer at the Allied Translator and Interpreter Service (ATIS) G-2 General Headquarters, Southwest Pacific Area in Brisbane, Australia Holt was an attorney in his civilian life.
This file contains a typescript (approximately 30 pages) of a detailed autobiographical essay about Winfield C. Holt's service during World War II with the Allied Translator and Interpreter Service (ATIS) under the command of Colonel Sidney Mashbir.
Leonard McManus Todd was a United States Naval officer during World War II.
Carter Spottswood Vaden was killed in action on March 10, 1944 on Los Negros Island in the Southwest Pacific.
James Walton Wilson was a chemical engineer at Union Carbide.
This file contains a summary (two pages) of Gilbert E. Butler's service as a transport, escort and combat pilot during World War II. He flew 52 combat missions in Sardinia, Sicily, and Italy, and became Commanding Officer of the 27th Squadron, 1st Fighter Group.
A summary (two pages) of Gilbert E. Butler's service as a transport, escort and combat pilot during World War II.
This file contains an account of Harrison Hubard's service as a Ground Liaison Officer (GLO) with the 2689th Ground Liaison Detachment (15th Army Group). He servied in North Africa, and Ital, and participated in the Rome, Arno, Northern Appenines, and Po Valley campaigns.
Harrison Hubard (1917-2008) was a World War II veteran, electrical engineer, and power company executive.
A summary of Harrison Hubard's (1917-2008) World War II service as a Ground Liaison Officer (GLO) with the 2689th Ground Liaison Detachment, 15th Army Group.
John A. Shanklin was killed in action on April 8, 1945 in Germany.
Harman Paul Bigler served as a Field Artillery Officer in China during World War II and the Korean War.
During World War II, William Fitzgerald Brand, Jr. served in Central Europe with the 16th Field Artillery Battalion. He also participated in the Battle of the Bulge.
Claud Peterson Brownley III served in World War II with the United States Army, 9th Division in North Africa and Europe.
This file contains a brief summary of Robert Ward Buskirk, Jr.'s World War II service.
During World War II, William Henry Hastings, Jr. served with the United States Army, 3nd Infantry Division in the Pacific.
During World War II, Ogden Halsey Hill (1916-?) served with the United States Army, Company A, 350th Infantry Regiment in North Africa and Italy.
This file contains a detailed account of O. Halsey Hill's service in North Africa and Italy during World War II, as well as original military orders, citations, and other documents dating from his service (bulk 1942-1945). The file also includes coverage of battles in the North Apennines, Italy (1944).
A summary of O. Halsey Hill's military service during World War II.
This telegram informs Archibald G. Hill that his son, O. Halsey Hill was wounded in Italy on September 26.
During World War II, John Janney Johnson (1918-?) served in the United States Army as an aerial reconnaissance observer and photographer, 33rd Division, in the Philippines (Luzon).
James Shelby Magoffin (1917-?) was a United States Army Air Forces flying trainer during World War II.
Ira Nelson Saxe (1918-?) served in the United States Army Signal Corps during World War II (1941-1946).
Richard Donald Strickler (1915-1977) was a United States Marine Corps officer for 26 years. During World War II he served in the Pacific Theater with the 2nd Marine Brigade. During the Korean War he served with the 7th Marines.
William Albert Tidwell, Jr. (1918-?) was with the United States Army Intelligence during World War II and then became a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. During the Vietnam War he was "loaned to the US [United States] Army and served as Chief of Reconnaissance and Photo Intelligence for J-2 US Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV)."
This file includes a detailed Vietnam War memoir typscript (102 pages) titled "Yankee Bravo."
Edward Burwell Williams served during World War II with the 246th Coast Artillery Regiment and the 1176th Engineering Construction Group in the Pacific Theater.
This series contains project files for alumni from the VMI Class of 1940. Military service primarily dates from World War II.
Reid S. Aaron was a Japanese prisoner of war and was killed in action while being moved from the Philippines on February 15, 1944.
During World War II, William Kent Adams servied in the United States Army, 9th Infantry Division, 84th Field Artillery Battalion.
George Vinson Atkison, Jr. (1917-?) was a civilian chemist with the DuPont explosives department, Hanford Engineering Laboratory.
Philip G. Chapman was killed in action on March 25, 1945.
William H. U. Darden served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II and was killed in action on December 6, 1943.
Charles J. Faulkner IV served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II and was killed in action on November 1, 1944.
George B.J. Handy served in the United States Army during World War II and was killed in action on January 23, 1942.
Marshall Burwell Hardy, Jr. (1918-2010) began active duty in December 1940 and was assigned to the United States Army, 1st Armored Division. He served four years, with 250 days in combat, in campaigns in North Africa and Italy. In 1945 he taught gunnery at the Armored School, Ft. Knox, Kentucky.
A summary of Marshall B. Hardy, Jr.'s military service during World War II.
Joseph D. Harris served in the United States Army during World War II and died on February 5, 1944 from wounds received in action in Italy.
Douglas Hampton Hatfield served as a United States Army Commander, 91st Squadron, 19th Bomber Group during the Korean War. He was killed in action on April 12, 1951.
The following is from Donald Edison Hillman's (1918-2012) obituary that was published in the Seattle Times (dated March 24, 2012): "Donald E. Hillman was a highly decorated U.S. Army pilot, an ace fighter who had shot down five enemy airplanes during World War II. He flew 145 missions in 10 months, then was taken prisoner by the Nazis in 1944 after bailing out of a flaming airplane at 12,000 feet. Mr. Hillman twice escaped from German prison camps — the second time with the help of a German officer with whom he would later develop an extraordinary friendship. Mr. Hillman's wartime exploits landed him on the front pages of newspapers in Seattle, and on the cover of Life magazine [December 9, 1946] — a bona fide war hero who was fast running out of cloth on which to pin his service medals."
The file consists of detailed World War II memoirs [unpublished] that include discussion of bombing missions and Donald E. Hillman's time as a prisoner of war.
Malcolm Blanchar MacKinnon served in the Army Air Force during World War II. He was declared missing in action on June 11, 1943, over the North Seas, and he was declared dead on June 12, 1944.
Douglas Garvin McMillin served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II as a navigator on a B-24 Liberator. He was declared missing in action in the South Pacific while attacking a Japanese convoy, and was declared killed in action on July 5, 1944.
Thomas Ranson Opie served in the United States Army Air Force during World War II and was killed in a plane crash on November 10, 1944.
James A. Smith III was killed in action on November 5th, 1943.
During World War II, Sydney Archibald Vincent, Jr. served with the 803rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, 29th "Blue and Gray" Infantry Division. He was killed in the Battle of St. Lo (France) on July 19, 1944.
During World War II, Linwood Winson, Jr. served in the United States Army. He died on December 23, 1943 at Camp Ibis, California.
Major General John Albert Broadus Dillard, Jr. (1919-1970) commanded the United States Army Corps of Engineers during the Vietnam War, and was killed when his helicopter was downed by enemy fire near Pleiku, Vietnam on May 12, 1970.