VFW senior leader appointed to Commission
By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, U.S. World War One Centennial Commission
Commissioner Debra AndersonThe Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. has appointed VFW Quartermaster General Debra Anderson as a commissioner to the United States World War One Centennial Commission. She will be officially sworn in as a member of the commission in a ceremony later this year.
Anderson is a senior leader within the VFW, and the first Operation Desert Storm and woman elected to serve as the 117-year-old organization’s chief financial officer. She is a 13-year Army veteran who graduated with a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she attended on an ROTC scholarship. Her awards and decorations include the Bronze Star, two Meritorious Service Medals, the Southwest Asia Service Medal, Kuwait Liberation Medal and Parachutist Badge.
The U.S. World War I Centennial Commission is a Congressional Commission established in 2013 to mark American service during the war, through public outreach, education programs, and commemorative events. The commission has also been authorized by Congress to create the new National World War I Memorial in Washington DC.
Anderson joins other current commissioners, who include: Col. (Retired) Robert Dalessandro (Chair), Edwin Fountain (Vice Chair), Jerry Hester, Col. (Retired) Thomas Moe, James Whitfield, Dr. Libby O’Connell, Major General (Retired) Alfred Valenzuela, Dr. Monique Brouillet Seefried, Dr. Matthew Naylor, and Ambassador (Retired) Tod Sedgwick.
Four Questions for Randy Gaulke
By Chris Isleib
Director of Public Affairs, U.S. World War One Centennial Commission
Randy Gaulke’s preoccupation with the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest German-American battle of the war stems from his fluency in German, his year abroad in Germany and his “real” introduction to the region in 1994. That was the year he first participated in a work weekend with the members of the German Remembrance Committee of the Argonne Forest. Since that trip, he has visited the sector almost annually. His Meuse-Argonne web site chronicles his interest and tours. A historian and battlefield tour guide by passion, Randal is a financial analyst who works in New York City. He and his family reside in New Jersey.
Randy Gaulke
You are a career tour guide. Tell us about your career, how you got started, and your interest in WWI.
Briefly, my interest in WW1 began with the purchase of “Fight in the Skies,” a WW1 aviation board game in 1980. I took my first battlefield tour with Lt. Col. Graham Parker of Flanders Tours in 1986; and my fascination with the Meuse-Argonne began in 1994, when I participated in a work weekend with the Deutsches Erinnerungskommittee Argonnerwald. Since 1986 I have visited the battlefields twenty times; and I have built up a lot of friendships from these groups and from other national and international groups. (I cannot overemphasize the knowledge base found in groups like the WW1 Historical Association or the Western Front Association.)
Over the years, I have taken individuals / groups of various sizes. To describe two: In 1998 Steve Matthews and I worked with Tony and Teddy Noyes of Flanders Tours to organize the first Western Front Association USA Branch tour in 1998. We handled the marketing / advertising and Tony and Teddy handled the guiding / logistics. Nine years later, in 2007, I again worked with Teddy Noyes and Paul Guthrie to lead the second half (6 days) of the Western Front Association USA Branch tour. My portion covered the Meuse-Argonne and St. Mihiel.
With the Centennial upon us, I intend to take a sabbatical in 2017 and to live in France as a tour guide for a major portion of the year. This will allow me to share my passion and knowledge with others. (In my real-life career, I am a high-yield bond analyst.)
Read more: Four Questions for Randy Gaulke
Chris GarciaI started my career at the Virginia War Museum in April of 2008 as the Museum's Education Coordinator, where I am responsible for developing and supervising all of the Museum's Education and Youth programs, teaching Military History for everyone from elementary school children, to post-graduate military professional instruction.
NEW YORK – There will be a host of World War I-related activities on Saturday, September 17, 2016 at NYC's Governors Island. A platoon of living history reenactors will bring World War I Doughboys to Governors Island National Monument for a free exhibition. See demonstrations and hear stories as reenactors portray famous New York regiments, including the Harlem Hell Fighters, at Doughboy Day at Fort Jay.
But a great sense of that sense of common purpose came about because of one thing everyone needed, equally: food. Whether it was what people ate, how they ate, or when, the government, during both World Wars, actively sought to get people to act a certain way with patriotic posters that shouted grand messages.
