Associated Products
BRINGING WAR HOME: OBJECT STORIES AND COMMUNITY MEMORY OF MODERN WAR (Blog Post)Title: BRINGING WAR HOME: OBJECT STORIES AND COMMUNITY MEMORY OF MODERN WAR
Author: Molly Boeka Cannon
Author: Susan Grayzel
Abstract: You decide to tackle that long-postponed task—going through the boxes of material moved from your grandparents’ home into your basement. When you unpack them, you find a box within a box. It might contain some black and white photographs: someone in a nurse’s uniform, someone carrying a flag. It might hold a set of medals, an old cap, a pair of worn-in boots, or a government-issued recipe booklet on how forgoing sugar will help win the war, with handwritten annotations next to the family favorites. When looking through these items, you might remember as a child playing with the medals or watching a face light up when looking at a photograph. While many of us have no direct experience with military combat, we often live with the souvenirs, objects, and other remnants passed down from those who did. Sometimes, the objects collected or saved by our relatives, friends, and neighbors who have participated in the last century's wars linger on as memorials. These tell us much about how members of our families and communities contributed to wartime activities, overseas and at home. But sometimes, unless we take a moment to ask about the meaning of the stuff in those boxes, we lose their significance and thus a way to understand our shared past.
Date: 05/10/2022
Primary URL:
https://history.utah.gov/bringing-war-home-object-stories-and-community-memory-of-modern-war/Primary URL Description: The Utah Division of State History shares stories of Utah's shared past through blog posts.
Website:
https://history.utah.gov/category/history-main-blog/Bringing War Home: live from Hill Aerospace Museum on Thursday's Access Utah (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: live from Hill Aerospace Museum on Thursday's Access Utah
Writer: Tom Williams
Director: Tom Williams
Abstract: I recently conducted a live taping of Access Utah at Hill Aerospace Museum. I was inside a large C-130 military transport aircraft, and was joined by the Museum Director, Aaron Clark, and military veterans and museum volunteers Lynn Walker, Dennis Jacobs and Paul Stone. Today we’ll hear some fascinating stories. This is part of the Bringing War Home Project. Utah Public Radio is partnering for this project with the USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, the USU History Department and the USU Museum of Anthropology. Broadcasts of Bringing War Home on Utah Public Radio are supported by Utah Humanities.
Date: 04/28/2022
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/access-utahPrimary URL Description: The website for the UPR radio program Access Utah, a daily show highlighting Utah stories.
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/ask-an-expert/2022-04-28/bringing-war-home-live-from-hill-aerospace-museum-on-thursdays-access-utahSecondary URL Description: The website for accessing the specific Bringing War Home episode, live from the roadshow events at Hill Aerospace Museum.
Access Model: open access
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home
Writer: Annika Shinn
Producer: Shalayne Smith-Needham
Producer: Friend Weller
Abstract: War is saturated with objects shaped and carried from battlefields to homes. Sometimes such objects end up in Museums, but the personal stories of how such objects came to make journeys from Vietnam, for example, to rural Utah often do not. One of the main goals of our project is to disperse basic tools that will allow veterans and members of military families as well as the general public to understand the things brought home from war. The stories featured in this segment are from a 2018 roadshow event hosted by UPR and USU's class "1918 Anglo-American Culture and Society in a World at War," where the community was invited to bring in objects from World War I and to tell their stories.
Date: 11/10/2021
Primary URL:
http://upr.orgPrimary URL Description: The website for Utah Public Radio host of the segment "Bringing War Home".
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/utah-news/2021-11-10/bringing-war-homeSecondary URL Description: The website where the segment can be accessed.
Prizes
Radio Military Category
Date: 6/16/2022
Organization: Utah Society of Professional Journalist
Abstract: Award recognizes excellence in radio production in the military category.
Bringing War Home' with Sue Grayzel & Molly Cannon on Wednesday's Access Utah (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home' with Sue Grayzel & Molly Cannon on Wednesday's Access Utah
Producer: Tom Williams
Abstract: War is saturated with objects shaped and carried from battlefields to homes. Sometimes such objects end up in Museums, but the personal stories of how such objects came to make journeys from Vietnam, for example, to rural Utah often do not. Utah Public Radio is partnering with the USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, the USU History Department and the USU Museum of Anthropology, in the Bringing War Home Project. On this special Member Drive edition of the program, we’ll talk about this project with USU History Professor Susan Grayzel and Molly Cannon, Director of the USU Anthropology Museum and the USU Mountain West Center. You can sign up to record your story with us at www.upr.org
Date: 03/30/2022
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/access-utahPrimary URL Description: The website for the daily program Access Utah highlights stories from across the state.
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/access-utah/2022-03-30/bringing-war-home-with-sue-grayzel-molly-cannon-on-wednesdays-access-utahSecondary URL Description: The website for the episode with Susan Grayzel and Molly Boeka Cannon.
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home: Things They Carried Book Discussion Kit (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Bringing War Home: Things They Carried Book Discussion Kit
Author: Cannon, Molly
Author: Grayzel, Susan
Author: Brown, Clayton
Author: Funda, Evelyn
Author: Crawford, Dustin
Author: Holt, Kerri
Author: Grieve, Victoria
Abstract: In order to facilitate community discussions about Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, faculty at USU led by the Bringing War Home Project's two PIs, developed a book club kit. This includes the attached documents: a list of discussion questions; a guide to further resources on the Vietnam War, and a series of writing prompts for participants.
Year: 2021
Audience: General Public
Bringing War Home: How a leather medical kit was used during WWII (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: How a leather medical kit was used during WWII
Writer: Susan Grayzel
Writer: Annika Shinn
Writer: Molly Cannon
Director: Susan Grayzel
Director: Molly Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: The Pacific theater of World War II posed many dangers to American service members. Along with the usual perils of combat came illnesses like malaria and dengue fever, dysentery due to contaminated water, and the pervasive threat of wound infections.
Fortunately, service members also witnessed several advancements in the practice of medicine. Among the most important were the development of the first antibiotic Penicillin, the use of plasma and serum albumin for blood transfusions, and vaccine innovations that helped defend against some of the most virulent infectious diseases.
Naval doctors were assisted by service men with broad medical training. These men were vital in administering first aid and delivering medications to the ill and injured.
One such serviceman, Bruce Crane’s father, Rex, returned home from the war with a surplus item: a small leather medical kit containing surgical instruments. While the tools were used at home for things like pulling out Bruce’s loose baby teeth, Rex had used a kit just like it to treat serious medical conditions during his time in the Navy.
Date: 04/17/2023
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2023-04-17/bringing-war-home-how-a-leather-medical-kit-was-used-during-wwiiPrimary URL Description: URL to listen to and read a transcript of the story.
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Bringing War Home: How a handmade French flag kept an American soldier going (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: How a handmade French flag kept an American soldier going
Writer: Molly Cannon
Writer: Susan Grayzel
Director: Susan Grayzel
Director: Molly Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: A gift given by a young girl during the liberation of France gave this soldier the strength to keep going and ultimately formed a connection spanning generations.
Date: 04/13/2023
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2023-04-14/bringing-war-home-how-a-handmade-french-flag-kept-an-american-solider-goingPrimary URL Description: Link to the website that hosts the program.
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Prizes
Radio Military
Date: 6/15/2023
Organization: Society for Professional Journalist Utah Chapter
Abstract: The team earned second place award in the Radio Military category by the Society for Professional Journalists Utah Chapter.
Access Utah: Bringing War Home' with Rich Etchberger (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Access Utah: Bringing War Home' with Rich Etchberger
Director: Tom Williams
Abstract: Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger was among 12 U.S. airmen killed on March 11, 1968, when a North Vietnamese Army special forces team scaled a 3,000-foot cliff and attacked their secret radar camp. Etchberger helped rescue three of his comrades, two of whom were severely wounded and made it safely aboard an evacuation helicopter himself before being shot through the floor as it lifted off from the mountain, where he helped lead a team that aided the U.S. bombing campaign of North Vietnam.
This past Saturday, in conjunction with the Bringing War Home roadshow at the USU Moab campus, we talked with Rich Etchberger, USU Vice Provost and USU Interim Vice President for Statewide Campuses, who joined us to discuss his father's legacy and receiving the Medal of Honor on his behalf.
Date: 10/26/2022
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/access-utah/2022-10-26/bringing-war-home-with-rich-etchberger-on-wednesdays-access-utahPrimary URL Description: Permanent link to digital file and transcript.
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Access Utah: Bringing War Home (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Access Utah: Bringing War Home
Director: Tom Williams
Abstract: Many of us are familiar with wartime souvenirs, whether we have direct experience with the battlefield or not. Some of these objects are personal, a way for veterans to preserve their experiences. Often, we treasure objects from our relatives who have participated in the wars of the 20th century; special things linger on as memorials that help our families tell the stories of how beloved fathers, grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, cousins and siblings contributed to the larger history of war.
Today we’ll hear some excerpts from interviews conducted during the Bringing War Home Project. We’re joined today by Molly Cannon, USU Assistant Professor of Anthropology, and Susan Grayzel, USU Professor of History. They are co-directors of the Bringing War Home project.
Date: 9/14/2023
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/access-utah/2022-09-14/bringing-war-home-on-wednesdays-access-utahPrimary URL Description: Permanent link to digital file and transcript.
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Objects of War (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Objects of War
Author: Susan Grayzel
Author: Molly Cannon
Abstract: The First World War unleashed a century of modern, total war. While historians of war traditionally rely on texts to understand past conflict, this interdisciplinary course focuses on the material culture of modern war, with an emphasis on the First World War, the Second World War, and the Vietnam War. While centering the American experience of these wars, students will also gain a critical understanding of just what it meant to wage modern war on this scale in a global perspective. In addition to covering the basic history of these conflicts, students will have the opportunity in the second half of the class to help with public outreach roadshows and digitally collect objects and object stories, and from these, to help develop a digital archive of the objects and object stories.
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
Objects of WarFamily Memories and the Things We Carry (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Objects of WarFamily Memories and the Things We Carry
Abstract: Presentation of the Bringing War Home Project to the Cache Valley Historical Society.
Author: Susan Grayzel
Author: Molly Cannon
Date: 03/09/2022
Location: Logan, Utah
Objects of War Family Memories and the Things We Carry (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Objects of War Family Memories and the Things We Carry
Abstract: A presentation about the project to the Logan chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Author: Molly Cannon
Author: Susan Grayzel
Author: Katie White
Date: 02/18/2023
Location: Logan, Utah
Objects of War Family Memories and the Things We Carry (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Objects of War Family Memories and the Things We Carry
Abstract: A presentation about the project to residents of an assisted living facility, the Legacy House.
Author: Susan Grayzel
Author: Molly Cannon
Date: 11/14/2022
Location: Logan, Utah
Objects of War Family Memories and the Things We Carry (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Objects of War Family Memories and the Things We Carry
Abstract: A presentation about the project for the Salt Lake City Library during their lecture series "Let's Be Neighbors."
Author: Molly Cannon
Author: Susan Grayzel
Date: 05/10/2022
Location: Online and Salt Lake City, Utah
Objects of War Family Memories and the Things We Carry (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Objects of War Family Memories and the Things We Carry
Abstract: A presentation about the project for the Logan Library.
Author: Molly Cannon
Author: Susan Grayzel
Date: 12/05/2021
Location: Logan, Utah
Summer Citizens Seminar Bringing War Home: Objects Stories, Memory, and the Vietnam War Experience (Course or Curricular Material)Title: Summer Citizens Seminar Bringing War Home: Objects Stories, Memory, and the Vietnam War Experience
Author: Molly Cannon
Author: Susan Grayzel
Abstract: A shell casing with an image of the Statue of Liberty etched on it with a nail; a postcard from Saigon. While many of us have little or no direct experience of the battlefields of modern war, we often live with their material remains. Some objects collected by relatives who have participated in the wars of the last century linger on as memorials for families that help us tell the stories of how our individual beloved fathers, grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, cousins, and siblings contributed to the larger history of the waging of war. In this class, we explore how objects can be used to understand the range of experiences related to the Vietnam War. In this interactive course, we will explore the Vietnam War through narrative accounts, oral history, and material culture. You will work on developing your own writing and storytelling of a personal or family account through prose and object story.
Year: 2022
Audience: General Public
Rethinking Motherhood and War (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Rethinking Motherhood and War
Author: Susan Grayzel
Abstract: Participant in Roundtable on “Rethinking Motherhood and War.” Society for Military History Annual Meeting, March 2023, San Diego, CA—This discussed in detail one of the objects and related object story from the Vietnam War provided by a military family member. This was a peer-reviewed conference proposal.
Date: 03/25/2023
Conference Name: Society for Military History Annual Meeting
Understanding Modern War through Material Culture: Public History and the Making of an Object-Centered Digital Archive (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Understanding Modern War through Material Culture: Public History and the Making of an Object-Centered Digital Archive
Abstract: Invited Talk and Public Presentation, Department of History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, April 3, 2023. New Brunswick, NJ
Author: Susan Grayzel
Date: 04/3/2023
Location: Rutgers The State University of New Jersey
Bringing War Home Digital Archive (Database/Archive/Digital Edition)Title: Bringing War Home Digital Archive
Author: Susan Grayzel
Author: Molly Boeka Cannon
Abstract: Many of us are familiar with the material remains of war, whether we have direct experience with the battlefield or not. Some of these objects are personal, a way for veterans to preserve their experiences. Often, objects collected by relatives who have participated in the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries linger on as memorials that help families tell the stories of how their beloved fathers, grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers, cousins, and siblings contributed to the larger history of war. The “Bringing War Home” project aims to enable our diverse community, military and civilian alike, to share their wartime objects and the stories that surround them. Working with community partners, we are preparing to host roadshows across Utah, where we invite the community to share family stories and to bring wartime objects for us to photograph and preserve in a digital archive (an online website where others can view and learn about these objects and their stories). One of our main goals is to create opportunities to engage veterans, military families, students, and communities in ongoing conversations on how objects can help us understand modern war. The digital archive is a first step in documenting and sharing these stories.
Year: 2024
Primary URL:
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bringingwarhome/Primary URL Description: access to the digital commons home page for the Bringing War Home Project
Secondary URL:
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bwh_collection/Secondary URL Description: access to the collection
Access Model: open access
What They Left Behind: The Objects, Stories, and Places that Tell Utah's WWII Story (Exhibition)Title: What They Left Behind: The Objects, Stories, and Places that Tell Utah's WWII Story
Curator: Sara Watkins
Abstract: As World War II began, Utah sent its sons out into the world. Those who came home brought the world back with them. They came home with stories of the places they had visited, the horrors they had seen, and the things they had done. Many came home with objects—souvenirs they had collected, war trophies they had looted, and gifts they had received while risking their lives for a nation that needed them. For some GIs, these objects told the stories they could not. Over the years, other veterans and their descendants have moved to Utah, bringing with them the stories and objects that hold their memories. Many of their memories are connected to places throughout the world. Others are connected to places in Utah.
When put together, all these stories create a more complete picture of World War II. The war strengthened some local communities in Utah as community members worked together to support the war effort. It tore some families apart as their loved ones died at training bases and in faraway lands. The efforts and sacrifices of Utahns on the home front and the front lines ultimately helped win the war.
Year: 2024
Primary URL:
https://arcg.is/1W9iGu0Primary URL Description: link to the digital story map
Bringing War Home: A daily reminder of his uncle's sacrifice for his country (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: A daily reminder of his uncle's sacrifice for his country
Writer: Susan R. Grayzel
Writer: Molly Boeka Cannon
Writer: Katie White
Director: Susan Grayzel
Director: Molly Boeka Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: During WWII the Imperial Japanese government sought control over all of East Asia. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese military attacked both the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines — bombing airfields, bases, harbors and shipyards. General Douglas MacArthur led Filipino and American troops as they tried to defend the country against Japanese occupation in the Pacific theater. However, the troops were already dealing with disease and living off half-rations when the Battle of Bataan began on January 7, 1942.
By April 9, the sick and starving Allied forces had no other choice but to surrender. The Japanese army assembled the 78,000 prisoners of war and took them on a forced march up the Bataan Peninsula. They crossed 65 miles in the tropic heat. Among the beaten and tortured prisoners was an American man named Harvey, marching on the deadly path to Camp O’Donnell.
A few years later in Richfield, Utah, a three-year-old boy discovered a heap of military items in his upstairs bedroom. He didn’t know how they got there. The boy, Brent Hanchett, knew only that the items once belonged to his uncle Harvey Rice, who died in the Bataan Death March, his body lost among the many dead buried in a communal grave.
Hanchett’s family didn’t talk about Rice or what happened to him. Hanchett wanted to know who his uncle was — what he was like — but, he says, it simply was not a topic of discussion in his family. Hanchett held onto one of the items Rice left behind in the upstairs bedroom, an aluminum canteen in a canvas cover. Though Hanchett knew little about his uncle, the canteen became a daily reminder of his uncle’s memory and his sacrifice for his country.
Date: 05/30/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-homePrimary URL Description: link to collection of project broadcasts
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-05-30/bringing-war-home-a-daily-reminder-of-his-uncles-sacrifice-for-his-countrySecondary URL Description: link to radio segment
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home: A military couple's life while serving in Germany (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: A military couple's life while serving in Germany
Writer: Katie White
Director: Susan R. Grayzel
Director: Molly Boeka Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: Ron Irvin served 23 years in the U.S. Air Force Security Forces. During his time in Germany, Irvin was a consumer fraud investigator for the police. During the latter 10 years of his service, Irvin’s wife Mary Walker-Irvin joined the Air Force as a weather officer.
While together in Germany, the couple got to know local people through groups like the International Motorcycle Club for police — which Irvin compares to the Annual South Dakota Sturgis Motorcycle Rally — and community events like the Volksmarsch — a non-competitive walk Irvin describes as a leisurely stroll through the woods. In separate interviews, both Ron and Mary said their time in the military taught them that people are pretty much the same wherever they go.
Date: 05/27/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-homePrimary URL Description: link to collection of project radio segments
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-05-27/bringing-war-home-a-military-couples-life-while-serving-in-germanySecondary URL Description: link to radio segment
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home: Staring down the barrel of a cannon while holding a broom (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: Staring down the barrel of a cannon while holding a broom
Writer: Katie White
Director: Susan R. Grayzel
Director: Molly Boeka Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: The Navy’s crash and salvage teams work on-board aircraft carriers. The red-shirted crash crewmen focus on emergency response. They run toward the danger. From clearing safe routes to fighting fires and rescuing trapped personnel — they do it all.
Robert Hawthorne served in the Navy from 2003 to 2007. He worked onboard the USS John C. Stennis as a crash and salvage team member. Hawthorne held onto his hat and flight deck jersey—a red turtleneck. He pulled the items from his basement so people could see them, learn about them, and remember the crash and salvage teams.
Date: 05/16/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-homePrimary URL Description: link to collection of project radio segments
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-05-16/bringing-war-home-staring-down-the-barrel-of-a-cannon-while-holding-a-broomSecondary URL Description: link to radio segment
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-05-02/bringing-war-home-not-seeing-meant-not-believing (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-05-02/bringing-war-home-not-seeing-meant-not-believingWriter: Katie White
Director: Susan R. Grayzel
Director: Molly Boeka Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: Jack Rau navigated a B-24 in World War II. Jack didn’t bring anything home. The objects of war his son Bill holds onto are documents regarding Jack’s death — a “Missing in Action” notice, a military life insurance policy for ten thousand dollars, and a letter from the Army about what to do with Jack’s body.
In January 1945, Jack’s plane was shot down over what is now Croatia. He was confirmed dead in December the same year. Bill was two years old at the time, and has no memory of his father — only pictures of his father holding him. As an adult, Bill set out to learn more about him, researching, going through archives, and speaking to men who were in the 450th Bomb Group Jack was in.
Bill wrote a history relating to his father and his family’s experience with loss. He reads the following excerpts from his writings.
Date: 05/02/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-homePrimary URL Description: link to collection of project radio segments
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-05-02/bringing-war-home-not-seeing-meant-not-believingSecondary URL Description: link to radio segment
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home: "If today is my last day..." (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: "If today is my last day..."
Writer: Katie White
Director: Susan R. Grayzel
Director: Molly Boeka Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: The World War Two D-Day operation of June 6, 1944 is the largest land, air and sea invasion ever executed. The invasion’s success marked the beginning of the end of Hitler’s regime. On that day, more than 160,000 military forces from the United States, the British Commonwealth, and their allies landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. Within 24 hours, over 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded.
World War Two Veteran Thomas MacElwee had just graduated college when he joined the U.S. Navy. MacElwee was in charge of communications and gunnery on the ship he served on. At one hundred years old, MacElwee has held onto his naval cap, epaulets, and commission pennant for nearly 80 years. With his daughter Gail Griswold beside him, he shared memories of the days leading up to June 6, 1944, and his arrival at Omaha Beach.
Date: 04/09/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-homePrimary URL Description: link to collection of project radio segments
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-04-09/bringing-war-home-if-today-is-my-last-daySecondary URL Description: link to radio semgment
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home: A prisoner and a painting (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: A prisoner and a painting
Writer: Molly Boeka Cannon
Writer: Susan Grayzel
Writer: Anika Shinn
Writer: Katie White
Director: Susan R. Grayzel
Director: Molly Boeka Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: Here in the US, we often think of the Second World War as service men and women waging this war overseas. Yet, more than 400,000 prisoners of war spent time as laborers in prison camps across the United States, including Utah. Here in Utah, German and Italian soldiers housed in POW camps also worked as agricultural laborers on local farms. These were not the only camps in Utah. Japanese American citizens and families forcibly removed from their homes ended up imprisoned in the Topaz camp near Delta.
The US established 13 camps in Utah for P.O.W.s, primarily adjacent to military installations along the Wasatch Front. Four of these camps were in rural communities, where hundreds of prisoners worked alongside farmers and their families. What were the legacies of such camps, especially for rural populations? The full story of the impact of POW camps and forced labor is still not well understood, particularly for Utah's rural communities. Through a family object, a portrait of a young boy, Wendy Pettit shares a story of one such encounter between a German POW and her father.
Date: 04/09/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-homePrimary URL Description: link to collection of project segments
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-04-09/bringing-war-home-a-painter-and-a-prisonerSecondary URL Description: link to radio segment
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home: How WWII veterans shaped their Idaho community (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: How WWII veterans shaped their Idaho community
Writer: Katie White
Director: Susan R. Grayzel
Director: Molly Boeka Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: After the Second World War, many veterans returned to their communities and assumed key positions there. Each readjusted to civilian life in their own way.
Items they brought home from war such as letters, uniforms, or medic bags may have continued being used, been put on display, or simply been stored away.
Some men chose not to speak of their war experiences at all, while others shared their stories overtly. Spoken or unspoken, the wartime experiences of World War II veterans shaped how the next generation saw them and what was learned from their examples. Lifelong educator and historian Ross Peterson reflects on how such men shaped his hometown of Montpelier, Idaho.
Date: 03/08/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-homePrimary URL Description: link to collection of project radio segments
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-03-08/bringing-war-home-how-wwii-veterans-shaped-their-idaho-communitySecondary URL Description: link to radio segment
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home: Shrapnel from a war with no front battle lines (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: Shrapnel from a war with no front battle lines
Writer: Katie White
Writer: Susan Grayzel
Writer: Molly Boeka Cannon
Director: Susan R. Grayzel
Director: Molly Boeka Cannon
Producer: Katie White
Abstract: Named after the Vietnamese holiday celebrating the lunar new year, the Tet Offensive completely reshaped the Vietnam War. Instead of the informal holiday truce that had occurred in previous years, North Vietnamese forces launched several simultaneous coordinated attacks on cities, towns, government buildings, and military targets — resulting in tens of thousands of casualties for both sides. Although South Vietnamese and US forces were able to repel many of these attacks, the Tet Offensive demonstrated that victory in Vietnam was far from imminent.
Army reserve veteran Jerald Jacobs was deployed during the Tet Offensive in 1968. He survived numerous attacks during the year he served in Vietnam and carried home a piece of shrapnel and a rocket nozzle. Very few people were allowed to keep such items. While these pieces of shrapnel may seem insignificant, keeping it for another lifetime helps preserve the memory of what it was like for Jacobs to be in country, in Vietnam.
Date: 03/08/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-homePrimary URL Description: link to collection of project radio segments
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/bringing-war-home/2024-03-08/bringing-war-home-shrapnel-from-a-war-with-no-front-battle-linesSecondary URL Description: link to radio segment
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home: Vietnam War Symposium on Wednesday's Access Utah (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)Title: Bringing War Home: Vietnam War Symposium on Wednesday's Access Utah
Director: Tom Williams
Abstract: USU’s Bringing War Home Project is presenting a USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences Tanner Symposium: Women & America’s Vietnam War on Friday at the Eccles Conference Center on the USU campus in Logan. All are welcome and attendance is free and open to the public, and all sessions will be live-streamed on Zoom. Organizers do ask those interested in attending (either in person or remotely) to register in advance. It will not be possible to access the live-stream without pre-registration.
The event will feature talks from Thi Bui, author of the graphic memoir The Best We Could Do, which examines her family’s immigration to the U.S. following the war; Vietnam veteran Susan O’Neill, author of Don’t Mean Nothing, a collection of short stories set in Vietnam during the war; and Kara Dixon Vuic, author of Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War. (Link to our past episode with Thi Bui)
Susan O’Neill and Kara Dixon Vuic join us today.
Date: 02/28/2024
Secondary URL:
https://www.upr.org/show/access-utah/2024-02-28/bringing-war-home-vietnam-war-symposium-on-wednesdays-access-utahSecondary URL Description: link to the Access Utah episode
Access Model: open access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web
Bringing War Home: Objects, Memories, and Stories from a Public Project (Article)Title: Bringing War Home: Objects, Memories, and Stories from a Public Project
Author: Susan R. Grayzel
Author: Molly Boeka Cannon
Abstract: The article details the origins of the Bringing War Home Project and the protocol for collecting, digitizing, and sharing stories from roadshow events in 2022-2023.
Year: 2023
Primary URL:
https://doi.org/10.5406/26428652.91.3.04Primary URL Description: link to journal article
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Utah Historical Quarterly
Publisher: Utah Historical Society
Preserving Community Object Stories from America’s Wars (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Preserving Community Object Stories from America’s Wars
Author: Molly Boeka Cannon
Author: Susan R. Grayzel
Author: Tessa Goodsell
Author: Sara Watkins
Abstract: A painting by a POW, a dress made from Vietnamese silk, drumsticks from the Civil War--these are a few of the objects that Utahn’s wanted to include in the community-driven Bringing War Home Digital Archive. The objects reflect a wide variety of wartime material culture, but the stories embodied in each object most interests us. We share the challenges faced, and best practices developed, for connecting with communities from across the state during our nine roadshow collection events to foster community-engaged history.
Date: 09/22/2023
Primary URL: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.utahmuseums.org/resource/resmgr/conference/2023conf/2023_uma_program_book_final.pdf
Primary URL Description: link to conference program
Conference Name: Utah Museums Association
Bringing War Home: Object Stories, Memory, and Modern War (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Bringing War Home: Object Stories, Memory, and Modern War
Author: Susan R. Grayzel
Author: Molly Boeka Cannon
Abstract: The authors presented in an invited workshop symposium titled "RESILIENCE AND RECONSTRUCTION: HISTORIES OF THE PRESENT" organized by Peter Leese (co-PI Center for Culture and the Mind) and Jason Crouthamel (Inaugural Visiting Professor), University of Copenhagen.
Date: 11/30/2023
Conference Name: Center for the Mind University of Copenhagen
Stories within Objects Writer's Workshop (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Stories within Objects Writer's Workshop
Author: Molly Boeka Cannon
Abstract: The author prepared a writer's workshop for memoirists, family history, and biographers, focusing on object stories using examples from the Bringing War Home Digital Archive.
Date: 10/21/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.usu.edu/mountainwest/evans-workshop/Primary URL Description: link to the workshop website
Conference Name: Utah State University Mountain West Center for Regional Studies Writer's Workshop
Tanner Talk: Women and America's Vietnam War Symposium (Conference/Institute/Seminar)Title: Tanner Talk: Women and America's Vietnam War Symposium
Author: Susan Grayzel
Author: Molly Boeka Cannon
Abstract: The United States formally ended its participation in what it called the Vietnam War fifty years ago. Many are still living with the legacies of this conflict, and one of the populations deeply affected by this devastating event were the women of many backgrounds who served militarily, had loved ones go to war, tended those affected by their direct participation in the war, protested its impact, or otherwise attempted to make sense of the war’s complex experiences and legacies.
In connection with USU’s ongoing Bringing War Home Project that is collecting objects and stories from veterans and military families about modern war, we invite students, scholars, creative artists, and community members to share perspectives, especially from local history, in order to open conversations about the experiences of women who participated on multiple sides and sites of this conflict. We encourage interdisciplinary submissions from history, anthropology, material culture studies, archival studies, communications, literature, and the creative arts.
This will be a live event, but there will be options for virtual participation for those who cannot attend in person.
Date Range: 03/01/2024
Primary URL:
https://www.usu.edu/mountainwest/bringing-war-home/symposiumPrimary URL Description: link to the symposium website