Search

Histories of the 201st National Guard Regiment. This regiment dates back to colonial times, beginning as Captain Morgan Morgan's company of militia, and has served with merit in nearly every war in which the United States has engaged. Specific details of this unit's deployment are included in an index.

Papers of Harold Henry Miller (24 November 1911 - 8 November 2006) regarding his military service and his career as a high school teacher in West Virginia and Maryland. Miller was a resident of Preston County, West Virginia and served during World War II and the Korean Conflict. Contains biographical information, correspondence, photographs, financial records, newspaper clippings, programs, pamphlets, brochures, handbooks, and highway maps. Also contains a soldier's pocket bible with bulletproof shield given by Miller to Paul Ray Cooper (1952); U.S.S. Missouri cruise book (1952-1953); "The Keel", United State Naval Training Center book (1952); and Terra Alta High School yearbooks, "The Altonian" (1948-1950). For biographical information, see box 1, folder 1.

Transcription of an oral history interview by Niel M. Johnson of the Harry S. Truman Library with Ken Hechler. Hechler, born 1914 in Roslyn, NY, received A.B., Swarthmore 1935; M.A., Columbia 1936; Ph.D., Columbia 1940 in Political Science which he later taught at Columbia, Princeton, and Marshall Universities. He served as a U. S. Army combat historian in Europe during World War II. Hechler was a research assistant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was special assistant to President Harry S. Truman. He was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from the Fourth Congressional District of West Virginia, 1958-77. A major part of the interview is about his work for President Truman as a speechwriter in political campaigns dealing with issues of public concern in the immediate post-war years such as the Korean War and political corruption. After completion of his White House duties he relocated to Huntington where as a professor at Marshall he staged a successful campaign for U. S. Congress. He mentions, as a congressman, his independence from his own party's state machine and his promotion of controversial causes such as implementation of civil rights and environmental protection legislation. Hechler is a popular, progressive who used a personal contact "grassroots" approach to campaigning. Eschewing the increasing costs of political campaigns and the heavy dependence of candidates on public relations firms, he was defeated in the late 1970's in his gubernatorial and congressional bids. He was successful, though in making a comeback in the 1984 race for West Virginia Secretary of State. He ends the interview by specifying the duties of this office and his accomplishments in it to date. Significant references are made to Dean Acheson, David Bell, Robert C. Brooks, John Carroll, Clark Clifford, Dwight Eisenhower, George Elsey, Hermann Goering, George Hechler, Lyndon B. Johnson, Max Kampelman, Estes Kefauver, Raymond Moley, Will Neal, George S. Patton, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Samuel I. Rosenman, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Adlai Stevenson, Harry S. Truman, Harry Vaughan.

Three manuscripts compiled by Sam McColloch, including: the letters of Archie and Mahala McColloch, a West Virginia couple who moved to the Arizona Territory; the artwork of West Virginia painters Leona Hatcher and Lyle Bennet; and the mission logs and letters of Korean Conflict pilot John Walker Hatcher. All material compiled in these manuscripts is transcribed or photocopied. There are also three compact discs with digital copies of these manuscripts. See "Scope and Content Note" for further information.

A roll of honor containing a listing of those students of West Virginia University who were killed during U.S. involved conflicts in the twentieth century. There are listings for World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. There is also a biographical insert for Joseph P. Bongiorni, the lone University fatal casualty of Operation Desert Storm.