This living history event brings to life the experiences of fighting in the Pacific Theater and the home front during World War II. Guests will have the chance to learn from living historians portraying soldiers who fought in the Pacific Theater and about different aspects of a soldier’s life including weapons, signals and communications, and tactical demonstrations. Impressions will range from U.S. Army and Marines to those of British and Russian allies. Civilian living historians will portray goings on at the home front and USO activities stateside. Demonstrations will include medical, cooking, weapons and a military uniform and civilian fashion show. A special tactical demonstration will be performed on Saturday afternoon to illustrate the art of fire and maneuver. All event activities and programs are included with regular daily paid admission. 

Partner museums to include; the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, MacArthur Memorial, U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum, U.S. Army Ordnance TSF, U.S. Army Women’s Museum and the Virginia War Memorial will have displays and more for visitors to see and experience. Presentations by authors and historians will be throughout the weekend. Col. Richard D. Camp U.S.M.C. Ret. will present “Lieutenant General Edward A. Craig: Warrior Six: Combat Leader in World War II and Korea,” Dr. Timothy Orr will present “No Routine Flights: The Life of Dive Bomber Pilot Donald Kirkpatrick, Jr.,” Mr. Carter Bertone will present “The Battle of Wake Island,” and Mr. Jim Triesler will present “The Coming of War in the Pacific: 1931-1941.” Artist Henry Kidd will additionally speak on his military art and share his collection of Hollywood movie props from The Pacific series, Saving Private Ryan and Sands of Iwo Jima to name a few.

Colonel Richard D. Camp, U.S.M.C. Ret. will speak on his new book titled: Lieutenant General Edward A. Craig: Warrior Six: Combat Leader in World War II and Korea (2023). Colonel Richard D. Camp, a Purple Heart recipient, served 26 years in the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring in 1988. Upon retirement he served as the Deputy Director, U.S. Marine Corps History Division and as the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, Vice President for Museum Operations at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Quantico, Virginia. Currently residing in Fredericksburg, Virginia, he is the author of ten books and over 100 magazine articles on various military related subjects. Copies of his books will be available for purchase and signing.

Dr. Timothy Orr is associate professor of military history at Old Dominion University. He earned his PhD at the Richards Civil War Era Center at Pennsylvania State University. He is author and editor of Last to Leave the Field (2011) and co-author of Never Call Me a Hero (2017), as well as several essays about the Army of the Potomac. He is the book review editor for the Gettysburg Magazine and author of the blog Tales From the Army of the Potomac. For eight years, he worked as a seasonal ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park. Dr. Orr co-authored Never Call Me a Hero: A Legendary American Dive-Bomber Pilot Remembers of the Battle of Midway (2017) with his wife Laura which chronicles American dive-bomber pilot Jack “Dusty” Kleiss.

James Triesler is the Director of Education for the Virginia War Memorial located in Richmond, Virginia. Triesler became a history teacher in 1992, and has a passion for WWII. He and his students have won numerous awards for their work, including a Save Our History Award from the History Channel for creating the website ittookawar.com, a collection of letters and personal accounts from the Second World War. While in the classroom, Triesler accumulated nearly 8,000 original WWII letters for his students to learn from and transcribe. He was named the Virginia Battle of the Bulge person of the year in 2012, and is a former Virginia Region 1 Teacher of the Year. He has presented at several VBOB and BOBA events and loves displaying artifacts for people to enjoy and learn about WWII. Since 2015, Triesler has been the Director of Education at the Virginia War Memorial, where he has continued to honor veterans and educate students of all ages.

Mr. Carter Bertone, a retired US Army Special Forces and current DoD Civilian will give a presentation on the Battle of Wake Island (Dec 41) in which the heroic actions of a USMC Defense Battalion, a squadron of USMC fighter planes, a USN administrative unit US Army signalmen  and a civilian contractor company slowed the advance of Japanese forces across the Pacific during the darkest days of WWII after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Children will enjoy craft activities to include World War II coloring books and making a take home    project of the Roosevelt’s Scottie Dog “Fala.”

World War II, which was fought between 1939 and 1945, cost an estimated 85 million casualties both military and civilian worldwide. The United States military casualties amounted to 416,800. While many were thankful for the surrender in Europe on May 8, 1945 the war in the Pacific raged on and was far from over. The battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa during the first half of the year gave a glimpse of the carnage awaiting invasion forces set to strike the Japanese home islands. A planned Allied invasion on the island of Kyushu was set for November 1st. There 500,000 Japanese troops were in position and another 6 million were under arms or able to be called into service. This invasion did not come to pass. The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Imperial Japan to accept an unconditional surrender. The terms were accepted on August 14, 1945 and a formal document signing ceremony took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2nd.

This event is held in partnership with Bank of Southside Virginia.