(Farmville, VA) – Faculty Emeritus of English Dr. Michael Lund has a project in the works titled “Expanding the Audience for Veterans’ Voices”, in partnership with Longwood University. The project includes a program for veterans, active military, and military families to document their life experiences in free writing formats. Founded in 2015, the purpose of the project is to … Read More
Praise for Home and Abroad Writer
Kevin Hardy praise of Gary Bowman’s autobiograhical novel, Of Helicopters and Heroes, is featured in The VVA Veteran’s “Books in Review II”: “I enjoyed Of Helicopters and Heroes in which Gary Bowman gives some love to crew chiefs and door gunners. Most Vietnam War books focus on pilots, but the crewmen were an important component of all helicopter operations. . … Read More
Veteran’s story continued . . .
More than five years ago, Gary Bowman of Loveland, Colorado, completed Of Helicopters and Heroes, a fictional account of a Huey helicopter crew chief’s one year tour in Vietnam. Inspired by real events, it includes photos and after-action reports to document the work’s historical accuracy. This 180-page, well-crafted tale offered a compelling narrative of challenge, hardship, and survival. A soldier’s … Read More
Artist and Veteran
Dean Lord grew up in New York state wanting to be an artist. His talent was evident as early as age 6, when he completed this piece. His father thought that would be a hard way to make a living, so introduced him to the carpenter’s trade, where he was successful and might have stayed for many years. Military service … Read More
Memorial Day 2021
The Director’s Memorial Day opinion piece , “Blue Smoke War/White Bones Men,” was published in the May 31, 2021, Richmond Times-Dispatch. (If the link doesn’t open and asks you to sign in, click the X in the upper right.) Michael Lund recounts how Farmville, Virginia, veterans groups and law enforcement arranged for the burial of a Vietnam veteran in the … Read More
Tribute to a Fallen Comrade
A tribute to to Marine Sargent Major (retired) Tom Hicks was produced in early 2021 by Farmville, Virginia Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7059, Farmville American Legion Post 32, the Piedmont Area Veterans Council, and friends. The focus of this tribute is Tom’s tireless volunteer contributions to the local community. Accounts by seven veterans tell how he collected clothes for … Read More
Navy veteran tells his story
“The US Navy made profound impressions on my youth and my own evolution into later life. The experiences and shipmates I have known and the opportunities afforded me during my Navy years have granted me a life of pride, joy and hopefully, service to others.” In summer, 2020, Pamplin, Virginia resident, Fred Hill, completed an account of his military … Read More
A story for Veterans Day, 2020
This story, “Bees,” by Michael Lund, appears in Intima: a Journal of Narrative Medicine. You can listen to him read it here or read it online at the journal site.
Visiting Scholar
Dr. John S. (Jerry) Mebane, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Alabama at Huntsville, speaks to English 215-01 on March 9. The focus of the course is “The Death of the Citizen Soldier?” And Dr. Mebane’s topic was” Christianity, pacifism, and the principles of justice in warfare,” a topic at least as old as Saint Augustine who wrote … Read More