FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- Self-proclaimed military history buff Lt. Col. Joel Hamby steps back in time to D-Day this weekend.
Hamby and a handful of active duty Soldiers, former service members and civilians will depict World War II Soldiers as part of the Don F. Pratt Museum's annual Normandy Living History Exhibit Saturday, June 8, 2013. The event focuses on a key part of the 101st Airborne Division history -- June 6, 1944.
"It's an important touchstone for the Division's history," said Hamby, rear detachment commander for the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division.
Sixty-nine years ago, members of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, were the first Soldiers to be dropped into Normandy, France, as part of Operation Overlord. Their mission was to seize and control the high ground overlooking the beaches to clear the way for Allied armored divisions.
"D-Day was the very first combat action of the 101st Airborne Division," Dan Peterson, Pratt Museum director and re-enactor.
The Normandy Living History Event will highlight this key part of the Division's past. The day starts at 9:30 a.m. and continues until 4:30 p.m. at the Pratt Museum, 5702 Tennessee Ave.
"I really like interacting with the public and showing them a part of history they really didn't see," Hamby said.
Hamby started participating in re-enactments in 2007, when he was stationed at the Pentagon. Today, he's active in the unofficial Fort Campbell Living History Association, comprised mostly of museum volunteers.
"They come from various walks [of life]," Peterson said of the group. "A number of them are active duty Soldiers that do this as a hobby and retiree Soldiers from the area who have been doing this since they were active duty… and also local civilians who have gravitated to the museum or are interested in the history…"
The group wears uniforms from the World War II era and displays period weaponry and other memorabilia related to the history of the 101st Airborne Division.
"We call them impressions. We don't like to use the word costumes," said Peterson. These living historians "come across to the public as that actual person -- as if that visitor went back in a time machine to talk to them.
"It's more than just 'you've got to have the gun, the uniform,' …you want to have in your pocket, not just a matchbook, but a replica World War II matchbook."
The museum has three principle living history activities to commemorate major events in the Division's history: D-Day in June; Market Garden in September; and the Battle of the Bulge in December.
Visitors to Saturday's event will be able to meet German soldiers, as well as Allied Forces, to include 101st paratroopers and pilots who fought at Normandy.
Both Hamby and Peterson will portray German paratroopers.
"It's actually my best impression. I've been an American paratrooper, so I figured I'd be the enemy [this time]," Hamby said. "Normally, we take the politics out of it and break it down to the individual soldier -- how that individual soldier lived, what he fought with and how he lived and died in the field."
Likewise, re-enactor Glenn Tamboia, a former 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment avionics mechanic, "climbs into the cockpit" Saturday to portray a WWII C-47 pilot.
"I've always had a love for aviation," said Tamboia, who now works as a helicopter instructor for the Night Stalkers. "I'm going to represent the troop transport aspect of the Normandy invasion -- the C-47 aircraft, pilots, crewmembers and equipment they used to transport 101st troops into Normandy."
Visitors can learn about the ranks and insignia of the WWII Soldiers, the radio equipment of the aircraft and "in this particular operation, what navigation tools that the pilot and crewmembers used to find the drop zones," Tamboia said.
For Tamboia, living history re-enactments are important to preserve history and to honor those who served in that era.
"The major part of why we do this is the absolute honor that we have to meet these people that have done these fantastic feats, to get their knowledge and to pass it along to the next generation before it's all gone," he said.
Saturday's event is open to the public and is free of charge. Guests of Fort Campbell may obtain a visitor's pass and enter post at Gate 4. For more information, call the museum at (270) 798-3215.
Hamby said living history events educate the public about history in an interesting, hands-on, first-person way.
"It makes history less stale," he said. "It's also a really good way to interact with the veteran community, too. The World War II veterans are leaving us at a fairly incredible rate. It's an appreciation of their service… It's a way to bring history to life and to show it to other people so they can have an appreciation, too."
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