![]() I have been a member of the Illinois National Guard for three years now, and until now I have been just a regular drilling member. But if the right opportunity came I have kept an eye open to move from just coming in to drill, to a more full time commitment with the guard, this winter just such an opportunity came knocking at my door. I have built relationships with a lot of people within the guard, people that significantly outrank me during our interactions in uniform, but outside of drill weekend would be considered my peers. This is one of the funny things about the guard, in that you can often have a dual relationship with people, because of where you stand in and out of uniform. I have two undergrad degrees (BA & BS) and I'm finishing up my MA this year, but I chose to not go to OCS, so I am serving as a SGT. Being enlisted, but with the education and professional experience that is equal to or above many of the Captains that I interact with makes for an interesting dynamic. This winter those relationships turned into a phone call asking if I would like to come out and work for the Guard full time, working on the centennial of WW1, and the state's commemorations for the next two years. They needed someone with a history background that was willing to come on and fill this slot, they also had to be a member of the guard, and the bonus was that I live in the town where the post would be so I don't have to relocate. This meeting was between full time officers on post, the officers in charge of various departments for the state's command headquarters, and the TAG, the Commanding General for the State of Illinois. To say that I'm honored to get the opportunity is an understatement, the chance to further both my military and civilian careers, and to work on such an important subject is amazing. The discussions that have come out of this, about the relationships that I can work to build between local history organizations, private foundations, communities within the state, and the National Guard is what public history is all about. For the last year and a half I've been working on becoming a better Public Historian, learning and discussing theory and best practices, and now as I'm working on my thesis, I get to apply all of this in my full time work. This job will also be a challenge, pushing me to grow in significant ways, I'm going to have to become excellent at time management, as this job is going to require a lot, and this semester I still have to finish two classes and propose my thesis topic. This job will also push me to be a better soldier, the daily life on post and being in uniform everyday will change my life in the military, no longer is it just a matter of making it through two days a month, now this is my full time job, and I have to take that very seriously. In my last post I talked about what kind of historian I am, and the events of the last month and the conversations that I have had confirm what I kind of knew already. I am a public historian, committed to the idea that good history rests on not only the scholarship of people such as myself, but the community members and stakeholders that I partner with. Good history rests with the meaning that is created when stakeholder, visitor, historian, and others come together, to take the stories of the past and root them in the ways that they speak to the present. The next two years will be filled with many challenges, professionally and personally, as I work to finish my degree, and give proper honor to the men that left Illinois to serve one hundred years ago, as well as to connect those men to the communities they resided in, and the residents that live there today. This challenge is one that I'm looking forward to, and I only hope that I do the men and women of Illinois proud.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
The Ranger SteveThough I'm no longer found underneath the Flat Hat of the NPS I still find myself identifying as Ranger Steve more often than not. Archives
January 2017
Categories |