After the November 2013 Veterans Day ceremony I set out to revise the 68 slide PowerPoint Riverton Veterans Album by incorporating newspaper clippings from the digitalized New Era newspapers that we made available online last year.
As the project grew, it crashed my computer so I split the file in two and kept going until the two totaled 163 slides – almost 300MB. Finally converted to a more digestible 53.6MB PDF, someone might actually have the leisure time to download and watch at least part of it.
The Riverton Veterans Album now includes original names from the Riverton War Memorial plus many other names of presumably Riverton military personnel culled from the old New Era newspaper articles.
Please know that the HSR does not decide what names appear on the Memorial – the Riverton Military & Veterans Affairs Committee does that. Nevertheless, The New Era, the hometown newspaper back then, certainly seemed to claim many names of service personnel not listed on the Memorial as having a Riverton pedigree.
Scanning dozens of service photos, reading hundreds of World War II era newspaper issues, and compiling that tribute to Riverton veterans gave me a new appreciation for those heroic men and women who “… answered the call to save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled, instruments of conquest in the hands of fascist maniacs… They won the war; they saved the world.”
Not my words – Tom Brokaw’s, from his superb book, The Greatest Generation.
Please let us know what you think of Riverton’s Greatest Generation as outlined in this very much expanded Riverton Veterans Album.
As always, we encourage our readers, our greatest resource, to participate in this work in progress.
If you can add to the information listed for yourself or a family member, or point out any errors, please contact me so that I may update the presentation. I sincerely hope that we can expand the presentation even further and develop it into a useful resource. Readers, you can help achieve this by providing more pertinent details, scans, news articles, and donated items. – John McCormick
Very impressed with the effort put into this Veterans Day presentation. It is a great acknowledgement of the people who served this country and helped make it what is and to those who continue to serve to protect it. Great job and thanks for caring.
Thank you, Mr. Harry, for your kind words about the presentation and for underscoring the reason why we dedicated this page to our veterans – to acknowledge their great service and sacrifice. Best regards, John McCormick, editor
Found my dad’s picture, thank you for posting it. Great album
Whenever I walk through the park, I always stop to look at the plaques beneath and think of the people that are honored. Many of them are veterans and I hope now that I will be able to read their stories. Thanks John