Emails and photos sent home by South Carolina service members in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere are being featured on a new website and traveling exhibit created by the S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson helped the museum announce the new features for its Write from the Front program at a press conference Monday, September 11. Wilson contributed photos to the exhibit from a recent trip he took to Iraq. His son Alan Wilson, an Iraq veteran, is a member of the program’s advisory board.
At the start of the Iraq war in 2003, the museum launched Write from the Front, an effort to preserve emails and digital photos from South Carolina service members overseas. The program recognizes that electronic communication has begun to replace traditional paper letters as the preferred way for many service members to write home.
“We are still actively seeking South Carolina service members and families who would like to ensure that their war correspondence and other material are saved for the next generation,” said Museum Director Allen Roberson. “The emails are the building blocks of tomorrow’s history books and research. We don’t want these real-world stories to be lost with the next hard drive crash.”
The new website, www.wftf.sc.gov, features selected emails and photos voluntarily submitted by soldiers, aviators and sailors who are South Carolina natives or were trained at one of the state’s many military bases. Museum staff has also worked to discover and preserve other pieces of digital military history. These include a blog by Captain Lisa Yanity, a guidance counselor at A.C. Flora High School who served in Afghanistan with the S.C. National Guard.
Yanity is also one of three service members who will be featured in a new Write from the Front traveling exhibit that is free to local libraries, museums and other institutions. The exhibits include highlights from the collection and information on how service members and their families can contribute to the program.
Also featured are emails and photos from Kimberly Hampton, an Easley native and Presbyterian College graduate. In January, 2004 she became the first female pilot in U.S. military history to die in combat when her OH-58 Kiowa observation helicopter was shot down by enemy ground fire in Fallujah, Iraq.
Her parents Dale and Ann Hampton Monday presented the museum with several items, including a uniform, her pilot wings and some of the citations she received.
A third panel includes emails and photos from Capt. Bryan Tolar, a member of the S.C. Army National Guard currently an embedded team trainer with the Afghan National Army. A Columbia native, he previously served in Bosnia. The multiple panels will allow different versions of the exhibit to travel the state. The exhibits also come equipped with desktop computers that allow visitors to browse the online Write from the Front collection.
Organizations interested in hosting a Write from the Front exhibit should contact museum Curator Sarah Wooton at 803-737-8094 or by email at swooton@crr.sc.gov.
Location Opening Closing
SC Confederate Relic Room, 301 Gervais St. Sept. 11, 2006 Oct. 9 , 2006
Columbia Visitors Center, 1101 Lincoln St. Sept. 12, 2006 Sept. 28, 2006
Oconee County Public Library, Walhalla Oct. 2, 2006 Oct. 31, 2006
Chester County Library, Chester Oct. 11, 2006 Oct. 31, 2006
Kimberly Hampton Memorial Library, Easley Nov. 1, 2006 Nov. 30, 2006
Hampton Museum & Visitors Center, Hampton Nov. 1, 2006 Nov. 30, 2006
Pickens County Museum, Pickens Dec. 1, 2006 Dec. 29, 2006
Edgefield Discovery Center, Edgefield Jan. 2, 2007 Jan. 31, 2007
Pendleton High School, Anderson Jan. 8, 2007 Feb. 2, 2007
Conway Library 1008 5th Ave., Conway Feb. 1, 2007 Feb. 28, 2007
Barnwell County Museum, Barnwell Mar. 1, 2007 Mar. 30, 2007