Steven Weingartner, Editor
stevew@interaccess.com
3920 Park Avenue - Brookfield, IL 60513
Phone: 708 485 3910
FAX: 708 485 8345
See "Announcement"
January 2000 Update:
If
anyone is interested in the following project, please feel free to tell them
to
contact me by telephone or e-mail. Also, please let any
interested
Provisional Tank Group veterans know that I am working
continually on the project, and that, if I haven't contacted them
yet in that I regard, it's
only because I've been so busy. I will endeavor to contact them
at some
point. The men of Bataan are all heroes to me, and writing this
book about
the tank group is my way of honoring them.
I'm conducting research for an oral/narrative history I will be writing
about the Provisional Tank Group (192d and 194th Tank Battalions, plus
the 17th Ordnance), United States Army, Far East, in the Luzon/Bataan
Campaign of 1941-42. To that end I'm seeking the whereabouts
(addresses and phone numbers) of veterans such as yourself of all
companies and sections of the aforesaid units so that I might interview
those individuals. Additionally, I'm seeking any information
(documents, official records, unit histories, diaries, personal
documents, and such) pertaining to this subject.
My book will be an operational/battle history, covering the
struggle for Luzon and the Battle of Bataan, as well as the immediate
prewar period (i.e., enlistment, training at Ft. Knox, etc.). I
will not be writing about the Death March or the POW experience.
I intend to base the book on the first-person accounts I will
gather in tape-recorded interviews with the veterans of the Provisional
Tank Group. It is my goal to present the story of the PTG in the
words of the veterans, from their perspectives: I want their opinions
and insights, and I want them to recount their personal experiences of
in full and lengthy detail. No such book has ever been written,
and it's high time one was. This is an opportunity for the brave
and gallant men of the Provisional Tank Group to tell what really
happened, to set the record straight -- to "tell it like it was."
I am the editor of the Cantigny Military History Series, which
is published by the Cantigny First Division Foundation in association
with the First Division Museum at Cantigny. Publications include
books and other materials dealing with subjects and addressing issues
consonant with the foundation's mission to preserve and promote the
history of the 1st Infantry Division of the United States Army in the
context of twentieth century history.
I am also the author and editor of several books and articles dealing
with ancient as well as modern military history, most notably Lala's
Story: A Memoir of the Holocaust (Northwestern University Press,
1997, reissued July 1999), winner of the 1997 Carl Sandburg Award for
non-fiction.
Pursuant to my current project, I have already interviewed
several veterans of the Provisional Tank Group. References from
these men are available upon request. I can also provide
references from my superiors at the Cantigny First Division Museum.
Steven Weingartner
Summary of Experience
Military/Oral History Publishing & Writing
Editor, Cantigny Military History Series, published by Cantigny First
Division Foundation and First Division Museum at Cantigny (Wheaton,
IL); since 1992. Books in the series include standard and oral
histories, as well as proceedings of conferences hosted and/or
sponsored by the museum. Titles include:
The Greatest Thing We Have Ever Attempted: Historical Perspectives on the Normandy Campaign
(Cantigny First Division Foundation, 1998), proceedings of conference
hosted by the museum and cosponsored by the foundation and the U.S.
Naval Institute.
A Weekend With the Great War: Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Great War Interconference Seminar
(White Mane Press, 1997), seminar hosted by the museum and cosponsored
by the foundation in association with the Great War Society and the
Western Front Association.
No Mission Too Difficult! Old Buddies of the 1st Division Tell All About World War II
(Contemporary Books, 1995); oral history of the 1st Division
derived from tape-recorded interviews with division veterans.
Cantigny at Seventy-Five: A Professional Discussion
(Cantigny First Division Foundation, 1994), proceedings of a
foundation-sponsored conference focusing on aspects of World War I
history.
Blue Spaders: The 26th Infantry Regiment, 1917-1967
(Cantigny First Division Foundation, 1997); combat history of the
1/26th Inf. Rgt. (1st Division) in the two world wars and Vietnam.
How the War was (Really) Won: Proceedings of Conference Exploring the Allied Victory in World War II
(Cantigny First Division Foundation, in progress), conference
hosted by the museum and cosponsored by the foundation and the U.S.
Naval Institute (in production).
Desert Storm: Who Won the First Post-Cold War Hot War?
Monograph of selected proceedings of conference hosted by the
museum and cosponsored by the foundation and the U.S. Naval Institute.
Coauthor of Lala's Story: A Memoir of the Holocaust
(Northwestern University Press, 1997). Winner of 1998 Carl
Sandburg Award For Nonfiction. Written with Holocaust survivor
Lala Fishman; book covers a broad range of Polish and Eastern European
history, from the early 1900s through the First World War and the
interwar years (1918-39), the Second World War (1939-45), and immediate
postwar era (1945-50). Military history figures prominently in
the account, with much written about events and operations on the
Finnish and Eastern Fronts (chiefly Poland) in World War II, and on
Israel's 1948 War of Independence.
Contributing writer, Military Heritage
magazine. Articles include: "Chariots [Changed Forever the Way Warfare
Was Fought, Strategy Conceived, and Empires Built]," in Weapons
section, August 1999; "Total War: Concepts and Applications in the
Second World War," September 1999.
Articles: "War and Museum
Remembrance," treatise on the purpose, function, and value of military
museums in a democratic society; "Philistine Perspectives," book review
of People of the Sea: The Search for the Philistines (by Trude and Moshe Dothan) focusing on military aspects of Sea Peoples invasions and Bronze Age history.
Associate Editor, Pacifica Press (Pacifica California).
Writer, editor, proofreader, manuscript evaluation.
Editor, Military Books, Publications International (Lincolnwood, IL); 1989-1992. Titles include: Classic
Aircraft; Civil War Wall Chart; World War II Wall Chart; Undersea
Warriors: Submarines of the World; The Complete Book of U.S. Naval
Power; Submarines: Boomers and Hunter Killers. Also coauthor/editor of
Victory In the Gulf: A Photo Journal; coeditor of Gulf War Fact Book,
Weapons of Desert Storm.
Autumn 1999
Oral History: A Brief Statement on Methodology
The raw material of oral history is obtained through interviews.
Interviews are usually conducted over the telephone, with each
interview lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. Prior to the interview,
the interviewee is sent a list of topics to be covered and, perhaps, a
few preparatory questions. Once started, however, the interview will be
allowed to follow its natural course, which is to say, to go in
whatever direction the conversation takes it.
Needless to say, the quality of the interview is contingent on
the interaction between interviewee and interviewer. The interviewer
facilitates that interaction by asking questions that will elicit
detailed responses rather than simple yes-or-no answers. In other
words, the interviewee is encouraged to first visualize and then
describe a given event. The aim is to get the interviewee to verbally
create scenes based on the mental images that memories evoke; that is,
to think cinematically, as if he or she were at once writing, filming,
watching, and talking about a favorite motion picture.
For example: let us suppose that the interviewee was a
Philippine Scout involved in the battle for Longoskawayan Point.
The interviewer would not ask, "Were you involved in the
destruction of the Japanese force on Longoskawayan Point?"
Instead, the interviewer would say, "Describe the fighting at
Longoskawayan Point. Tell me what you did--describe your actions and
experiences. What did the Japanese do? What were your impressions
of the Japanese? Describe your thoughts and emotions during the
fighting. Describe the terrain and conditions of the battlefield; tell
me what you saw and heard and smelled; describe the sound of the
battle." And so forth.
Interviewees will receive duplicate copies of their
tape-recorded interviews. The tape-recorded interviews will be
transcribed and edited for publication. Before the book enters
production, the interviewee will be given the opportunity to review
and, if necessary, revise the text of the edited transcripts. Not
one word from the interview will be published without first obtaining
the interviewee's consent to do so.