Digging Deeper into the Story
Never settle for the Simple Narrative
World War II is becoming ancient history in many ways. Much of the population relies on popular narratives while critical thinking and analysis is being used to evaluate information less and less. I speak from experience. I taught at the college level in many states over the years while moving with my husband on active duty. Over a period of two decades I saw such a decline in students coming to the classroom equipped with the ability to critically analyze information that I jumped back to the high school level to see what was happening. To say I was stunned would be an understatement. The entire picture is a story unto itself. Instead I will focus on the teaching of history. First, majority of history teachers I saw were coaches. No offense to coaches but their specialization is a sport not critically analyzing historical information and evaluating sources and teaching that skill to students. If I was assigned coaching a sport the bets should go out that the team that has the misfortune of having me as a coach would lose badly and often. History in schools was and is, a subject that the box simply needs to be checked for a student to graduate. What an incredible disservice to the students, history and to those that gave their lives either for a time or forever to this country. So, where am I going with this? A political statement - no - I will avoid a legal analysis of the latest political and judicial actions - but instead a way of explanation as to how I approach the use of gliders in WWII and the glider pilots.
My goal is to hold the existing narrative of glider pilots in WWII to intense scrutiny. If the existing narrative is allowed to stand they will be lucky to remain a simple footnote to history in the near future. I believe the entire glider pilot story will be reduced to a few simple lines about those crazy guys who were nuts to get into a plane without a motor and crash it behind enemy lines. There will be no understanding of the critical role they played in the debut of a new form combat - airborne warfare. There will be no discussion of why they were critical to the airborne missions they were assigned to. There will be no curiosity about what was in the gliders except for more soldiers and some equipment. No questioning what the equipment was? How did it play a part in the mission? How did they get it in the glider? Even the simple question of “who were these guys and why did they do this?” will be asked.
The only place to find the answers to these questions now is to dig deep into archives, libraries, letters, diaries, oral histories and challenge the ongoing narrative. If it stands up to critical analysis all the better - if not it is time to remove that narrative that has become “the whole story”. The whole story never is or never can be told in all its intricate and overwhelming detail that is true. The whole story cannot be told in an hour and a half movie or one article. The story of the glider pilots and the glider pilot program is a subject in and of itself with ample room for many researchers to delve into. I would state is imperative many serious researchers and historians study this subject. There is room for so many voices. However, all that work is sitting in a vacuum unless it is shared. My husband is great at that - he introduces my book and the story at gatherings, often catching me by surprise, which derives a lot of interest and questions. I truly believe the glider pilot story can only be pushed onto the main stage by everyone sharing it by whatever means they can. We can all do that - and should do that. It is the only way the glider pilots will no longer be a simple side note to history but on a pedestal of their very own.
~ That’s the last of my personal ramblings - back to more about glider pilots in the future.