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Project Jenny KLIK - 1st Inf Di v Women in Vietnam RELATED-- To AFVN To Saigon To Vietnam Further Afield Index
From: Steve Sevits
Date: August 1, 2015
Subject: NYS Military Museum
Just now I looked over material from Jim White including correspondence between the NYS Military Museum and Paul Kasper for his emblem material (AFVN patch) donation to the museum. Although the donation took place in May I was unaware of it until now.
Good show Paul, you deserve a public thanks.
To put the museum relationship into perspective, earlier this year was my first contact with this museum, but decades ago I did my graduate work at the Cooperstown Graduate Program which trains museum personnel. This gives me some insight into the "rules of the road" in dealing with museums.
It turns out that an old school mate of mine heads a company which has made substantial donations in support of the NYS Military Museum and at the appropriate time I'm going to see if I can get them to underwrite the expenses of Mr. Morton of the museum staff for the purpose of attending the 2016 Raleigh Reunion. I am of the opinion that rubbing shoulders and bending elbows with AFVN personnel could greatly assist him when it comes time to do an exhibit on Vietnam. Having experience with "original source" personnel is a valuable experience for museum people..
Decades ago when I was with a museum they were awash in funding, but today money is scarce so I'll have to rely on old school ties to solicit money for a museum representative to join us in Raleigh.
Good information in your post Jim. Anybody else who has any artifacts to contribute can directly contact:
Christopher Morton
NYS Military Museum
61 Lake Avenue
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Thanks for the good work everybody.
Steve Sevits
From: Jim White
Date: June 14, 2015
Subject: New York State University
I see no problems with Steve's suggestion. Therefore, if you have something to donate--don't forget to do it. The address is above, in Steve's message of April 7,2015.
Jim W
From: Steve Sevits
Date: June 15, 2015
Subject: New York State Military Museum
Let's exercise our numbers and do individual donations. Mr. Morton will be glad to accept whatever relevant materials and individual donations will emphasize our geographic diversity as well as potentially generating tax deductions for donations.
As former "museum professional" I can provide appraisals on items of significant value.
Steve Sevits
From: Paul Kasper
Date: April 9, 2015
Subject: AFVN Logo
----Thank you, gentlemen--You know I consider it an Honor
From: Bob Nelson
Date: April 8, 2015
Subject: AFVN Logo
Back on line... Paul, totally agree with Steve - you ARE one of the bunch.
Bob
From: Steve Sevits
Date: April 7, 2015
Subject: AFVN Logo
Just identify yourself as from AFVN, that's all they'll need.
And, thanks,
Steve
From: Paul Kasper
Date: April 7, 2015
Subject: AFVN Logo
No problem, Sir--They will just wonder who the heck I am.
From: Steve Sevits
Date: April 7, 2015
Subject: AFVN Logo
Thank you. Please don’t send anything to me.
Any AFVN materials should be sent directly to the contact person:
Mr. Christopher Morton NYS Military Museum
61 Lake Ave. Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
You might include a brief note explaining what you are sending and its significance to AFVN and broadcasting in Vietnam.
Also include your name and address so that the donation can be appropriately attributed to you.
Again, thanks for responding.
Steve
From: Paul Kasper
Date: April 7, 2015
Subject: AFVN Logo
Yes Sir, I will [sic: have] pin for sure- I may still have a patch--KLIK, also send me your address again sir
From: Steve Sevits
Date: April 7, 2015
Subject: AFVN Logo
Does anyone have an AFVN patch and or an AFVN pin which they would be willing to donate to the growing collection of AFVN articles at the NYS Military Museum?
Alternatively does anyone know where I can obtain these for the museum?
Steve
From: Steve Sevits
Date: March 30, 2015
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
Jim,
There is a distinct difference between being “in the military” and being military.
Originally drafted in 1961 after basic I took the third year and they changed my S/N from US to RA. Some people who didn’t know better saw 38 months instead of three years and presumed I spent a few weeks “bad time” in jail, not true.
I had the S/N, the uniform and all the other outward appearances, but I was not military and didn’t absorb much of the culture including fluency in understanding alphabet soup. It used to upset a lot of people when I referred to a field pack as "camping equipment."
The last few months at Ft. Meade, MD the only use they could find for me was to compile movie schedules for the post newspaper and pull guard duty. By that time I’d been around long enough to play the “regulations game” and I refused to pull guard duty carrying a weapon with which I was not qualified (M-1 carbine). I qualified with the M-2 (selective fire - full auto).
They were very reluctant to give me an M-2, but with the MAC-V patch on my right shoulder (one of only 2 on the entire post in 1964) they gave me one. That didn’t last long, until I terrorized the civilian photographer and convinced everyone I was too trigger happy. After that the only gun they let me near was a .45 - without any qualification they made me captain of the unit pistol team on the sole basis of being in Vietnam.
Military in name and appearance only, but three years in uniform was good preparation for returning to college. If the Army ever realized how much good they had done me, they would have charged me for the experience.
Steve
From: Jim White
Date: March 30, 2015
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
Steve S,
Gosh, I thought anyone who had spent more than a week in the military spoke "alphabet soup" as a second language. Bet you still know what DEROS meant! If not the words, at least the meaning.
Jim W
From: Steve Sevis
Date: March 30, 2015
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
Sorry, I am not fluent in alphabet soup, you'll have to ask Mr. Morton for a translation.
I'm in upstate NY, about 10-15 miles east of Albany.
Steve
From: Steve Sevis
Date: March 30, 2015
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
Excellent, I think he will respond positively. Advise me of feedback from him.
Museum people are unaccustomed to having ripe plums falling into their lap.
I am going to work hard to get Mr. Morton to Raleigh in '16 where the whole gang can work on him face to face.
Steve
From: Jim White
Date: March 30, 2015
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
I've already sent a message to Christopher Morton asking how we might be able to cooperate and/or make the AFVN website part of their museum. While I hate to stifle initiative, I would like to suggest everyone else hold off a bit until I see what his reaction might be. Will keep you posted.
Jim W
From: Rick Fredericksen
Date: March 30, 2015
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
This is great news Steve, to have a real museum take an interest in our rich history: perhaps the future home port for the AFVN story. I'm sure you have directed the curator to our website, and Jim has it all laid out there on our Internet. Since we are radio and TV, all those files are just sitting there to be downloaded and turned into interactive exhibits, along with the many photos and stories. But I sure understand the desire to have tangible museum pieces too, like your original AFRS attire. I'd be happy to donate my AFVN plaque (after I'm gone), since I have no family. But I'm having trouble thinking of other artifacts we may have in our personal collections: an old mic? Reel-to-reel tape? Album jacket from AFVN? Pat Sajak utility shirt with name tag? Perhaps the movie studio could provide a prop from Robin Williams in "Gooood Morning Vietnam." We survivors are overwhelmed with great photos, documents and recordings and I hope the museum realizes that our mission was broadcasting radio and TV, and we have a lot of that on recordings. Perhaps Bobbie has something, or AFRTS artifacts, since we also broadcast their shows. Just brainstorming here. With this credible museum interested in telling our comprehensive story, I suggest we move forward on this, since time is not on our side. Nice work Steve!
Rick
From: Steve Sevits
Date: March 29, 2015
Subject: AFVNVets.net
Excellent, shows him we mean business. I've already got a line on a possible donor to underwrite Mr. Morton's expenses to the Raleigh '16 Reunion if he should desire to come.
Thanks,
Steve
From: Jim White
Date: September 29, 2012
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
Dear Mr. Morton,
I have just received an email message from Steve Sevits, He wrote that he had spent some time at the NYS MIliltary Museum and had been able to get you interested in the story of AFVN, the American Forces Vietnam Network.
As below, I am the Webmaster for AFVNVets.net. This project started 19 or so years ago after a number of AFVN veterans had joined AFVN Groups <AFVN@Yahoogroups.com>. This group now numbers over 400 men and women who were with or who are interested in AFVN. They are less than half of the total of 1,100 to 1,200 officers and enlisted who were assigned to AFVN during its existence between 1962 and 1973. The original website was on Geocities, but that company went bankrupt several years ago. I literally "picked it up and began to put it back on its feet" in 2012 and since then have spent a considerable amount of time reconstructing and adding to the older version of the site. Today, AFVNVets.net includes over 450 pages of HTML on many facets of AFVN and AFVN- or Vietnam War-related photos and stories. It is also still very much a "work in progress" as new items and group discussions about AFVN continue to become available to me.
I would like to encourage you to take a look at our site (the URL is below) and consider ways in which it might be possible to integrate into your museum's exhibits. Steve said that he had had a delightful time while he was there and that your exhibits cover all of our past major wars up through WW II. He also said that you are now planning to extend your exhibits to include material on the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
Please write if there is anything that I can do to help you or if you have any questions.
Respectfully,
Jim White
From: Jim White
Date: September 29, 2012
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
Steve,
I just wrote Mr. Morton with a CC to you [below]. I would appreciate a little translation. Does "NFG NG NYANG" stand for "XXXX, National Guard, New York Air National Guard"?
Also, I don't you have you listed on our "Where are we today?" page ( https://www.afvnvets.net/afvn-roster.html ) What state do you live in? Probably New York, but I would like to know for sure.
Thanks for the contact,
Jim
From: Steve Sevits
Date: March 29, 2015
Subject: AFVN Museum
Today I spent a delightful hour at the NYS Military Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY which is better known for summer horse racing. The military museum had expressed an interest in my shirt with the early 1960s embroidered logo for AFRS Saigon. Rather than giving them an isolated embroidered logo shirt as an isolated curio, I managed to get them interested in the whole AFVN story.
The museum, housed in a 125 year old armory has exhibits on the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WW I and WW II. In the planning stage is an exhibition on more recent hostilities: Korea and Vietnam. With material they expect me to help provide they intend to include materials on military broadcasting, particularly in Vietnam. This is where all of you come in, either textual materials or actual artifacts anyone is willing anything AFVN related to donate to the museum’s collection would be welcome.
Information about any donations can be addressed to me so I can have the museum get in touch with you so each contributor gets credit for his/her donation.
While the museum is in the stages of collecting and archiving materials on AFVN it is important that those of us who around to tell the story first hand control the message so it is told correctly without later third-person misinterpretation. Original sources, YOU, are the best sources of historical fact. Radio, television, all of it now has a welcome home at the NYS Military Museum. At least we’ve got our foot in the door of a professionsal institution interested in collecting and preserving our story, most importantly it’s a situation where we can control the narrative to make sure it’s right.
Right now I’m looking into the possibility of finding a corporate sponsor to underwrite expenses for one of the museum’s professionals to come to Raleigh next year to rub elbows with those attending and possibly collect more first hand information.
Steve Sevits
From: Steve Sevits
Date: September 29, 2012
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
Absolutely! My contact is on the next line below and no doubt he'd be glad to hear from you. You'll have to cut and paste the address.
Steve
Morton Christopher S NFG NG NYANG (US)
From: Jim White
Date: March 29, 2015
Subject: AFVN Museum Update
Steve,
Sounds like a marvelous contact. Is there a way to get them interested in our website as well as "real artifacts"?
Thanks,
Jim W
From: Paul Kasper
Date: June 14, 2015
Subject: For Your Information
Paul made no comments, but attached the following PDF files related to items he had donated to the museum.
New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center - 1
March - August 2015 & July - August 2016
AFVN Group Conversations