The weekend of September 5-6, members of the World War 2 Guys attended our 12th annual Timeline Weekend at Fort Atkinson State Historical Park. Eric has attended this event every September since its inception in 2015. This year we had Donnie with the 1st Nebraska Volunteer Infantry in the Philippine Insurrection, Davan as a member of the 82nd Airborne in Panama, Dom as an Iraq War Infantryman, Eric as an A-4 Skyhawk pilot with Attack Squadron 164 aboard the USS Oriskany, Joe as a Medical Sergeant with the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam, and Rhys as an U.S. Army Infantryman in Berlin in 1961. Fellow reenactors who we also worked closely with were Steve Cox representing the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II and Andrew Gaghagen who portrayed a Spanish American War soldier. Saturday was terribly hot and humid which made the afternoon hours difficult to get through, but we made it. The reenactor supper was a great time as always, followed by some really fun sunset time among friends. Sunday was more overcast with a fast moving front that blew in just after the 10am flag raising ceremony.  But the skies calmed down and we had a nice afternoon. This remains one of the best events of the calendar year and we're already tossing around ideas for 2027!

On Saturday, August 1 the World War 2 Guys attended our third annual Open House event at the Commemorative Air Force's Great Plains Wing hanger and museum. Rather unexpectedly, the typical hot and humid late summer weather took a turn as we were gifted with light breezes and temps in the 60s. It was an incredible morning to be outdoors! Once again our group happily devoured stacks of golden pancakes with sausages, orange juice and coffee served up by the famous Pancake Man. We had two display tables set-up featuring U.S. Navy items from the USS Oriskany and a table of typical USAAF uniforms and equipment. In one month we'll be back in action at the annual Ft. Atkinson Timeline Weekend so come on out and see all of our amazing impressions!

On Monday, May 25, the World War 2 Guys took part in the second annual Memorial Day ceremony hosted by Bill Williams and Patriotic Productions. Once again, the members of our group proudly portrayed a group of local heroes from Omaha and the surrounding heartland who died in the service of our nation. Portrayals from our group included Donnie as Private William Orr who was killed in the Philippine Insurrection in 1899, Rhys as Corporal Russell Hughes who was killed in France in 1918, Cody as Private First Class Anthony Mancuso who was killed in Italy in 1945, Matt as Captain Gordon Shotwell who was killed in Germany in 1945, Don as Private First Class Norman Rosenblatt who was killed in Korea in 1950, Eric as Lieutenant William Roark who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965, and a representative as Sergeant Lonnie "Calvin" Allen, Jr. who was killed in Iraq in 2006. We marched in to the presentation portion of the program in a new features called "The Walk" which was visually pretty impressive. And of course we all loaded up on pancakes and coffee which is a big draw for this event. We can't thank Bill enough for his inclusion of our group in such an important ceremony to remember all of our fallen on this very special day.

On Sunday, October 22, some of the World War 2 Guys got together for a little afternoon photo shoot at Ft. Atkinson State Historical Park. The idea for the day was to come in any uniform, from any time period, and just take some great photos and have fun. Joe came as a soldier of the famed "Berlin Brigade" from the mid-1960's sporting the impressive M-14 Rifle. Eric was portraying a Sergeant First Class from the 10th Special Forces Group at Bad Tölz, Germany in 1956. Cody was a U.S. Navy Corpsman with the 1st Marine Division on Peleliu in the fall of 1944. And both Deqlan and Jacob were portraying riflemen with the 101st Airborne Division in Normandy. It was a great day to be outdoors with lots of gorgeous fall colors on the fort grounds. As storm was rolling in on us toward the end of the day, so we headed home to beat the rain.

The weekend of September 2-3 was the much anticipated 9th Annual Timeline Weekend at Ft. Atkinson State Historical Park. After enjoying a few weeks of pleasant late August weather, we were finally hit with some more extreme temps throughout the weekend which might have impacted crowd attendance. Joe was once again sporting his top notch 5th Special Forces Group impression and hooch display. Steve Cox was representing the U.S. Marine Corps in the Vietnam War once again with his extensive display layout. Jeff was out on Saturday in a World War II infantryman kit. And Eric represented the U.S. Navy pilots of Task Force 77 in the Korean War. We all enjoyed a great picnic dinner for the participating reenactors on Saturday night, which was followed by a fun night of hanging out until after sunset. Sunday warmed-up quickly and visitors to the park were sadly pretty sparse. We headed out a bit earlier than expected, but it was great to be back at the fort and rekindle a lot of great friendships with fellow living historians.

A special event was held at Omaha's Memorial Park on Saturday, July 29 to remember and honor the 70th Anniversary of the Korean War Armistice. The event was planned and organized by Bill Williams and Patriotic Productions which has put on some amazing events to honor our Nebraska war veterans throughout the years, most notably several big Honor Flights for our World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War veterans. This event was actually held on the exact anniversary of the end of the Korean War on July 29, 1953. Patriotic Productions brought in a half sizes replica of the Korean War Memorial which is a traveling exhibit that goes around the country. Our small part of this special event was to set-up a camp area with tents and equipment displays right along Dodge Street. Will represented the US Army with an excellent gear layout with a shelter tent. Joe represented the United States Marine Corps with a camo Marine shelter tent and gear layout. And Eric represented the US Navy with a small Task Force 77 carrier pilot display. The public along with dozens of Korean War veterans enjoyed seeing our display and sharing their stories with us. This was truly a once in a lifetime event and one that we were particularly honored to be a part of.