News stories tagged with "world-war-two"

(03/08/12) A Mohawk veterans group wants the federal government to recognize the contributions of "code talkers" during the D-Day invasion of Europe during World War Two. The Navajo "code talkers" were the largest group of Native Americans during the 1940's to use their language skills in the south Pacific against the Japanese.

Jeffrey Whelan, a member of the St. Regis Mohawk Veterans Affairs Committee, says many other tribes participated as "code talkers" during the war. He says the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council has sent a letter of request to the U.S. Mint to develop a Congressional Medal for nine veterans at Akwesasne who used their native language to confuse the Germans.

(12/07/11) Seventy years ago today, a group of young skiers climbed Whiteface Mountain to build the first racing shelter at the top of what is now known as Wilderness Trail. Later that day, they came down the mountain to find out that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese. Many went on to join the military in the early years of World War Two.

Whiteface will honor the men on Sunday with a special ceremony that will include lectures and historical displays. While most of those pioneers of alpine skiing on Whiteface and that fateful day are gone, their stories and memories live on through their children and friends. Todd Moe has more.

(07/15/08) It's the same in every war. Soldiers send their love and thoughts back home. The only thing that changes is the "how." Commentator Renate Wildermuth recently came across "V-mail" from World War II.

(05/16/08) Tomorrow is a day of national pride for millions of Norwegians around the world and the North Country. It's the 17th of May, or "Syttende Mai." But it's not just Norwegians who pay tribute to Norway's Constitution Day. A quiet ceremony will take place Saturday morning at a small plot of graves in Saranac Lake's Pine Ridge cemetery. During WW II hundreds of Norwegian merchant sailors ended up in Saranac Lake as tuberculosis patients. 15 men, and the daughter of a ship's captain, died and were buried there. And a longtime cemetery volunteer has made it her mission to make sure they're not forgotten. Todd Moe has more.

(05/25/07) A new documentary about Fort Drum's 10th Mountain Division debuts Sunday at 7pm on WPBS in Watertown. The Last Ridge: the Uphill Battles of the 10th Mountain Division uses vintage film footage, first-person accounts, and on-location reenactments to bring to life the 10th Mountain's role in World War 2. NPR's Scott Simon is the narrator. Abbie Kealy directed, wrote, and produced The Last Ridge. She told David Sommerstein it's the story of the division's daring assault on the German front in the mountains of northern Italy in 1945.

(07/19/06) Conversation by conversation, interview by interview, StoryCorps is collecting the stories and voices of our time. After two weeks on the village green in Canton, the StoryCrops MobileBooth is now at Flower Memorial Library in Watertown. While the studio was in Canton, Yvonne Todd interviewed her mother, Emma Westdijk, about her life as a teenager in Indonesia during World War Two.

(07/08/05) Chestertown commemorates the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II Saturday with a parade (10am) on Main Street, a reception for veterans, a 1940's swing dance and fireworks. Todd Moe talks with Chestertown's "History Alive Celebration" organizer Barbara Wilson.

(01/19/04) Today we begin a series on art in the North Country with an artist profile. Carmen D'Avino began his career as a painter in the 1930s. He's been a World War II military filmmaker, a sculptor, and an avant-guarde animator in New York City. He was even nominated for an Academy Award. For the past 15 years he's lived in an old farmhouse in the St. Lawrence County town of Hammond. David Sommerstein stopped by for a visit and found a portrait of the creative process in action.

(08/14/02) New York City has been the focal point of many great events in modern history. Commentator Paul Willcott tells a family story about VJ Day, when the city erupted in a celebration of unexcelled exuberance.

(07/12/02) Near the end of World War Two, Germany unleashed its so-called weapons of vengeance on the British population, the V-1 flying bomb, or "doodle-bug", and the V-2 rocket. Todd Moe talks with SUNY Potsdam professor emeritus Brock McElheran about his book V-Bombs and Weathermaps, his memories of London during World War Two.