Doesn’t anyone READ anymore?

When I was young, there were NO books on uniforms and equipment. Which is one of the reason I ended up writing some. Now, there are some very good ones out there, and some bad ones as well. But doesn’t anyone read any of them?

In the last two weeks I have had TWO inquiries from vets (of different obscure units I have written about) ask me if Spearheading D-day is still available as they had some guys ask them all about what uniforms they wore (both were reenactors wanting to do impressions of these units). Neither had apparently done a simple internet search on the unit except look for the vet association.

Now I have to admit I get a lot of inquiries on things, but I will say that the ones from reenactors tend to be among the stupidest: and to explain stupidest I mean things that could have been easily answered by doing a tiny amount of research. Like the guy who called me asking some questions about uniforms for his “impression” that- had he actually read SDD (and he had not) he would have found in there.

Now this does not include theguys that read the books and articles and then ask for clarification or if anything new had been discovered. This is just the “I heard of this cool unit and want to do it as I am a living historian.”

So when you think of guys wanting to be historians (and anyone can be one) but they do not do what I would consider the basic looking around, I worry about putting guns in these guys’ hands. And that is one of the reasons I am not seen at reenactors anymore- Let someone else’s eardrums and eyes get blown out (mine are bad enough).

And of curious note- last week I got a subscription form for GI Journal. And it was one of my original subscription forms (color coded). God bless him, but where has that form been that it ended up in someone’s hands this year….

now on the plus side, I also got a fan letter in (bad) English from France. Not asking for anything, just sort of thanking me for the books and also sadly mentioning how his adopted US vet friend is badly failing with Alzheimers. Boy can I sympathize. I really can;t imagine what it must be like for some 80 year old vet to develop a freidnship with a young Frenchman thankful for the liberation and actually INTERESTDoesn’t anyone READ anymore?

When I was young, there were NO books on uniforms and equipment. Which is one of the reason I ended up writing some. Now, there are some very good ones out there, and some bad ones as well. But doesn’t anyone read any of them?

In the last two weeks I have had TWO inquiries from vets (of different obscure units I have written about) ask me if Spearheading D-day is still available as they had some guys ask them all about what uniforms they wore (both were reenactors wanting to do impressions of these units). Neither had apparently done a simple internet search on the unit except look for the vet association.

Now I have to admit I get a lot of inquiries on things, but I will say that the ones from reenactors tend to be among the stupidest: and to explain stupidest I mean things that could have been easily answered by doing a tiny amount of research. Like the guy who called me asking some questions about uniforms for his “impression” that- had he actually read SDD (and he had not) he would have found in there.

Now this does not include theguys that read the books and articles and then ask for clarification or if anything new had been discovered. This is just the “I heard of this cool unit and want to do it as I am a living historian.”

So when you think of guys wanting to be historians (and anyone can be one) but they do not do what I would consider the basic looking around, I worry about putting guns in these guys’ hands. And that is one of the reasons I am not seen at reenactors anymore- Let someone else’s eardrums and eyes get blown out (mine are bad enough).

And of curious note- last week I got a subscription form for GI Journal. And it was one of my original subscription forms (color coded). God bless him, but where has that form been that it ended up in someone’s hands this year….Doesn’t anyone READ anymore?

When I was young, there were NO books on uniforms and equipment. Which is one of the reason I ended up writing some. Now, there are some very good ones out there, and some bad ones as well. But doesn’t anyone read any of them?

In the last two weeks I have had TWO inquiries from vets (of different obscure units I have written about) ask me if Spearheading D-day is still available as they had some guys ask them all about what uniforms they wore (both were reenactors wanting to do impressions of these units). Neither had apparently done a simple internet search on the unit except look for the vet association.

Now I have to admit I get a lot of inquiries on things, but I will say that the ones from reenactors tend to be among the stupidest: and to explain stupidest I mean things that could have been easily answered by doing a tiny amount of research. Like the guy who called me asking some questions about uniforms for his “impression” that- had he actually read SDD (and he had not) he would have found in there.

Now this does not include theguys that read the books and articles and then ask for clarification or if anything new had been discovered. This is just the “I heard of this cool unit and want to do it as I am a living historian.”

So when you think of guys wanting to be historians (and anyone can be one) but they do not do what I would consider the basic looking around, I worry about putting guns in these guys’ hands. And that is one of the reasons I am not seen at reenactors anymore- Let someone else’s eardrums and eyes get blown out (mine are bad enough).

And of curious note- last week I got a subscription form for GI Journal. And it was one of my original subscription forms (color coded). God bless him, but where has that form been that it ended up in someone’s hands this year….