Issue Number 50 December 2011
All information in this Newsletter is developed by Fred Clinton, Webmaster, 63rd Infantry Division and does not necessarily reflect the
views of other individuals and is in no way an Official Publication of the 63rd Infantry Division or 63rd Infantry Division Association.
views of other individuals and is in no way an Official Publication of the 63rd Infantry Division or 63rd Infantry Division Association.
I just realized that it has been over one
year since I prepared a Newsletter.
Where does the time go? Since it is
Christmas time and the holiday season
I thought I would take this opportunity
to wish all a Merry Christmas and
Happy Holidays.
Of course I do have some tidbits of
news that may be of interest to you.
So here they are----
ANNUAL NATIONAL REUNIONS TO
BE DISCONTINUED.
Due to the declining number of 63d
Infantry Division Association members
who are attending the national
reunions, members voted in August
2011 at the Indianapolis National
Reunion to discontinue having any
more national reunions.
In place and in order to maintain our
organizational charter the "Annual"
reunions will be conducted at one of
the local chapter mini-reunions.
Location and chapter to host such a
reunion will be announced, although
the first such reunion will be conducted
by the IMOK chapter. Details will be
announced.
POSTING OF THE "BLOOD AND
FIRE" ON THE INTERNET.
As you know I have been posting
copies of the Blood and Fire
publication on the Internet for a year or
so. That was discontinued when a
decision was made to establish an
annual subscription fee for the
publication due to the cost of
publishing each issue.
Well during the last reunion the board
of directors agreed to continue the
posting of the Blood and Fire on the
63rd Infantry Division web site for all to
see. So it is still available for your
review and enjoyment.
RECENT DISTRIBUTION OF THE
HISTORICAL FILES OF THE 63RD
INFANTRY DIVISION ASSOCIATION
Recently I received approval to make
wide distribution of our historical files
that are stored on CD's. With that
approval I placed all of our historical
files, less the non-combat months
morning reports, on two DVD's and
sent them to the following Army
schools and museums.
The Army War College Library, Carlisle
Barracks, PA.
The Army Command and General Staff
College Library, Fort Leavenworth, KS.
The United States Military Academy
Library, West Point, NY
The Army Heritage and Education
Center, Carlisle Barracks, PA
The Artillery Library, Fort Sill, OK
The Artillery Museum, Fort Sill, OK
The National WWII Museum, New
Orleans, LA
The Army Maneuver Center of
Excellence (Infantry and Armor
training), Fort Benning, GA
The Fold3 archival site (affiliated with
Ancestry. Com)
By making these donations of our
records we hope that the history and
legacy of the 63rd Infantry Division will
remain available to all to see long after
we are gone from this world.
If you have any recommendations for
further distribution of our historical
files, please contact me at
joyclint@comcast.net
year since I prepared a Newsletter.
Where does the time go? Since it is
Christmas time and the holiday season
I thought I would take this opportunity
to wish all a Merry Christmas and
Happy Holidays.
Of course I do have some tidbits of
news that may be of interest to you.
So here they are----
ANNUAL NATIONAL REUNIONS TO
BE DISCONTINUED.
Due to the declining number of 63d
Infantry Division Association members
who are attending the national
reunions, members voted in August
2011 at the Indianapolis National
Reunion to discontinue having any
more national reunions.
In place and in order to maintain our
organizational charter the "Annual"
reunions will be conducted at one of
the local chapter mini-reunions.
Location and chapter to host such a
reunion will be announced, although
the first such reunion will be conducted
by the IMOK chapter. Details will be
announced.
POSTING OF THE "BLOOD AND
FIRE" ON THE INTERNET.
As you know I have been posting
copies of the Blood and Fire
publication on the Internet for a year or
so. That was discontinued when a
decision was made to establish an
annual subscription fee for the
publication due to the cost of
publishing each issue.
Well during the last reunion the board
of directors agreed to continue the
posting of the Blood and Fire on the
63rd Infantry Division web site for all to
see. So it is still available for your
review and enjoyment.
RECENT DISTRIBUTION OF THE
HISTORICAL FILES OF THE 63RD
INFANTRY DIVISION ASSOCIATION
Recently I received approval to make
wide distribution of our historical files
that are stored on CD's. With that
approval I placed all of our historical
files, less the non-combat months
morning reports, on two DVD's and
sent them to the following Army
schools and museums.
The Army War College Library, Carlisle
Barracks, PA.
The Army Command and General Staff
College Library, Fort Leavenworth, KS.
The United States Military Academy
Library, West Point, NY
The Army Heritage and Education
Center, Carlisle Barracks, PA
The Artillery Library, Fort Sill, OK
The Artillery Museum, Fort Sill, OK
The National WWII Museum, New
Orleans, LA
The Army Maneuver Center of
Excellence (Infantry and Armor
training), Fort Benning, GA
The Fold3 archival site (affiliated with
Ancestry. Com)
By making these donations of our
records we hope that the history and
legacy of the 63rd Infantry Division will
remain available to all to see long after
we are gone from this world.
If you have any recommendations for
further distribution of our historical
files, please contact me at
joyclint@comcast.net
SCANNING UNIT MORNING
REPORTS AND PLACING THE
IMAGES ON A DVD.
A number of years ago one of our
association members spent a year or
so copying all of the unit morning
reports from files at the National
Records Center in St Louis. Besides
taking hundreds of hours to
accomplished it was a rather expensive
project since the Association had to
pay a fee for each copy made.
A few years ago I scanned, processed
and placed on CD's all of the ":Combat
Months morning reports. (Dec 44-May
45 for Regiments and Jan-May 45 for
other divisional units)
Recently Bill Scott, our Association
Historian and I agreed that I would
scan and process all of the remaining
morning reports and place them on a
DVD to make them available for
anyone interested in seeing reports
from Jun 43 to August 45.
Bill sent me the first shipment of those
reports in early October 2011. That
shipment included reports for Jun, Jul,
Aug, Sep, Nov and Dec 1943 and Jan,
Feb 1944. We are not sure why Oct
43 reports were not in the boxes.
Well only two days ago, 7 Dec 2011 I
completed scanning, processing and
placing on DVDs all of the reports in
that first shipment.
During the processing I noticed that
there are some periods where morning
reports for a month were missing from
the files. I am not sure what the
reason is unless they were not
available in the archives or what was
available had deteriorated to the point
where they were no longer legible.
The original reports were placed on
Microfilm and evidently some of those
files are deteriorating rather rapidly
due to age.
Anyway I scanned almost 9000 images
and of that amount only about 3.6%
were what I consider illegible. That is I
could not make out any information on
the copy that I scanned even after
extensive processing with Adobe
Photo.
Once I complete all of the files that are
available to us (about another 13
months worth of reports) Bill Scott will
make the results available for sale .
Price has not been determined. Also
copies of the completed product will be
sent to the many museums and
libraries that already have copies of
our historical files.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND HISTORICAL
IMAGES
Surprisingly I am still receiving
photographs and other images that
are of historical value and that relate
to the 63rd Infantry Division. The
latest additions can be view in the
latter few pages of each photo section
of the web site.
In order to view the latest acquisitions
you can go directly to the last page in
each photo section and work your way
backwards. You can access the last
page of each photo section by going to
the following addresses:
www.63rdinfdiv.com/miscphotospage125.html
(For Training and recent photos)
www.63rdinfdiv.com/pictorialhistorypage71.html
(For Combat Photos)
www.63rdinfdiv.com/occupationphotospage
64.html ( For Occupation Photos)
Of course I am still looking for
additions to our historical files, so if
you have anything that would be of
interest to anyone looking into the
63rd Infantry Division history, please
contact me at joyclint@comcast.net.
REPORTS AND PLACING THE
IMAGES ON A DVD.
A number of years ago one of our
association members spent a year or
so copying all of the unit morning
reports from files at the National
Records Center in St Louis. Besides
taking hundreds of hours to
accomplished it was a rather expensive
project since the Association had to
pay a fee for each copy made.
A few years ago I scanned, processed
and placed on CD's all of the ":Combat
Months morning reports. (Dec 44-May
45 for Regiments and Jan-May 45 for
other divisional units)
Recently Bill Scott, our Association
Historian and I agreed that I would
scan and process all of the remaining
morning reports and place them on a
DVD to make them available for
anyone interested in seeing reports
from Jun 43 to August 45.
Bill sent me the first shipment of those
reports in early October 2011. That
shipment included reports for Jun, Jul,
Aug, Sep, Nov and Dec 1943 and Jan,
Feb 1944. We are not sure why Oct
43 reports were not in the boxes.
Well only two days ago, 7 Dec 2011 I
completed scanning, processing and
placing on DVDs all of the reports in
that first shipment.
During the processing I noticed that
there are some periods where morning
reports for a month were missing from
the files. I am not sure what the
reason is unless they were not
available in the archives or what was
available had deteriorated to the point
where they were no longer legible.
The original reports were placed on
Microfilm and evidently some of those
files are deteriorating rather rapidly
due to age.
Anyway I scanned almost 9000 images
and of that amount only about 3.6%
were what I consider illegible. That is I
could not make out any information on
the copy that I scanned even after
extensive processing with Adobe
Photo.
Once I complete all of the files that are
available to us (about another 13
months worth of reports) Bill Scott will
make the results available for sale .
Price has not been determined. Also
copies of the completed product will be
sent to the many museums and
libraries that already have copies of
our historical files.
PHOTOGRAPHS AND HISTORICAL
IMAGES
Surprisingly I am still receiving
photographs and other images that
are of historical value and that relate
to the 63rd Infantry Division. The
latest additions can be view in the
latter few pages of each photo section
of the web site.
In order to view the latest acquisitions
you can go directly to the last page in
each photo section and work your way
backwards. You can access the last
page of each photo section by going to
the following addresses:
www.63rdinfdiv.com/miscphotospage125.html
(For Training and recent photos)
www.63rdinfdiv.com/pictorialhistorypage71.html
(For Combat Photos)
www.63rdinfdiv.com/occupationphotospage
64.html ( For Occupation Photos)
Of course I am still looking for
additions to our historical files, so if
you have anything that would be of
interest to anyone looking into the
63rd Infantry Division history, please
contact me at joyclint@comcast.net.
A Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all
and to all "good night".
and to all "good night".