GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) - Wyoming sixth-grader Maddie Bradley wore a weighted haversack, a parachute, two ammunition bandoliers and a steel pot helmet. She held an M1 rifle in her hands while Cliff Knesel handed her a 20-pound box of ammunition.
Maddie guessed that she carried an additional 70 pounds in that moment, a little heavier than a normal student’s backpack. Then again, this was not a normal school day.
Close to 800 sixth-graders packed Cam-plex Energy Hall for the Campbell County Rockpile Museum’s World War II Day, an annual event where students see, hear, taste and feel what life was like in the early 1940s on the home front as well as on the front lines.
The museum had done a Civil War Day for at least the past 11 years, but Director Robert Henning wanted to do something that had more of a local connection.
While Henning said he has nothing against the Civil War, “there wasn’t a whole lot happening here” in Wyoming, and the museum’s focus is local history.
So last year, he tasked Penny Schroder, the museum’s education coordinator, and Wendy Legerski with coming up with a program that fit a little better. They chose World War II, “an obvious choice,” Henning said, given Campbell County’s connection.
Although Henning credited Schroder with coordinating the program, Schroder passed the praise on to museum staff and the 30-plus volunteers, mostly high school and college students.
Schroder and others made it a point to make the program more hands-on.
“In the past, the kids have always said they didn’t want to sit on the floor and listen,” Schroder said.
Knesel showed the children all the things a GI had to fit in his bag, including a gas mask, clothing, blanket, towels, poncho, canteen, belt, food and most importantly, toilet paper, “because you needed something to write on,” he said.
He also let them hold the weapons that were used by the Germans, Japanese and Americans. He noticed that the kids really enjoyed this. Henning said the program gave kids a rare opportunity to hold history in their hands.
“They can see (those weapons) in movies, pictures, read about them, but it’s different when you get something like that in your hands,” Knesel said.
The students also demonstrated they know a lot more than Knesel thought they would.
“I was assuming they didn’t know about the Second World War, but they knew quite a bit,” he said. “I was surprised. Somebody’s been coaching them.”
The kids also learned about how families had to ration food during the war. They ate cookies made from 1940s recipes. They walked through a hall of local heroes, men and women from Campbell County who served in World War II. Those soldiers weren’t much older than the kids who were looking at their pictures.
“If I was in their shoes, I’d feel shocked and nervous - and afraid,” said 12-year-old Nashua Lutgen.
“It’s a generation that sacrificed tremendously for us,” Knesel said.
Kelly Hawkinson, elementary social studies facilitator for the school district, said that “it’s so nice to see them really enjoy and connect with history rather than just reading about it.”
“I like how we got to touch and feel how thick the uniforms were. You couldn’t do that at a museum,” Nashua said. “I was thinking about how warm it would be staying in the sun all day with the thick uniforms on. Glad I wasn’t there back then.”
Greg Bennick took the kids through 13 weeks of basic training in 15 minutes and taught them how to stand at ease and at attention, as well as the proper way to bandage a wound. And although his voice was a little worn out by the end of the day, he really enjoyed it.
“What I enjoy most about it is helping the kids to recognize the sacrifices the World War II veterans made, and that it was up close and personal, right here in Campbell County. Lots and lots of men and women served, and they’ve kind of faded into the past,” Bennick said.
“I keep hearing, ’Oh, my grandpa flew a bomber,’ or ’my great-grandpa was in the Navy,’” Hawkinson said. “A lot of them have personal connections, and they’re really getting to see a lot and get immersed in it and they really seem to enjoy it.”
“Two little girls walked up to me and thanked me for putting on such an awesome program,” said Tom Butler, president of the Rockpile Museum Association. “Coming from sixth-graders, that’s pretty awesome.”
Henning thought it went smoothly considering this was the first time for this presentation, but there’s always room for improvement.
Butler said “there’s so much we can add” to the program next year, such as victory gardens and scrap metal drives.
“I think for a museum our size, we have the best museum staff in the whole country,” he said.
When the day was finished, the kids left on their school buses, ready to tell their classmates about what they learned.
“One of the things we say is we’ll never forget, so we need to work on never forgetting,” Bennick said.
After that lesson, Campbell County’s 760 sixth-graders won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
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Information from: The Gillette (Wyo.) News Record, https://www.gillettenewsrecord.com
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