Topic: War & Peace
Jesse Epstein was the primary force behind the creation of the Seattle Housing Authority and was just 29 years old when he was appointed its first director in 1939. He was working for the University o...
Fairchild Air Force Base in Eastern Washington is the Northwest aerial refueling hub for the U.S. Air Force and the largest employer in Spokane County. The base traces its origins to World War II, whe...
In this People's History, HistoryLink Executive Director Marie McCaffrey recalls her role in the October 3, 2017, return visit by Günter Gräwe, a German prisoner of war during World War II, ...
Fort George Wright was an army post in Spokane. Congress authorized its construction in 1896 and work began in 1897. The post was named for General George Wright (1803-1865), who had commanded the 9th...
During the 1890s Seattle, to boost its economy, actively sought an army post. The War Department also desired an army presence and encouraged the City to provide free land. The land was conveyed in 18...
North Fort Lewis was a 1,000-building cantonment constructed near Fort Lewis in Pierce County to house the 41st Infantry Division, a unit of the Pacific Northwest National Guard. Named in honor of exp...
The U.S. Army's 9th Infantry Division was first formed during World War I. It saw action in World War II and Vietnam, and over the years was inactivated and reactivated as the needs of the military ch...
During World War I, the American Red Cross built and operated a convalescent house at Camp Lewis (and another at Vancouver Barracks), maintaining the center for about a year, until the wounded war vet...
Aviation came early to Camp Lewis with flights in October 1921 from Sand Point, Seattle, to the camp's sod runway. In 1922 the first hangar went up. Soon after that a dirigible Mooring Mast was erecte...
The Mount Rainier Ordnance Depot served the United States Army between 1942 and 1963 as a primary vehicle-, arms-, and missile-repair facility. This depot provided ordnance equipment to the Pacific ar...
Fort Lewis, since 2010 part of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, opened in 1917 as Camp Lewis on the Nisqually Plain in southern Pierce County. Part 1 of this two-part history tells the story of Camp Lewis fr...
The permanent Fort Lewis went up between 1927 and 1939 with the construction of stately brick buildings in an attractive layout. In 1939 the permanent construction program ended and temporary wood bui...
The Fort Lewis Pet Cemetery, located on Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Pierce County, was established in 1918 as a mascot cemetery. The U.S. Army's Camp Lewis, forerunner to JBLM, had opened the y...
During World War II, Fort Lewis in Pierce County held about 4,000 German prisoners of war. The POWs were confined there between 1942 and 1946. A few died from illness or from their war wounds, but mos...
Fort Steilacoom, located in south Puget Sound near Lake Steilacoom, was established by the United States Army in 1849. Protection of settlers in the area had become an issue. As well, the United State...
There were no fewer than four outposts named Fort Walla Walla, but the last and most enduring was established as a cavalry post on March 18, 1858. This military reservation housed soldiers who would f...
The era of the treaty wars in Washington Territory lasted from 1855-1856.Territorial Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs Isaac Stevens (1818-1862) ordered the building of forts and blockhous...
From a police officer's vantage point, former UW police officer David Wilma recounts the anti-war protests of May 5, 1970, a response to the United States invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. ...
Jerzy Friedrich was a Seattle resident who arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1959. He was born in Lwow, Poland, in 1920, and his life intersected with the ravages and traumas of World War II in Euro...
When he died at the age of 104, Hiram R. Gale was the last Civil War veteran in the Pacific Northwest. Born in Vermont, he joined the Union Army in 1864 and served until after the war ended the next y...
Frederick Gilbreath grew up on a farm near Dayton, Washington. He attended Whitman College until accepted into the United States Military Academy at West Point. Gilbreath graduated in June 1911 and wa...
The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) was a fraternal organization of Union Army veterans formed after the Civil War (1861-1865) for the "defense of the late soldiery of the United States, morally, ...
Ross Greening of Tacoma developed an interest in flight at an early age and went on to make it his career. He became an expert B-25 Mitchell bomber pilot in 1941 at McChord Field near Tacoma and serve...
Mariano Guiang (1904-1992), a Filipino boxer, emigrated from the Philippines to live in Seattle, arriving at the age of 19 on June 12, 1924. This is a reminiscence excerpted from a longer interview co...