I visited Braggs and Camp Gruber, Oklahoma and spent a little time connecting with the locals of the region for Stories of War projects.

These smiling faces are a few of the folks I met with - citizens and descendants of the people who settled here so many years ago, including the Cherokee Nation.

There is so much history where I am sitting. This is a range at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma where men of the 88th and 42nd Infantry Divisions (among others) trained for combat in Europe. It was also a POW camp for Germans.

Imagine stepping into a world where the echoes of history are not just whispers but loud and vibrant stories waiting to be told. That's exactly what I experience every time I walk into the National Archives at St Louis and College Park. These aren't just buildings with documents; they're living gateways to the past, filled with secrets ready to be unveiled. Each visit is a historian's dream, and I find myself like a kid in a candy store, surrounded by box after box of preserved history!

This was so much fun. A few days ago I had a chat with Lorissa Rinehart over on my YouTube Channel about the life of Dickey Chapelle, after reading Lorissa’s book and being inspired by Dickey’s story.

Dickey was truly a trailblazer for women and creatives everywhere, and has become one of my biggest life inspirations.

There is one question that I am constantly asked:

Why do you research war?

And rarely have I told the truest truth.

But here it is, inside this video.

In some ways

This photo encapsulates the story of my life

Zooming through time and darkly vibrant landscapes

Always jonesing to be on the road again and adventuring

Reaching into other peoples lives with the intention of understanding …

Everyone knows there is something fragile and beautiful about the impermanence of life.

A historian is one who is incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to painstakingly learn the contributions of each life and permanently fix them in the collective memory.

Milo was a passionate soul, a first generation American whose parents came from Yugoslavia. I’ve been honored to spend time with his family, to endeavor to touch Milo’s memories and bring them into form.

This was a very special evening with Holocaust survivor Ben Lesser, my daughter, and her friends. Ben's message at the end is eternally true and profound.

Among the horrors that Ben survived are Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau, where he was liberated on April 29, 1945.

This was a pretty special experience to witness ... and now you can witness it too … through the lens of www.storiesofwar.org, my non-profit documentary film organization.

Bud Gahs and Dan Dougherty were with their regiments at the liberation of Dachau on April 29, 1945.

Bud served in the Anti-Tank Company, 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd ‘Rainbow’ Division. Dan served in Company C, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th ‘Thunderbird’ Division.

They crossed paths at the 78th commemoration of the liberation and spent a little time together telling their stories of that day.

Late last year, my non-profit documentary filmmaking organization, Stories of War, was the recipient of a grant.

I was absolutely blown away, ecstatic, and suddenly had the fuel to pull my dreams out of the air and take the first steps toward weaving them into reality.

It was a very exciting time and boy oh boy did I put the funding to good use.

It allowed me the tech, travel, and research resources required to begin the filmmaking process for a series of documentary shorts that deep-dive into stories of war.

I think a lot about life.

LIFE.

What IS life? 🤯💥🌪️

Do you ever stop and think about it?

As if dragged by some kind of external force, I head to the brownish flats that rise along Wilhelmstrasse in the heart of Berlin.

I stand in the garden, pace through the parking lot, walk back and forth through the fluorescent-lit entrance that beckons me like a vortex into historical hell.

I don’t know what I expect or why I do it, but I’ve done it every time I’ve visited Berlin, and usually more than once.

It was here that the Reich Chancellery once proudly stood - before it was smashed to bits by the Allies, anyway.

It is such and interesting, profound, and blessed experience to ride the line between the worlds of war historian and multi-media artist. My days are spent researching stories of the past - and when I say researching, I mean rabbit-hole tunneling into crevices of stories that never, ever end. Just the way I like it :)

Between traveling to the places where my subjects lived, fought, and died, studying their archives, chasing new threads of potential insight, and creating reports or books or films … I always find the time to creatively express the worlds my brain marinates in all day, every day through the intersection of my imagination and knowledge, my hands, and my art table.

The following is my latest article for the Rainbow Reveille, the 42nd Infantry Division’s newspaper since 1917. It is always an honor to help preserve the legacy of the Rainbow Division, and those who were liberated by them.

Ben Lesser’s life began again on April 29, 1945.

That’s the day elements of the Rainbow Division entered Dachau concentration camp and liberated thousands of prisoners. Ben was only sixteen years old, and had arrived at Dachau just days before. He was a passenger on that doomed and infamous death train from Buchenwald that had poured a fresh shipment of tortured souls and their flesh and bones into the camp. Most of them were dead on arrival, but just a few emaciated men were able to crawl from the train. Ben and his cousin Isaac were two of them.

I’m on the road again.

This adventure is bringing me back to the wilds of west Texas. When I say wild, I mean wild. This land is untamed for the most part, and I like it. Every time I have the opportunity to drive through Texas, I jump on it. Something happens within my spirit as I tear down the highways, and this landscape has a particular way of opening something unique in me as I whiz on through it. It’s hard to put into words, but I’ll try: the untamed part of me comes out to shine and witness history as it swooshes on by.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know of my deep love and curiosity for my Grandpa Bill. He served with Company I, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division in WWII. In many ways, he is the inspiration behind my quest to help families learn more about their veteran’s experience in war, and the silent legacy of war that far too many families hold.

The fire in the St Louis archive (National Personnel Records Center, or NPRC) in 1973 burned millions of military records. You can still piece together your veteran's service, even if you have been told the OMPF, or Official Military Personnel File, has been burned.

In 2022 at the American Veteran’s Center conference and gala, I spent a little time with this wonderful man.

Paul ‘Bud’ Haedike flew 26 missions in a B-17 as a bombardier with the 730th Bomb Squadron, 452nd Bomb Group, 8th Air Force.