No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat has been the subject of library events, radio shows, YouTube videos, and more since its release in 2018. Scroll down to see excerpts and complete articles or click the quick links below to jump to the topic of your choice. Some links open new windows.
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No Forgotten Fronts at The USS Midway Museum
No Forgotten Fronts was honored to be on the USS Midway for Memorial Day Weekend, May 25-27, 2019 for a book signing.
Below are pictures from this special event.
For more information about the USS Midway Museum, click here.
Below are pictures from this special event.
For more information about the USS Midway Museum, click here.
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Lisa Meets Up with Pat Allard
During WWII, students at San Diego State College created a picture panel on campus with the photos and names of their fellow students in service. One of the women who helped is on the cover of No Forgotten Fronts. (She is the young woman reaching up to the panel.) Her name is Pat Allard, and she is now 95 years old. Recently I met her at the San Diego Congress of History. Pat was also the first woman to serve as the president of the student body. She is such an inspiration!
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Lisa Meets Up With Authors Karl Marlantes and Sebastian Junger at San Diego State University
Read Lisa's article featured in San Diego Jewish World "Sabastian Junger On Talking To Veterans"
Lisa Meets Up With Paratrooper Tom Rice |
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I was honored to meet Tom Rice, a paratrooper who jumped into Normandy on D-Day: In a letter describing the historic WWII event, he wrote: "The sky was lit up as bright as day, ack, ack bursts, streams of red, green and white tracers converged on us and showery bursts of flares outlined us in the sky as we neared our drop zone." Tom remembers it like a movie playing in his mind. His arm got caught in the door, and his gold-plated watch came off. He jumped at 1:31 a.m. "We were supposed to jump at 1:21," he told me when we spoke at his home in Coronado. 75 years later, Tom will jump again to mark the anniversary of that historic moment.
~ Lisa |
History Mystery:
A Missing Piece of History Finds Its Way Home
When a man in Illinois found an unusual object in the back of a cabinet, he wanted to know where it came from. After googling the inscribed name, place, and date – Peck, New Guinea, 1944 – he came across a letter by George M. Peck in No Forgotten Fronts. After contacting Lisa (who contacted the alumni association and archivists) the object was sent to SDSU. The inscription was compared with the signature on Peck’s letter, and it seems that this example of World War II trench art (possibly a letter opener) may indeed have been made by Peck. It will now become part of the letter collection at San Diego State University.
Read the full article featured in the SDSU Alumni news here.
Read the full article featured in the SDSU Alumni news here.
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Field of Valor
Lisa K. Shapiro delivered a speech featuring No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat at the Field of Valor, in Covina CA, sponsored by the Covina Rotary. Lisa had the honor of introducing a veteran of World War II who fought at the Battle of the Bulge.
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Lisa a featured speaker at the Journeys Of Inspiration Author Talk at Carlsbad City LibraryClick any image to enlarge
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San Diego Festival of Books - August 25, 2018
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The San Diego Festival of Books Celebrates San Diego’s vibrant reading community by connecting thousands of local readers, writers, businesses, and booksellers around their common love of the written word. Lisa was a featured speaker on the Miliary Non-Fiction Panel.
Lisa's Visit to Mt. Soledad
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This plaque featuring John Burdette Binkley is at the Mt. Soledad Veteran’s Memorial in San Diego. Shortly before his plane was shot down over Tunisia, Binkley wrote a letter to his parents and assured them that he had faith and was at peace.
More about the letter from “Bink” and his father’s response is in No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat.
At the Mt. Soledad Memorial Day service, I thought about the Fighting Aztecs, and teared up as planes flew the “Missing Man” formation.
More about the letter from “Bink” and his father’s response is in No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat.
At the Mt. Soledad Memorial Day service, I thought about the Fighting Aztecs, and teared up as planes flew the “Missing Man” formation.
KUSI-SD: Author Lisa Shapiro Discusses New Book "No Forgotten Front: From Classrooms to Combat
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No Forgotten Fronts Featured in the SDSU Alumni Newspaper
May 9, 2018
“Dear Doc,” the letters begin, thousands of them written from San Diego State students and recent alumni scattered from Europe to Japan, North Africa and the South Pacific. They offer personal accounts of combat and valor, homesickness and the horrors of war. Read More . . .
Review from Historical Novel Society
Click Title To Visit Review Page
As World War II began, Lauren Post, an accessible, dynamic, rope-trick-twirling geography professor at San Diego State University, did a simple thing: he asked his students going into military service to write to him. From every front, from hospitals and even from POW camps, they did. Their beloved “Doc” decided to use excerpts in the Aztec News Letter. For four years, thanks to volunteers and their contributions of time and funding, Dr. Post sent the publication out around the world. The power of stories and connections… to families, students and even the U.S. Censor’s Office, proved indelible.
The sense of experiencing war firsthand comes through in these pages. Lisa K. Shapiro pulls together a fine narrative and illuminates references. These messages of the heart abound in honesty, humor, loneliness, grief, and love for each other and a teacher regarded as a secular saint. A welcome addition to home front and first-person histories of World War II.
Press Release: ‘No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat’ is Subject of Mesa College Professor’s April 26 Talk
NEWS RELEASE (View at SD Metro Website)
April 23, 2018
CONTACT:
Jack Beresford
[email protected]
619-341-1091
‘No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat’ is Subject of Mesa College Professor’s April 26 Talk
Long before Facebook or Twitter, there was the U.S. Postal Service. And when men and women were serving their country during World War II, letters were often the only way they could communicate with family and loved ones. Which is why Mesa College Assistant Professor Lisa Shapiro spent two years researching the correspondence between young service men and women and one trusted San Diego State College professor.
The result is No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat (Naval Institute Press), a newly released book based on thousands of letters penned by San Diego State students who served in World War II.
Shapiro will be discussing her research during a book signing in the Winn Room at the Coronado Public Library on Thursday, April 26, at 6:30 p.m. The library is at 640 Orange Ave., Coronado, 92118. The event is free and open to the public.
The book is based on letters received by the late-Dr. Lauren Post, a San Diego State College geography professor and veteran of World War I who – at the beginning of World War II – asked students entering military service to write him. For the next five years, thousands of letters from Pearl Harbor, North Africa, Normandy, and elsewhere described vivid accounts of training, combat, and camaraderie. Pilots wrote about seeing planes shot down. Men in POW camps sent word about other prisoners. Often, Dr. Post passed the information on to frantic families hoping for news about their loved ones. And every month, Dr. Post mailed newsletters to his Fighting Aztecs around the globe, letting them know the community cared.
Asked about her research, Shapiro said: “The letters written to one beloved professor describe an American perspective of war that shines with idealism, determination, raw grief, and the power of friendship. These intimate, first-person accounts capture honest, in-the-moment reactions to war that resound with heartache and gratitude.”
Shapiro, who was raised in San Diego, began teaching as an adjunct professor at Mesa College before being hired as an assistant professor of business in 2014. Her quest to learn more about the experiences of those who have served their country was sparked by the large number of veterans at Mesa College, which has a strong record of outreach to veterans, active-duty military, and their dependents. Mesa College proudly serves veterans through its Veterans Resource Center and Veterans Affairs office.
Shapiro also has co-authored with Deborah K. Reed The Chamber and the Cross, a contemporary thriller wrapped around a medieval romance. The book was a finalist in the San Diego Book Awards.
As the second-largest of California’s 72 community college districts, the San Diego Community College District serves approximately 100,000 students annually through three two-year colleges and San Diego Continuing Education. The three colleges, San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, and San Diego Miramar College, offer associate degrees and certificates in occupational programs that prepare students for transfer to four-year colleges and entry-level jobs. Mesa College also offers a bachelor’s degree in Health Information Management. Continuing Education offers noncredit adult education at seven campuses throughout San Diego.
April 23, 2018
CONTACT:
Jack Beresford
[email protected]
619-341-1091
‘No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat’ is Subject of Mesa College Professor’s April 26 Talk
Long before Facebook or Twitter, there was the U.S. Postal Service. And when men and women were serving their country during World War II, letters were often the only way they could communicate with family and loved ones. Which is why Mesa College Assistant Professor Lisa Shapiro spent two years researching the correspondence between young service men and women and one trusted San Diego State College professor.
The result is No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat (Naval Institute Press), a newly released book based on thousands of letters penned by San Diego State students who served in World War II.
Shapiro will be discussing her research during a book signing in the Winn Room at the Coronado Public Library on Thursday, April 26, at 6:30 p.m. The library is at 640 Orange Ave., Coronado, 92118. The event is free and open to the public.
The book is based on letters received by the late-Dr. Lauren Post, a San Diego State College geography professor and veteran of World War I who – at the beginning of World War II – asked students entering military service to write him. For the next five years, thousands of letters from Pearl Harbor, North Africa, Normandy, and elsewhere described vivid accounts of training, combat, and camaraderie. Pilots wrote about seeing planes shot down. Men in POW camps sent word about other prisoners. Often, Dr. Post passed the information on to frantic families hoping for news about their loved ones. And every month, Dr. Post mailed newsletters to his Fighting Aztecs around the globe, letting them know the community cared.
Asked about her research, Shapiro said: “The letters written to one beloved professor describe an American perspective of war that shines with idealism, determination, raw grief, and the power of friendship. These intimate, first-person accounts capture honest, in-the-moment reactions to war that resound with heartache and gratitude.”
Shapiro, who was raised in San Diego, began teaching as an adjunct professor at Mesa College before being hired as an assistant professor of business in 2014. Her quest to learn more about the experiences of those who have served their country was sparked by the large number of veterans at Mesa College, which has a strong record of outreach to veterans, active-duty military, and their dependents. Mesa College proudly serves veterans through its Veterans Resource Center and Veterans Affairs office.
Shapiro also has co-authored with Deborah K. Reed The Chamber and the Cross, a contemporary thriller wrapped around a medieval romance. The book was a finalist in the San Diego Book Awards.
As the second-largest of California’s 72 community college districts, the San Diego Community College District serves approximately 100,000 students annually through three two-year colleges and San Diego Continuing Education. The three colleges, San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, and San Diego Miramar College, offer associate degrees and certificates in occupational programs that prepare students for transfer to four-year colleges and entry-level jobs. Mesa College also offers a bachelor’s degree in Health Information Management. Continuing Education offers noncredit adult education at seven campuses throughout San Diego.
Read Lisa's guest blog post at the Naval History Blog
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No Forgotten Fronts
Monday, April 2, 2018 11:13 AM By Lisa K. Shapiro My college classrooms are always full of veterans. That’s because San Diego is home to half a dozen military installations, including Naval Base San Diego, NAS North Island, the Naval Amphibious Base, and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Prior to World War II, the Naval Training Center on San Diego’s waterfront prepared tens of thousands of recruits for service, while less than ten miles away, San Diego State College was busy educating young men and women in the arts and sciences, and readying them for war. As the students began leaving . . . Read More of Lisa's Blog |
Interview with Professor Lisa Shapiro
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In this interview, Cris Alvarez (Warscholar on YouTube) interviews Professor Shapiro about the book titled “No Forgotten Fronts.” From the Warscholar Channel: Professor Lisa Shapiro has a masters degree in War Literature and teaches at [San Diego Mesa College]. She’s written a book based on thousands of archived letters sent by San Diego State students who were in WWII to their professor Dr. Post . . .
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Past Event - March 22-28, 2018
SDSU Love Library Series, Week 2: Dear Doc: From Classrooms to Combat
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During World War II, San Diego State College students serving around the world wrote thousands of letters to one professor, Dr. Lauren C. Post. Each month, Dr. Post included excerpts in the “Aztec News Letter,” which he mailed to students and their families. His work kept the campus and the community connected. History feels alive and immediate in these first-person accounts of places such as Normandy, North Africa, Germany, and the Pacific. The determination, fear, raw grief, and wonder of these articulate young men and women are preserved in their timeless letters in the World War II San Diego State College Servicemen’s Correspondence Collection, held in Special Collections and University Archives. Following the presentation, students will view original letters and News Letters from the collection.
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October 17, 2017
Author and San Diego Mesa College Professor Lisa Shapiro will Speak at SDSU Annual War Memorial Ceremony
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by Office of Communications, San Diego Mesa College Newsroom
On Friday, October 20, San Diego State University (SDSU) will hold their annual War Memorial Ceremony to honor veterans who died while serving in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. This will be the 21 annual wreath-laying ceremony, and has been expanded to include and honor service members involved in events since World War II. Author and Mesa College Professor Lisa Shapiro will be the keynote speaker at this year’s ceremony which will . . . read more. Source: Office of Communications. "Author and San Diego Mesa College Professor Lisa Shapiro will Speak at SDSU Annual War Memorial Ceremony." San Diego Mesa College Newsroom 17 Oct. 2017: SDMesa.edu Web. 18 Oct. 2017 |
October 16, 2017
Honoring Veteran Alumni.
The annual wreath-laying ceremony takes place on Friday, Oct. 20 at the SDSU War Memorial.
By Tobin Vaughn
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Each year during Homecoming Week, San Diego State University hosts a wreath-laying ceremony to honor its veteran alumni who have died in service during the nation’s military conflicts. This year’s event takes place at 9 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 20, at the campus War Memorial on Aztec Green.
Lisa Shapiro, assistant business professor at Mesa College and author of “No Forgotten Fronts: From Classrooms to Combat,” will deliver the keynote address. The book’s title refers to a quote by the late SDSU professor Lauren Post, who said, “As long as there are Aztecs, there will be no forgotten fronts.” . . . read more. Source: Vaughn, Tobin. "Honoring Veteran Alumni." SDSU Newscenter 16 Oct. 2017: SDSU Newscenter Web. 18 Oct. 2017 |
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"Priceless" Library Collection Reveals Aztecs' Accounts Of Historic Invasion
Paratrooper Tom Rice ('46) sent this letter dated June 28, 1944 describing the invasion of Normandy to Professor Lauren Post for publication in the Aztec News Letter.
D-Day: June 6, 1944. Seventy years ago this month, the United States and its allies launched the largest seaborne invasion in history against the German forces occupying France.
Among the hundreds of thousands of Allied troops that stormed the Normandy beaches and parachuted from planes under heavy fire were dozens of San Diego State alumni and former students. Many of those who survived wrote letters of their experiences and sent them home to update family, friends and fellow Aztec military service members stationed around the world.
One of those was paratrooper Tom Rice (’46), who sent a letter from France dated June 28, 1944. In his own script, he describes parachuting into Normandy in the early hours of the invasion.
“Jumped in Normandy at 1:31 a.m. June 6, D day. The reception which was given us was really torrid. They threw everything at us including the kitchen sink. The sky was lit up as bright as day…”
Rice’s first-hand account of the invasion is one of at least 28 letters specifically referencing D-Day that are part of the library’s World War II Servicemen's Correspondence Collection. The collection contains almost 5,000 letters received from servicemen, servicewomen, and their families during World War II as part of Dr. Lauren Post’s Aztec News Letter project.
Among the hundreds of thousands of Allied troops that stormed the Normandy beaches and parachuted from planes under heavy fire were dozens of San Diego State alumni and former students. Many of those who survived wrote letters of their experiences and sent them home to update family, friends and fellow Aztec military service members stationed around the world.
One of those was paratrooper Tom Rice (’46), who sent a letter from France dated June 28, 1944. In his own script, he describes parachuting into Normandy in the early hours of the invasion.
“Jumped in Normandy at 1:31 a.m. June 6, D day. The reception which was given us was really torrid. They threw everything at us including the kitchen sink. The sky was lit up as bright as day…”
Rice’s first-hand account of the invasion is one of at least 28 letters specifically referencing D-Day that are part of the library’s World War II Servicemen's Correspondence Collection. The collection contains almost 5,000 letters received from servicemen, servicewomen, and their families during World War II as part of Dr. Lauren Post’s Aztec News Letter project.
Special Collections and University Archives Director Rob Ray examines a D-Day letter from the SDSU Library's World War II Servicemen's Correspondence Collection.
A MOTHER LOAD OF INFORMATION
Robert Ray, head of Special Collections and University Archives, says the letters are important because they provide context for what actually happened during the invasion. The first-person accounts provide a variety of perspectives that can provide scholars with new understandings of different aspects of the historic invasion and of World War II.
"There will be stories that have never been told before and information and understandings of the war that have never been possible because there just isn't that much first-hand writing of the experience itself,” Ray said. “Researchers will unveil that for the rest of us, but I know it's a mother load of information and possible new insights into the war."
Lisa Shapiro is a Mesa College instructor and war literature researcher who for the past year has been reading the letters in the Correspondence Collection.
"It's invaluable. It's priceless. There are so many different things you can track (through the letters in the collection),” she said. "I believe this is one of the only collections that exists where we can go back and tell the story of World War II from a first-person account.
“These letters are unique in that they're written in the present tense. They're not written as history. They're not filtered. It's not like a memoir where people are looking back. You get a snapshot moment.
“People go on for pages describing what things look and sound and feel like. So from a storytelling perspective, it's unique because so many voices are all describing the war and it captures so much about it."
Robert Ray, head of Special Collections and University Archives, says the letters are important because they provide context for what actually happened during the invasion. The first-person accounts provide a variety of perspectives that can provide scholars with new understandings of different aspects of the historic invasion and of World War II.
"There will be stories that have never been told before and information and understandings of the war that have never been possible because there just isn't that much first-hand writing of the experience itself,” Ray said. “Researchers will unveil that for the rest of us, but I know it's a mother load of information and possible new insights into the war."
Lisa Shapiro is a Mesa College instructor and war literature researcher who for the past year has been reading the letters in the Correspondence Collection.
"It's invaluable. It's priceless. There are so many different things you can track (through the letters in the collection),” she said. "I believe this is one of the only collections that exists where we can go back and tell the story of World War II from a first-person account.
“These letters are unique in that they're written in the present tense. They're not written as history. They're not filtered. It's not like a memoir where people are looking back. You get a snapshot moment.
“People go on for pages describing what things look and sound and feel like. So from a storytelling perspective, it's unique because so many voices are all describing the war and it captures so much about it."
War literature researcher, Lisa Shapiro, estimates it will take her at least two years to complete her goal of reading all 5.000 letters in the library's World War II Servicemen's Correspondent's Collection.
REACHING RESEARCHERS
Only halfway through the letters, Shapiro estimates it will be at least another year before she completes her reading of the entire collection. After she finishes, she hopes to write a book.
Shapiro is one of the few World War II researchers who have gained access to the collection or are even aware of its existence. She happened to see a story about the letters on television.
“That was the first that I was made aware of this collection and then of course I've been down here ever since," she said.
SOMETHING WE HAVEN’T SEEN BEFORE
One reason scholars are unaware of the trove of information contained in the collection is that it has yet to be properly cataloged, cross referenced and digitized to be shared on line. The library has been raising money for that project, but still lacks sufficient funding for its completion.
“We want to reveal the existence of these letters and make them available to the wider research community,” said Ray. “We can do that if we get our analysis of each letter and a searchable database on the Web so it's easy for people to discover the content of these letters.
Only halfway through the letters, Shapiro estimates it will be at least another year before she completes her reading of the entire collection. After she finishes, she hopes to write a book.
Shapiro is one of the few World War II researchers who have gained access to the collection or are even aware of its existence. She happened to see a story about the letters on television.
“That was the first that I was made aware of this collection and then of course I've been down here ever since," she said.
SOMETHING WE HAVEN’T SEEN BEFORE
One reason scholars are unaware of the trove of information contained in the collection is that it has yet to be properly cataloged, cross referenced and digitized to be shared on line. The library has been raising money for that project, but still lacks sufficient funding for its completion.
“We want to reveal the existence of these letters and make them available to the wider research community,” said Ray. “We can do that if we get our analysis of each letter and a searchable database on the Web so it's easy for people to discover the content of these letters.
There are at least 28 original D-Day letters in the library's World War II Servicemember's Correspondence Collection.
“We could have all the D-Day letters tagged and accessible from a certain date, from a certain author, all of the other Staters that are mentioned in the letters would all be searchable and discoverable. Then, as you search to find a letter of interest, you would be able to call it up online and read it right there in the original handwriting, but that hasn't happened yet and we're just dying to be able to do that. ”
The project completion is something Shapiro, who must inspect every letter from the confines of the Special Collections reading room, would like to see. She believes digitized access would bring global attention to SDSU’s Servicemen's Correspondence Collection among scholars and researchers.
"I think anyone who is interested in World War II is going to want to read this,” she said. “They're going to be interested in this letter collection. It's a different way of looking at the war. It's something fresh. It's something we haven't seen before.”
To support the effort to analyze, catalog, cross-reference and digitize the World War II Servicemen's Correspondence Collection, please contact Robert Ray, head of Special Collections and University Archives at [email protected].
The project completion is something Shapiro, who must inspect every letter from the confines of the Special Collections reading room, would like to see. She believes digitized access would bring global attention to SDSU’s Servicemen's Correspondence Collection among scholars and researchers.
"I think anyone who is interested in World War II is going to want to read this,” she said. “They're going to be interested in this letter collection. It's a different way of looking at the war. It's something fresh. It's something we haven't seen before.”
To support the effort to analyze, catalog, cross-reference and digitize the World War II Servicemen's Correspondence Collection, please contact Robert Ray, head of Special Collections and University Archives at [email protected].
Remembering Women Who Served In WWII
The often-forgotten role of female service members in World War II was highlighted this month by a Mesa College business professor who used the women’s own words to help tell their stories.
“They loved the work they did,” said business professor Lisa Shapiro about the pride, enthusiasm and excitement the women expressed in letters home. “It comes through loud and clear in their letters.”
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“They loved the work they did,” said business professor Lisa Shapiro about the pride, enthusiasm and excitement the women expressed in letters home. “It comes through loud and clear in their letters.”
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