Uniform research

[JTheotonio]

We never had these by the time I was in, so I don't recognize them.  It did get hot in the boat especially in the engine rooms and maneuvering room.  But no one cut off the toes of their shoes either.

[Paul Farace]

It sure is nice to have color films and scores of BW photos... and lots of sandals... NHC has good shots, some do show the homemade sandals (as in cutting up regular shoes).

 

[Ctwilley]

Man, I owe you one for this picture. I've only caught glempses of them but never full on shots. These shouldn't be too hard to remake.

As far as the reenactors go, we try to either buy or reproduce every item that they would have been issued. In all of the groups that I'm with (1830's-1940's) we strive for 100% accuracy. Our goal is when giving tours or talking to people aboard the boat, to point at what we're wearing and say "this is what it was" not "it was something like this...just disregard the Nike swoosh".

It's been my experiance that people want to touch history. They want to feel, smell, taste, and breethe the lives of their ancestors. In a museum setting, you can't always do that as you have to take into consideration the preservation of items for future generations. In my humble opinion, no museum is complete without a good exhibit, well trained staff, and a trained and proficient living history program.

[Fred Tannenbaum]

All due respect but I firmly believe a successful museum needs other more important things before the living history program, including the ability to raise adequate funds and spend them wisely, and a dedicated and reliable corps of volunteers who can complete restoration work and act as docents. I think there are some pretty complete and terrific museums, including some of the submarines represented here that don't have living history programs.

[Paul Farace]

Now wait a minute guys, you're both right!  The cobbler cain't make barrels and the butcher will not write music... living history guys are into living history, not curation or interpretation of ships... 

BTW:  How often do you Batfish reenactors get slapped in the face by women who may not want to "touch, taste, and smell history?"   

A good sub with a good living history group would be a unique experience !  One that I can say I've never had!

I tried to do a first-person living history program on COD many years ago (mid-1990s)... had everything down, even WWII change (coins) in my pocket!

Sadly, a couple of the numbskull subvets went apeshit over the concept of a non-submariner portraying a WWII COD captain... one dipshit (no longer a member of the "team" even suggested that he might call the cops and turn me in for "impersonating an officer!"   Yea, it was that much fun at times working with some subvets (not all, by any means)... but we seemed to attract some folks at COD that had their priorities askew!

Combine thread-counters and uber-curators, and you have a time machine!

Good luck!

[Ctwilley]

Woah there Fred. I'm by no means forgetting the volunteers. By "well trained staff" I meant volunteers as well as paid staff (they both work equally as hard but one just get's paid with warm fuzzies). I guess I look at living history as the icing on the cake. Sure you can eat the cake without the icing and it tastes pretty good. But man it sure adds to it when you put the icing on, and without the cake, you only have a bucket of icing. You don't NEED both but it adds flavor.

As for my experiances with getting slapped...is seems to work the other way. Most women don't seem to mind seeing a bunch of sweaty guys without shirts on. In fact, one woman wanted to feel of one of my TM's dungarees to see what the fabric felt like and without asking just "copped a feel". Judging by the look on his face I think he felt a little violated.

I haven't had any guys get licked but this is a strange world we live in now so I wouldn't put it past someone.

I had the same experiance with some people going apeshit when we were trying to get this started. I first talked with a good many of the vets and got permission from Capt. Woodward (the last CO of the Batfish) to portray her captain. They were all very receptive to the idea. I've had the run-in with a yay-hoo that wanted to "turn me in". First, I quoted the regulations back to him in regards to the portraying an officer and it only applies to current military officers...not past ones. Then he tried to turn me in for wearing ribbons, particularly the bronze star one. I explained to him that he needed to take that up with General Patraeus since he signed the order for the 2 that I recieved while I was in Iraq and the government seemed to think that it was ok for me to wear them. He left us alone after that. 

[Fred Tannenbaum]

While I love the Internet, the Web and BBSes for the immediacy of responses and information, it prevents people from seeing the expressions and body language of the others with whom they are having a conversation and see that there's nothing personal. My bad if I sounded brusque. Your work and attention to Batfish go beyond living history.

I agree that a good living history program can be the icing on the cake. My point is that frequently with ship museums of any size, the cake definitely has to be made first, and often a few layers of it, and it often takes a while, all before the icing can be spread.

[MWALLEN]

Stop it...you guys are making me hungry     Make my cake German Chocolate   

[Fred Tannenbaum]

Well, a co-worker and I just this morning were talking about how much more variety there is in Texas barbecue (brisket, ribs, sausages, chicken, turkey, etc) versus other parts of the country. Needless to say, I was ready for a plate.

You all should be salivating by now.

[Ctwilley]

Speaking of which, you missed our Japanese birthday cake in August. Our cook baked a birthday cake and we iced it to look like a cake seen in a picture on one of the other boats during the war. It had the rising sun flag and was titled "Happy Spankin' Tojo Day".

I guess that's where we definately agree. I look at living history like this. We're supposed to be portraying what these guys wore, did, and how they lived. Part of what they did was if something in their compartment was broken, they fixed it. It's the coolest thing to see a bunch of WW2 dressed TM's breaking down and PMCSing a torpedo tube. We have to restore the components to properly portray the crew so they really fit hand in hand. I guess we're really a bunch of WW2 dressed volunteers that do restoration work. Eventually, we'll do torpedo tube loading domonstrations and GQAA, GQ Torpedo, and Damage Control drills for the public but we have to get those systems semi-functional before we can.