[463] NPS Commemorates WWII On The Homefront May 26 In Murfreesboro

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 13, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919, or lrollins@mtsu.edu

NPS COMMEMORATES WWII ON THE HOMEFRONT MAY 26 IN MURFREESBORO
Free Event Encourages Heritage Tourists To Explore National Parks’ WWII Stories

(MURFREESBORO)—The National Park Service Service, in collaboration with MTSU’s public history program, will conduct a free public forum on the new World War II Network of Parks initiative beginning at 7 p.m. May 26 at the Rutherford County
Courthouse in Murfreesboro.
Still in the formative stages, the World War II Network of Parks is a program designed to creatively link national parks that interpret aspects of World War II history with other historic places that tell similar stories.
Dr. Rebecca Conard, history professor, said the purpose of the program is to encourage heritage tourists to explore the many ways in which World War II dominated the social, economic and political landscape of America during the mid-20th century, setting in motion momentous events that still shape the world today.
One pilot project of this initiative is “World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area,” a Web-based travel itinerary linking 31 historic places that reflect San Francisco Bay area’s role in creating America’s Arsenal of Democracy.
These sites, Conard explained, are grouped under six major themes: Seacoast Defense, Mobilization, Port of Embarkation, Shipbuilding, Women at War and Preservation.
“Among the 31 linked sites are Richmond Shipyard Number Three and the Ford Assembly Building,” she said, “where women helped to build ships and tanks; Port Chicago, one of the oldest Naval ordnance support bases on the West Coast, often remembered as the site of a catastrophic explosion on July 17, 1944, that took the lives of 320 servicemen; and Moffett Field, which housed the Navy’s fleet of blimps, used for patrolling the West Coast for submarines and mines.”
Prior to the start of the free May 26 forum, the Heritage Center of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County, 225 W. College St., will be open for viewing “Sowing the Seeds of Change: World War II and Rutherford County,” a new exhibit that illustrates the sacrifices and services of Rutherford County citizens during the war.
Co-sponsors of the forum are the MTSU Public History Program, Department of History, Stones River National Battlefield and Rutherford County.
For more forum information, please contact Dr. Bren Martin, history professor, at 615-
427-8186.


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With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.