[494] MTSU Students Visit European War Sites In Study-Abroad Class

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 6, 2011
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MTSU STUDENTS VISIT EUROPEAN WAR SITES IN STUDY-ABROAD CLASS
History Professor Leads Lectures, Locate MTSU Alums Who Perished in War

(MURFREESBORO) - Dr. Derek Frisby, assistant professor of history, and the students in his “Warfare and Public Memory in Western Europe” class concluded their 16-day tour of the continent June 3 after visiting World War I and World War II battlefields.
The study-abroad experience included stops at Normandy, Paris, the Meuse-Argonne, Verdun, Bastogne, Waterloo, Arnhem (Operation Market Garden), the Sgt. Alvin C. York battlefield site, Dachau and Adolf Hitler’s retreat at Berchtesgaden (Eagle’s Nest).
Along the way, as Frisby lectured, the students were obliged to deliver “battle briefs” explaining key engagements using personal accounts of veterans, official reports and their own analyses. They also kept journals of their experiences.
At Normandy, the group visited the gravesites of MTSU alumni Thomas Hicks and Robert Sarvis, both of whom were killed in action in the weeks following D-Day.
A Canadian native attached to the U.S. Army Air Corps in Europe, Sarvis was killed on July 25, 1944, when his B-25 bomber reportedly was strafed by a German fighter near Carquebut, France, as he was returning from a bombing raid.
“Sarvis valiantly regained control of his aircraft and steered the plane over Normandy to give his crew a chance to bail out over friendly territory,” Frisby wrote via e-mail from Europe. “Unfortunately, Allied anti-aircraft accidentally fired upon the aircraft and sent it into an unrecoverable dive.
“Sarvis ordered the rest of the crew to bail out immediately while he stayed at the controls to ensure they could make the jump. The crew escaped and was later rescued, but Sarvis didn’t get a chance to get out of the cockpit before it crashed. He was buried in the Normandy Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach.”
Frisby says he was contacted a few years ago by an English citizen living near Carquebut who had located Sarvis’ crash site.
“On this trip, MTSU students paid their respects at Sarvis’ final resting place, inspected recovered wreckage from the crash site at a museum in nearby St. Mere Eglise and visited the crash site itself,” Frisby wrote.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For color jpeg photos of Dr. Derek Frisby and his students at military sites in Europe, contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Media Relations at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.

Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. In September 2011, MTSU will celebrate its 100th year anniversary with special events and activities throughout the year—kicked off by a Blue-Tie Centennial Gala on Friday, Sept. 9.