Public History project

For my public history project this semester, Zach and I will be working with Dr. Gannon to create panels supporting the Lone Sailor Navy Memorial in Blue Jacket Park.  According to the website for the city of Orlando, the Lone Sailor “is meant to inspire today’s youth and honor sea service men and women and their families; past present and future. The memorial will help to convey our appreciation to the men and women in the US Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine who voluntarily put their lives in harm’s way.” The purpose of having the memorial in this specific location is because it used to serve as the Orlando Naval Training Center.

 Those that funding the project (The Navy League) need assistance in creating panels that demonstrate to viewers the training process that Navy men and women go through. Dr Gannon also mentioned to us that they are interested in including audio with this memorial. For example, they would like to include a button that you can press and hear a service-person give their testimony on the training process.  One of the UCF stakeholders that may be invested in this project would be RICHES and our community partners would be the Navy League and probably even the city of Orlando who support this project. We plan on using mostly primary sources for this project. I believe mid-October we will have the opportunity to interview several servicemen and women who served in Orlando while they are in town for a reunion. Dr Gannon also shared with us that the UCF has several tapes of recorded testimony. As far as secondary sources we are going to attempt to use the resources located in the UCF Library as well as the historical society to research the role that the Navy Recruitment Center played in Orlando.

I do not know if we will be able to accomplish the audio component of the memorial that the Navy League is interested in; but hopefully we will be able to complete the panels for the memorial in Blue Jacket Park.