Presentations for
Military Matters: Defense, Development, & Dissent
in the Pikes Peak Region
Sat., June 6, 2015
East Library
5550 N. Union Blvd.
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
click here to make reservations for this free event
Michael L. Olsen – “Me encontre con seis americanos” - The Spanish Military Expedition that Changed the History of the Southwest
In November 1821, Captain Pedro Ignacio Gallego, leading a military force of 445 New Mexican militiamen and Pueblo Indians, encountered American trader William Becknell and five companions near present-day Las Vegas, New Mexico. Although motivated by different missions, their fateful meeting inaugurated the history and heritage of the famous Santa Fe Trail, initiating a floodgate of commerce and conquest. This presentation will investigate the Gallego-Becknell incident in detail and expand on its significance in the history of the Pikes Peak region.
In November 1821, Captain Pedro Ignacio Gallego, leading a military force of 445 New Mexican militiamen and Pueblo Indians, encountered American trader William Becknell and five companions near present-day Las Vegas, New Mexico. Although motivated by different missions, their fateful meeting inaugurated the history and heritage of the famous Santa Fe Trail, initiating a floodgate of commerce and conquest. This presentation will investigate the Gallego-Becknell incident in detail and expand on its significance in the history of the Pikes Peak region.
Susan Fletcher – How the Civil War Built Colorado Springs
This presentation will examine the Civil War experiences of General Palmer in order to explore how the skills he and his men learned during the war translated into ingenuity and success in city-building and industrialization during the latter half of the 19th century. We will explore how the soldiers’ experience of leadership, camaraderie, exploration, and technology in a war-time context impacted the development of Colorado Springs and other western cities.
This presentation will examine the Civil War experiences of General Palmer in order to explore how the skills he and his men learned during the war translated into ingenuity and success in city-building and industrialization during the latter half of the 19th century. We will explore how the soldiers’ experience of leadership, camaraderie, exploration, and technology in a war-time context impacted the development of Colorado Springs and other western cities.
Heather Jordan – The Man in the Hat: The Story of Leo Mohl
Leo Mohl was a long-time resident of Colorado Springs, a small business owner, and a world traveler. He was also a concentration camp survivor, a soldier, and one of the first European war refugees to live in Colorado Springs. The Mohl dairy farm, on land they called “Mohl Hill,” was purchased by the Air Force Academy in 1955. Using documents from the Mohl Family Papers, and other PPLD Special Collections materials, this presentation will tell Leo’s story as well as present an example of how using archival materials can provide a detailed narrative of someone’s life.
Leo Mohl was a long-time resident of Colorado Springs, a small business owner, and a world traveler. He was also a concentration camp survivor, a soldier, and one of the first European war refugees to live in Colorado Springs. The Mohl dairy farm, on land they called “Mohl Hill,” was purchased by the Air Force Academy in 1955. Using documents from the Mohl Family Papers, and other PPLD Special Collections materials, this presentation will tell Leo’s story as well as present an example of how using archival materials can provide a detailed narrative of someone’s life.
Greg Atkins – The Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce & the Making of the Modern Garrison City, 1940–1950
Through the 1940s, the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce sought new ways to reinvigorate the city. The Great Depression had diminished the number of tourists and health seekers on which the city’s economy relied. The gasoline restrictions and medical advancements of the Second World War seemed poised to further disrupt tourism and health. The Chamber of Commerce chose to adopt a new vision for the city which courted military spending while maintaining local control. This presentation follows the concerns and solutions of the Chamber of Commerce to discover how it shaped the relationship between the city and the military.
Through the 1940s, the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce sought new ways to reinvigorate the city. The Great Depression had diminished the number of tourists and health seekers on which the city’s economy relied. The gasoline restrictions and medical advancements of the Second World War seemed poised to further disrupt tourism and health. The Chamber of Commerce chose to adopt a new vision for the city which courted military spending while maintaining local control. This presentation follows the concerns and solutions of the Chamber of Commerce to discover how it shaped the relationship between the city and the military.
Eric Swab – Pikes Peak Summit: The Strategic Advantage
This presentation will describe three military activities that have taken place on the summit of Pikes Peak: the USARIEM Pikes Peak Laboratory that currently studies the effects of high altitude on human physiology and the earlier experiments that inform these studies; the testing of a First World War aircraft engine; and the establishment of the U.S. Army Signal Corps’ weather station, along with an examination of hardships endured by the soldiers stationed there. The paper also will trace the influence these activities have had on the region and the country.
This presentation will describe three military activities that have taken place on the summit of Pikes Peak: the USARIEM Pikes Peak Laboratory that currently studies the effects of high altitude on human physiology and the earlier experiments that inform these studies; the testing of a First World War aircraft engine; and the establishment of the U.S. Army Signal Corps’ weather station, along with an examination of hardships endured by the soldiers stationed there. The paper also will trace the influence these activities have had on the region and the country.
Katherine Scott Sturdevant – Sacrifices for Service: Amache Voluntarism, Missionary Martyrdom, & Legendary Memory
World War II inspired both noble and ignoble responses. The U.S. incarcerated thousands of Japanese-Americans in so-called internment camps. Granada Relocation Center, known as “Amache,” Colorado, held more than 7,300 innocent people. When allowed, many of Amache’s young men volunteered for military service, becoming the most decorated unit in the history of American warfare. Meanwhile, sympathetic free Americans did what they could to make Amache life more bearable. The story of one young volunteer, Peggy Covell, was noble in its simplicity. Yet the story’s connection with her parents’ deaths at Japanese hands and the story’s effect on a famous Japanese warrior’s Christian conversion brought more sacrifice for the private woman and her family. Peggy’s role in the conversion story grew to legendary proportions, spawning a detective mystery, whose unravelling is important to the correct interpretation of Colorado’s historic Amache.
World War II inspired both noble and ignoble responses. The U.S. incarcerated thousands of Japanese-Americans in so-called internment camps. Granada Relocation Center, known as “Amache,” Colorado, held more than 7,300 innocent people. When allowed, many of Amache’s young men volunteered for military service, becoming the most decorated unit in the history of American warfare. Meanwhile, sympathetic free Americans did what they could to make Amache life more bearable. The story of one young volunteer, Peggy Covell, was noble in its simplicity. Yet the story’s connection with her parents’ deaths at Japanese hands and the story’s effect on a famous Japanese warrior’s Christian conversion brought more sacrifice for the private woman and her family. Peggy’s role in the conversion story grew to legendary proportions, spawning a detective mystery, whose unravelling is important to the correct interpretation of Colorado’s historic Amache.
Rick W. Sturdevant – “We Will Make Colorado Springs the Space Capital of the Free World”
Gen. James Hartinger, the first commander of Air Force Space Command, spoke those words in September 1982. Establishment in Colorado Springs of a major command for space operations certainly represented a historical milestone for both the city and the U.S. Air Force. Nonetheless, oversight of important military space missions had resided in Colorado Springs since 1960. Ironically, when Space Command activated in 1982, it had no assigned space assets and would not have any until May 1983. Almost a decade would pass before Air Force Space Command gained control over all the fundamental mission elements related to military spaceflight. Meanwhile, a transformation in warfare would emerge, with space systems at its core. This presentation will outline the migration of military space responsibilities to the Colorado Springs area during the past half-century and assess the accuracy of General Hartinger’s prediction.
Gen. James Hartinger, the first commander of Air Force Space Command, spoke those words in September 1982. Establishment in Colorado Springs of a major command for space operations certainly represented a historical milestone for both the city and the U.S. Air Force. Nonetheless, oversight of important military space missions had resided in Colorado Springs since 1960. Ironically, when Space Command activated in 1982, it had no assigned space assets and would not have any until May 1983. Almost a decade would pass before Air Force Space Command gained control over all the fundamental mission elements related to military spaceflight. Meanwhile, a transformation in warfare would emerge, with space systems at its core. This presentation will outline the migration of military space responsibilities to the Colorado Springs area during the past half-century and assess the accuracy of General Hartinger’s prediction.
William Schultz – Upward Christian Soldiers: The Evangelization of the United States Air Force Academy
Between 2004 and 2006 the United States Air Force Academy gained notoriety as a stronghold of evangelical Christianity. Critics described it as a “Rocky Mountain Bible College” where evangelical cadets, professors, and officers pressured non-evangelicals to convert or burn in hell. This presentation will show that the evangelization of the Air Force Academy was not a recent phenomenon; rather, it resulted from state policies established early in the Cold War. The legacy of these policies did not end with the Cold War but lived on after the Soviet Union’s demise, ultimately shaping the way in which the U.S. waged the War on Terror. The history of religion at the AFA demonstrates that the state, rather than simply being a target of religious activism, has just as often targeted and transformed religious beliefs, practices, and institutions.
Between 2004 and 2006 the United States Air Force Academy gained notoriety as a stronghold of evangelical Christianity. Critics described it as a “Rocky Mountain Bible College” where evangelical cadets, professors, and officers pressured non-evangelicals to convert or burn in hell. This presentation will show that the evangelization of the Air Force Academy was not a recent phenomenon; rather, it resulted from state policies established early in the Cold War. The legacy of these policies did not end with the Cold War but lived on after the Soviet Union’s demise, ultimately shaping the way in which the U.S. waged the War on Terror. The history of religion at the AFA demonstrates that the state, rather than simply being a target of religious activism, has just as often targeted and transformed religious beliefs, practices, and institutions.
Robert S. Kreider – An Intrusion of Dissenters in Colorado Springs on the Eve of World War II
This presentation will describe life in Civilian Public Service Camp No. 5 at Templeton Gap where 150 conscientious objectors to military service, of diverse backgrounds, worked under the Soil Conservation Service and U.S. Forest Service and how, on the eve of World War II, the Colorado Springs community responded to this group of dissenters. This is a study told by a surviving CO camper, also an historian, who seeks to recover memory of this experiment in how a nation preparing for war sought to accommodate a minority.
This presentation will describe life in Civilian Public Service Camp No. 5 at Templeton Gap where 150 conscientious objectors to military service, of diverse backgrounds, worked under the Soil Conservation Service and U.S. Forest Service and how, on the eve of World War II, the Colorado Springs community responded to this group of dissenters. This is a study told by a surviving CO camper, also an historian, who seeks to recover memory of this experiment in how a nation preparing for war sought to accommodate a minority.
Bill Sulzman – The Soldiers in Revolt at Fort Carson, 1968–1972
This presentation will detail antiwar activities at Fort Carson during the period 1968–1972, placing it in the wider context of soldier resistance to the Vietnam War nationally and in Vietnam itself. Throughout those years, soldier opposition was real and ended any chance to continue a ground war in Vietnam. A striking outcome of that resistance was the degree to which Fort Carson’s leadership loosened the discipline at the Post and incorporated cultural changes in an attempt to win back the troops. The dissent at Fort Carson was accompanied by war resistance activities in the city at large. There were a number of cooperative civilian and military ventures.
This presentation will detail antiwar activities at Fort Carson during the period 1968–1972, placing it in the wider context of soldier resistance to the Vietnam War nationally and in Vietnam itself. Throughout those years, soldier opposition was real and ended any chance to continue a ground war in Vietnam. A striking outcome of that resistance was the degree to which Fort Carson’s leadership loosened the discipline at the Post and incorporated cultural changes in an attempt to win back the troops. The dissent at Fort Carson was accompanied by war resistance activities in the city at large. There were a number of cooperative civilian and military ventures.
Mary Elizabeth Ruwell – U.S. Air Force Academy & Colorado Springs Community Interaction during the Vietnam War Era
The Air Force Academy has been in the Colorado Springs region since 1955 and was eagerly sought by the local community. The early 1970s were an interesting time for the Air Force Academy. In addition to internal problems with cadet attrition and race relations, members of the Colorado Springs community came to the Academy to protest the Vietnam War. The Academy survived these times and changed dramatically after the Vietnam War, especially with the admission of women. This presentation will include descriptions of those events as well as the Academy reaction and will describe the effective cooperation of both community and Academy leaders in reaching solutions to the issues.
The Air Force Academy has been in the Colorado Springs region since 1955 and was eagerly sought by the local community. The early 1970s were an interesting time for the Air Force Academy. In addition to internal problems with cadet attrition and race relations, members of the Colorado Springs community came to the Academy to protest the Vietnam War. The Academy survived these times and changed dramatically after the Vietnam War, especially with the admission of women. This presentation will include descriptions of those events as well as the Academy reaction and will describe the effective cooperation of both community and Academy leaders in reaching solutions to the issues.
Mary Sprunger-Froese – HEAVENS NO! Dissent to Space Warfare, 1983 - Present
From the groundbreaking for the Consolidated Space Operations Center – today’s Schriever Air Force Base – to promised killer drones for Ft. Carson, activists have interrupted, inserted, and initiated dissenting dialog into the highly touted, mass supported and ever-expanding military presence in the Pikes Peak region. Dissent has employed symbolic intrusions, civil disobedience, exercising First Amendment rights, and public prayer walks. Four examples of these dissenting modes will be presented in a slide show illustration.
From the groundbreaking for the Consolidated Space Operations Center – today’s Schriever Air Force Base – to promised killer drones for Ft. Carson, activists have interrupted, inserted, and initiated dissenting dialog into the highly touted, mass supported and ever-expanding military presence in the Pikes Peak region. Dissent has employed symbolic intrusions, civil disobedience, exercising First Amendment rights, and public prayer walks. Four examples of these dissenting modes will be presented in a slide show illustration.
