Admission is $10.00 per person for non-members and $5.00 for Wright Museum Members, unless otherwise noted. The programs will be held in the DuQuoin Education Center on the first floor. We strongly encourage you to reserve seats well ahead of time by calling 603-569-1212 or by booking online for each program.
Most programs begin at 7:00 p.m. and take place at the Museum unless otherwise noted. The Museum’s doors open one hour before programs begin. Please check our website for schedule changes because of unforeseen circumstances.
Learn the incredible story of how one small airport in New Hampshire, now known as Manchester Airport, played an important role in transporting members of the 8th Airforce as well as weather squadrons sent to Greenland and Labrador to help predict the weather across Europe, especially D-day. Leah is Associate Director Aviation Museum of New […]
Joe McQuaid—War Fronts Home Fires: A WWII Correspondents remarkable coverage, his wife’s indominable spirit. As a World War II newspaper correspondent, B.J. McQuaid covered American and British front lines from the frozen Aleutian Islands of Alaska to the steaming jungles and seas of the South Pacific, at Tarawa and Guadalcanal and then to Europe from […]
Ron Janowski – Break out from Normandy After the Allied landings in Normandy, commanders began to formulate a plan to push out from the beachhead. Initial efforts were hampered by the need to take the city of Caen in the east and the dense hedgerow country in the west. Seeking to launch a major breakout, […]
Peggy Hennelly-Maniates - A Hero of Two Nations Learn the story of a young paratrooper who is the only known American soldier to have served in combat with both the United States Army and the Soviet Red Army in World War II. He took part in Mission Albany, the airborne landings of the 101st Airborne […]
Garret Shetrawski – The Life and Legacy of Captain Andre Haldane Also known as Ack Ack, using skills he learned as captain of the football and baseball teams in Bowdoin College, led his men bravely though the battlefield of the Pacific. His story is portrayed in the 2010 HBO Miniseries The Pacific.
Ed Gordon – The Other Nuremberg: The Tokyo War Crimes Trial (1946-1948) During World War II political and military leaders of the Empire of Japan committed major war crimes and crimes against humanity. Over 6 million civilians and prisoners of war were killed by the Japanese. Three percent of Allied soldiers died in German and […]
David Dworak – The War of Supply The era of modern warfare introduced in World War II presented the Allied Powers with one of the more complicated logistical challenges of the century: how to develop an extensive support network that could supply and maintain a vast military force comprised of multiple services and many different […]
Fred Johnson—The Fighting Seabee’s Over 12,500 African Americans served in Seabee units in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during World War II, a group largely forgotten today. During the war these men not only built advanced bases and offloaded cargo, but helped break institutional conceptions of race, paving the road toward complete integration of the […]
Alex Kershaw—Patton's Prayer: A True Story of Courage, Faith and Victory in WWII. General George Patton needed a miracle. In December 1944, the Allies found themselves stuck. Rain had plagued the troops daily since September, turning roads into rivers of muck, slowing trucks and tanks to a crawl. A thick ceiling of clouds had grounded […]
Bob DiCicco—Love Letters From the Front A musical tribute to the American GI’s of WWII. A poignant look at the letters from loved ones and the beautiful music that shaped the incredible era of the 1940’s.
Dr. Stephen Brecher – Penicillin, a Football Game, and the Golden age of Antibiotics in WWII Learn about the secret weapon developed in WWII. This miracle drug is credited with saving the lives of 10 to 15 % of all WWII Casualties. Research and production of penicillin became the second highest priority of the war […]
David Chrisinger - The Soldiers Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of WWII A beautiful reckoning with the life and work of the legendary journalist Ernie Pyle, who gave World War II a human face for millions of Americans even as he wrestled with his own demons. At the height of his fame and influence […]
Howard Mansfield – I will Tell no War Stories: What our Fathers left unsaid about WWII Growing up, World War II was omnipresent and hidden. This was also true of his father's time in the Air Force. Like most of his generation, it was a rule not to talk about what he'd experienced in war. […]