Archive Record

Images

1 of 1977

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Metadata

Collection

Army Community Services Stilwell Collection

Object ID

RG 6.50

Accession Number

2016.035

Title

Army Community Services (ACS) General Joseph W. Stilwell Collection

Date

1900-1999

Year Range from

1900

Year Range to

1999

Creator

Kevin Moore, Director Army Community Services (ACS), Kevin Moore

Scope & Content

This collection was transferred to the DLIFLC Command History Office Historical Records Collection (archives) by Ms. Kevin A. Moore, former director of the Army Community Services (ACS) for the U.S. Army Garrison of Monterey in October 2016. Historian Cameron Binkley first contacted Moore in an effort to obtain a solid local collection of photographs and other documents relating to the history of General Joseph W. Stilwell as represented by the Stilwell exhibit on display in the Stilwell Community Center, Ord Military Community.

Moore began her career with the Army at Fort Ord some thirty or forty years prior to the date of records transfer. She worked in Fort Ord's Stilwell Hall, originally constructed as a soldier's or enlisted men's club and initiated by General Stilwell in 1940, but which was later used to house ACS. Part of this collection includes various articles, drawings, a few photographs, and other material collected by Moore about Stilwell Hall that document its early history and later use and efforts by the Army to restore and renovate it as a community center from 1975-1978 and again in the late 1980s with an "adopt a room" campaign that Moore helped to organize. Material related to the Stilwell Hall rededication ceremony in May 1990 is included and items pertaining to Fort Ord and its closure in 1994 (including two VHS videos).

In 1998, the Army decided to dedicate the former Fort Ord NCO Club as the new Stilwell Community Center (after the closure of Fort Ord and Stilwell Hall). Moore was the director of ACS and organized the dedication. ACS was the initial and remains the main occupant of the building. Moore organized the dedication ceremony by working with the Presidio of Monterey's Garrison Commander, Colonel David Gross and his wife Laura (an artist who helped construct the Stilwell ACS exhibit), and by establishing contact and working with the grandson of General Stilwell, retired U.S. Army Col. John E. Easterbrook and Mrs. W. S. Cox, General Stilwell's daughter (known as "Doot"). The collection includes correspondence and materials associated with the interaction of Moore with the Stilwell family.

Of significance is a set of high quality photographs documenting the life of General Stilwell, as well as artifacts, including personal effects, uniform elements, flags, etc., that are on display with the photographs at the Stilwell Community Center (and which currently remain in custody of the Army Community Services), and a few negatives of General Stilwell's family taken after his death in 1946 (including Mrs. Stilwell, children, their house in Carmel, and his car with the famous license plate "JWS-CBI"). The photographs were obtained by Moore directly from the family. Moore made negatives from most of these photographs (at Army expense) and had full consent to make any use of the materials as specified directly in the family's correspondence with her and Mrs. Gross. The collection includes the set of captions developed for the exhibit and describing each photograph in it. The captions were vetted and apparently approved by the family. The collection includes news stories about General Stilwell, biographical accounts, and various speeches at different times as well as published monographs or articles about Stilwell's military campaigns or about Stilwell Hall or the Stilwell Community Center. Documentation about the actual dedication ceremony includes operations orders, speeches, and photographs. Keynote speakers were TRADOC Commanding General William W. Hartzog and Colonel Easterbrook.

The collection includes information about the General Stilwell Stamp, issued by the U.S. Postal Service about 2000, including comments by Colonel Easterbrook about General Stilwell. The collection also includes information relating to the interest of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to commission a formal painting of General Stilwell as well as photographs and a negative of a photograph of the painting as well as information about its Carmel painter. Finally, the collection includes high resolution digitized images of national magazines featuring General Stilwell's portrait.

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