Locals Loan Items to World War II Display

WALLA WALLA – Several Waitsburg and Prescott locals have shared World War II memorabilia that is part of the new Walla Walla Goes to War display at the Kirkman House Museum here. Walla Walla Goes to War runs from March 18 through Sept. 8 and looks at World War II from a local perspective.

Bob Hulce, Jack McCaw, Joan Helm and Pam Conover, all of Waitsburg, and Jerry Hall, of Prescott, have loaned items to the display, which includes everything from a Japanese battlefield flag to wartime recipes and diaries to bomber pilot garb.

Hulce and McCaw each have uniforms on display in the Kirkman House entry. A photo of a young Bob Hulce sits next to his Army uniform, complete with dog tags. McCaw's Navy blues stand nearby. Helm, a committe member for the display, said the museum was especially pleased to display McCaw's uniform because he and a fellow sailor had the cuffs of their uniforms embellished with Japanese embroidery.

"Jack (who joined the Navy prior to his high school graduation ceremony, at age 17) said he was was 6'1" and 118 lbs. when he went in and he was 6'3" when he got out," said Helm.

A submarine porthole belonging to Hall is displayed in the museum's multimedia room. A few of the early submarines had portholes. They took those out real quick when the war broke out," said Hall, who is a Vietnam and Korean War Navy submarine veteran. The porthole originally belonged to Hall's friend, Richard (Dick) Breckenridge, one of the few enlisted men to receive the Navy Cross in WWII. Hall received the porthole as a gift when Breckenridge died and had it mounted in his memory.

Among the jewelry on display is a silver bracelet bearing the Army Air Corp logo, on loan from Conover. Conover said her father, Private First Class Edward Tusty, was stationed at Malden Army Air Base in Missouri where he met Conover's mother. The bracelet was his gift to her.

"I never saw her wear it, but she always had it in her jewelry box where she kept only her most precious mementos. I was always under the impression that Dad had made it," said Conover. "The bracelet is one of those things I wish I'd asked about," she added.

Helm's contribution to the display includes farm literature from her father, Jack Potts, who farmed in Whitman County. A pamphlet urging farmers to raise more poultry and eggs quotes the Secretary of Agriculture as saying, "Food will win the war and write the peace."

In addition to the World War II display, the Kirkman House Museum, located at 214 North Colville Street in Walla Walla, continues to showcase fascinating historical artifacts and furnishings belonging to the Kirkman family who built the Victorian Italianate showcase home between 1879-1880. At one time in the home's rich history, it even served as a boys' dorm for Whitman College, where 1856 Nobel Prize winner Walter Brattain studied.

The Kirkman House is open Wednesday – Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is $5 per person or $20 per family.