RCB Commemorates Veterans Day with Naval History Magazine Editor-in-Chief Eric Mills
Rotarians Bill Cabaniss, President Brenda Hackney, Past President Hartwell Davis, and Morris Hackney with featured speaker Eric Mills, Naval History Magazine Editor-in-Chief.
This week the Rotary Club of Birmingham welcomed Eric Mills, Naval History magazine Editor-in-Chief, for a special Veterans Day celebration. Mills discussed the importance of preserving history and heritage and the vital need to inspire in the general public an abiding fascination with the past, to value its lessons and keep the torch lit for future generations.
Mills described the Naval Institute’s founding by naval officers in 1873 after the Civil War as an independent forum apart from the Navy and Naval Academy, underscoring the Institute’s role in preserving and perpetuating the history of America’s Sea Services. He traced the history of Naval History, which spun off from the Institute’s Proceedings magazine in 1987. He explained the Institute’s purpose to preserve the nation’s naval and maritime heritage, highlighting a library of more than 300 oral histories featuring the first-hand historical accounts of sailors and officers as well as one of the largest collections of military photography in existence.
Mills emphasized the importance of the words etched in stone at the National Archives: ‘What is past is prologue.’
“We musn’t ever forget that,” Mills said. “We have to remember that always. We have to keep that light lit. It’s important that those of us who are fascinated with and love history make sure there are those in the coming generations who are inspired to love it as well. That history is us. Those experiences are us. Preserving that, preserving those memories are key to us preserving ourselves as a society and a culture.”
During the meeting, President Brenda Hackney honored RCB members and guests who have served in the U.S. military, including:
U.S. Army
Mac Beale
Bill Cabaniss
Charles Caldwell
Warren Callaway
Allan Chappelle
Darrell Cook
John Darnall
Stan Erdreich
Wayne Finley
Al Folcher
Ed Goodwin
Jim Hughey, Jr.
Henry Lynn
Bill McDonald, Sr.
John Meador
Alex Nading
Peyton Norville
Terry Oden
Lee Price
J. Mike Rediker
Mitch Reid
Van Richey
Allen Rushton
Bill Silsbee, Jr.
Murray Smith
Billy Smyer
Terrell Spencer
Ed Strickland
Jim Sulzby
Ted Von Cannon
Lee Walthall
Bill Wood
Dave Wood
U.S. Navy
Tom Adams
Merrill Bradley
Hartwell Davis
Evans Dunn, Jr.
Jamie French
Morris Hackney
Hugh Jacks
George Lynn
Jim McVoy
Jim Miller
Chuck Redden
Ed Stevenson
Marshall Urist
U.S. Air Force
John Amos
Max Austin
Charles Collat
Russell Cunningham
Rusty Goldsmith
Eric Jack
Al Johnson
Charles Knight
George Petznick
Donald Sweeney
Jack Trigg
U.S. Marine Corps
John Carroll
U.S. Coast Guard
Brian Barsanti
Frank Young
National Guard of the U.S.
Borden Burr
Stephen Chazen