The Army Post Office Wives Club met monthly during World War II at the Langren Hotel in downtown Asheville

In 2002, Reid Chapman and Deborah Miles realized that time was running out for the “Greatest Generation” to tell their stories. Concerned that this important history could be lost forever, Chapman, an education lecturer at UNC Asheville, and Miles, the director of the Center for Diversity Education, along with 15 volunteers began collecting these vanishing stories. Within a year, the team had interviewed more than 100 World War II veteran and civilians in Western North Carolina.

The results of their work led to an exhibition, “World War II Mountain Memories: Home Front to the Frontline,” which opened in 2003. Just three year later, Chapman and Miles have further compiled the interviews into a new book, “Asheville and Western North Carolina in World War II,” which was recently released by Arcadia Publishing.

With both historical projects completed, Chapman and Miles decided to donate the research materials UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library Special Collections so that the information would be protected for generations to come. A formal dedication ceremony of the archives will be held in honor of Veteran’s Day at 10 a.m. Friday, Nov. 10, in the Ramsey Library Special Collections room. The event is free and open to the public.

“We are so pleased to receive this collection from the Center for Diversity Education,” said UNC Asheville Special Collections Librarian Helen Wykle. “These photographs, letters, videotapes and transcripts of oral histories taken from soldiers and their families tell the history of Western North Carolina during World War II.”

The collection includes photos and oral histories of prominent Western North Carolina residents, including Col. Robert Morgan, famed pilot of the Memphis Belle; Robert Youngdeer, former chief of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation; Chad McAdams, Red Ball Express truck driver; radiological technician June Lamb, and many others.

“By placing these archives at the University, we know they will become a powerful tool for greater understanding of this time period and the people who braved it,” said Miles.

The collection is available to the public in UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library Special Collections and will also be available online soon at http://toto.lib.unca.edu/.

“Over the next two months, the World War II archive will be added to the growing body of materials available online from Special Collections in a digital format,” said Wykle. “The completed digital archive is expected to be fully available by January 2007.”

For more information about the dedication ceremony or the World War II archives, call UNC Asheville’s Ramsey Library Special Collections at 828/251-6645.