Becoming a WW1 Aviation Historian

Young Voss: In a sense everyone is an historian. As a 17 year old historian you know the history of yourself, those in your family, and the history of what has been going around you in the world. What you do not know about yourself, etc is the subject for historical research, which concerns finding whact you do not know. As an exercise do a biography of yourself from memory with 17 chapters, each chapter concerning one year in your life: What memories do you have of each year of your life?
Since most people have no recall of what happened to them before they were five, you could honestly say in the first five chapters of you biography, "I have no memories for those years." Go up the years and write your general recollections. Now go back to chapter one and ask yourself how can you can learn about your first year: From parents, older siblings, relatives. Where is your birth certicate? Got a family album? Video tapes, etc. These things are the elements of historical research. Go to child devopment literature and research what physical phases your body goes through in the early years of personality developement. The books show that independent thinking usually occurs in the 21st year; before that we just go with the flow until old enough to use our own brains properly. Another research technique is to keep a diary in which to note your daily activity. I usually put a time down when an activity starts and stops: 1700: Dinner= Roast beef, etc to
1730: Do dishes to
1800: History Channel (WWI Fighter planes) and so on, so that over time you have a record of hew you spent your adult life.
You should take polaroid pictures and put clippings in the dairy and names and places.
With respect to being an aviation historian, you should join the League of Aviation Historians and get their journal: Over the Front; join the Civil Air Patrol, and go to all the air museums you can. To go frrom history buff to expert you can take courses in Air Warfare and
Aviation History from The American Military University, Mannassas, Virginia. Go to Links in the forum for addresses.
It's a tough job that makes you tough.
RSVP: Billy H 28 Aug 2002