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November/December 2009
National Treasures Class Act More Articles Upcoming Issues
When Duty Calls In celebration of Veterans Day, meet two Daughters who have served their country in the field and from afar. Discover the different ways they have cared for and honored our nation’s warriors. Seeing the World, Serving Wounded Warriors Commander Barbara Ellen Miller’s entrance into the U.S. Navy isn’t your typical military enlistment story. It was 1961, and she was finishing her master’s thesis in nursing at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Walking near the university, she saw a poster that read, “Join the Navy and see the world.” “Most people don’t walk along the street and make a life-changing decision like that, but I decided it was for me and a good way to get the chance to serve my country and travel,” Cmdr. Miller says. Her first duty assignment in 1962 didn’t take her overseas but to the Naval Regional Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Cmdr. Miller was assigned to the Sick Officers Quarters, where she took care of high-ranking officers such as Admiral Hyman Rickover, who is known as the father of the nuclear Navy, and Admiral Thomas Kinkaid, who commanded the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II. She assisted doctors with annual physical exams for President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Ted Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and she also cared for then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. “I met some very nice dignitaries, and I learned a lot from them,” she says. “I had some very enlightening and eye-opening experiences there.” Cmdr. Miller got her chance to travel in 1964, when she was assigned to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan, where Marines wounded in Vietnam were being treated. Most of the time while in Yokosuka, however, Cmdr. Miller was taking care of hundreds of wounded men. “I often wonder where they are,” she says. “I wish I could find my patients so I can know how they turned out. Unfortunately, I don’t remember their names. It was a long war, as it followed me to hospitals in San Diego and Philadelphia.” One group of wounded servicemen she’ll never forget are the crew of 82 men who were held hostage for more than 11 months after their ship, the U.S.S. Pueblo, was captured by North Koreans in 1968. They were freed two days before Christmas, and Cmdr. Miller was one of three nurses selected to care for them at the Naval Hospital in San Diego. “They arrived on Christmas Eve,” she recalls. “All of their family members were there, and it was decorated for Christmas. I don’t think they could believe they were home. It was a very emotional reunion for everyone.” After retiring from the Navy in 1982, Cmdr. Miller continued to work in the nursing profession, finishing her career as an instructor at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn. “I lost my voice because I was lecturing so much,” she says. “I was told I would never speak again if I didn’t stop lecturing, so I had to hang up my white coat. I had given my all to nursing and to the Navy, and it was always an honor to serve my profession and my country.” To honor her lifetime of service, the state of Connecticut selected her to be inducted into the Connecticut Veterans’ Hall of Fame last year. Her fellow volunteers from the Retired Activities Office on the Naval Submarine Base in Groton nominated Cmdr. Miller, who is the first woman to be inducted into the hall of fame. “When I got the call, I didn’t say anything,” she says. “I was completely overwhelmed and surprised.” Congratulations came from her fellow DAR members as well. Cmdr. Miller, who is a member of the Melzingah Chapter, Beacon, N.Y., became a DAR member in 1952. A Wartime Angel Dorothy “Dottie” Busby Wainwright still recalls the moment she received a letter addressed to “Grandma Wainwright.” The letter wasn’t from a grandchild; it was from a 19-year-old soldier stationed in Iraq. She was a member of one of the many Army National Guard units that Mrs. Wainwright had “adopted” as Texas State Chairman of the DAR Project Patriot Committee and a member of Heritage Trails Chapter, Spring, Texas. “It was so moving to get that letter,” she says. “She asked if I could bake her favorite cake—just for her. I did it, and it started a loving relationship.” Mrs. Wainwright’s generosity has touched many others, including the boys and girls who have received the thousands of toys, school supplies, clothes and shoes she and her fellow DAR members have sent overseas the past three years. Dubbed Operation Wainwright, this DAR program provides supplies to Camp Bucca, Iraq, where they are distributed to local families. “It helps to build relationships and trust between our soldiers and the locals,” Mrs. Wainwright says. “After the first few shipments, the soldiers mentioned that rocket attacks had stopped, and there was no more loss of life in the area, which they attributed directly to the goodwill shown to these families. With these gifts, they know we care about them and that we Americans are humanitarians.”
Left: Dottie Wainwright In one instance, Operation Wainwright helped connect an Iraqi baby with a life-threatening heart defect with much-needed medical care. “I wrote and called many organizations in the United States, but got no good response,” Mrs. Wainwright explains. “Then, almost as a miracle, a message showed up in my e-mail, and a Jewish foundation in Tel Aviv wanted medical records and more information. Within 24 hours they replied that they had a pediatric cardiologist in Jordan who would take the baby’s case.” Today, Operation Wainwright is still in full force and has expanded to Camp Taji, Iraq and Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. Many of the donations—and shipping costs—come directly from Mrs. Wainwright, but she says the reward is far greater than the cost. “I’ll never meet those children, but if I could, I would hug every one of them.” While she’ll probably never come face-to-face with the children she has helped through Operation Wainwright, she has made lifelong friends out of the military men and women from around the country that she has supported through DAR Project Patriot. “Some of them have visited me here, and I continue to support them as they redeploy or re-enter their civilian lives,” says Mrs. Wainwright, who even funded a scholarship and helped with college book expenses for one of the returning soldiers. “As civilians, they still need TLC.”
Lt. j.g. Kristen Wheeler delivering supplies to locals Mrs. Wainwright encourages others to reach out to deployed soldiers and their families, even if it’s just to say thank you. “A simple thank you is little to do,” she says. “Also, if you know of a family of a service man or woman, try to see that their needs are also being met. Happiness in their families at home relates to happiness for the troops far away.” For all of her generosity, Mrs. Wainwright was awarded the Medal and Certificate of Meritorious Public Service from the U.S. Department of the Navy, which is one of the department’s highest medals. “They told me this medal was rarely presented to a civilian,” she says. “I was so shocked and humbled. I do what I do because it comes from the heart. I expect no glory, nor do I expect medals and awards. The love I receive from the troops is more reward than any one person should receive. After all, those troops are the ones putting their lives on the line to preserve our freedoms.”
For more Today's Daughters, please click here. To nominate a Daughter for a future issue, e-mail a description to americanspirit@dar.org.
A Teapot to Revere This silver teapot made around 1795–1800 reflects the restrained elegance of early neoclassicism. The deceptively simple construction features bright-cut engraving of the acorn and oak leaf bands and a pinecone finial.
The cypher “AMcK” identifies the owner, Agnes McKean (born in 1770), the daughter of William McKean, a wealthy Boston merchant. Perhaps her father purchased the teapot for her as a wedding gift when she married Henry Swift in May 1800. The mark “REVERE” confirms the identification of the maker, America’s most famous silversmith—Paul Revere (1734–1818). Remembered best as a Revolutionary War Patriot, Revere was also a talented and prolific silversmith and engraver. An astute businessman, he owned a foundry and successful copper mills.
For more National Treasures, please visit the DAR Museum's Featured Objects.
A Better Battle Plan From the time she was in grade school, India Meissel celebrated every birthday by spending a weekend at Colonial Williamsburg, Va. “My father would rent one of the houses there, and the whole family would go,” she says. “He gave me a bus pass and an entry ticket, and I would go all over Williamsburg by myself. I’d go into the powder magazine and the windmill and learn all sorts of things.” Those trips were one of the reasons Meissel, who teaches U.S. history at Lakeland High School in Suffolk, Va., developed a love for history early on. But Meissel took a detour when she reached college. “I started college as a biology/pre-med major. By the end of my freshman year, I knew I could do it, but it wasn’t my passion,” she says. “History is my passion, and I thought I could be good at it. Many of my students go on to work on political campaigns or study history in college. That’s an absolute thrill—that’s when I know I’m doing a good job.” India Meissel comes by her passion for American history naturally. Besides growing up in history-rich Virginia, her family tree touts Thomas Culpeper, who served as the Colonial governor of Virginia from 1680 to 1683. Her family line also extends to Lexington, Mass., where her great-uncle was in charge of refitting the U.S.S. Constitution, the world’s oldest commissioned naval vessel. Although teaching high school is her day job, Meissel is also a fixture at the local community college. She started teaching U.S. history and Western civilization as an adjunct professor in the evenings, and when the college said she could branch out, she jumped at the chance to develop a new curriculum. “I developed a class of Virginia Civil War history and general Virginia history, and those classes meet for lectures half the time and for field trips the rest of the time,” she says. Meissel takes her students to sites that most teachers never visit, like the Maggie Walker House in Richmond and the Virginia Historical Society. “And I like to support our local small museums,” she says. “The final all-day trip we take is to the naval base and the site of the Jamestown 1607 exposition, the U.S.S. Wisconsin Memorial and the MacArthur Memorial.” Thanks to Meissel’s involvement at the college, her high school students can enroll for college classes early and earn credit for taking her class. “It’s hard work, but as long as they get a C or higher, they’ll earn six college credit hours,” she says. “I want to put them ahead of the crowd so they’ll be better prepared for college coursework.” In addition to her work in the classroom, Meissel also worked with the National Council for Social Studies to rewrite the standards for the Praxis Series, the exams required for teachers seeking licensure. “We wrote the standards so the tests include questions that reflect what first-year teachers need to know,” she says. “Some standards overlapped; others needed to be tweaked or eliminated. That was incredible—to shape something that will result in making people better teachers.” Meissel’s diverse and busy schedule is reflective of her teaching style. She delivers a combination of art, music and cultural history while she talks to her students about important names and dates, and she knows how to illustrate the importance of her lessons dramatically. “I’m a desk climber,” she says. “When I talk about George Washington and Pennsylvania’s Fort Necessity, I scramble onto my desk to illustrate the fort’s position in the valley.” One year, Meissel’s desk went out from under her, and she crashed to the floor in the middle of her lesson. “I said, ‘See what happens when your battle plan goes wrong?’ I know they’ll never forget that.”
FEATURES Triumph of Tryon Palace: Tryon Palace in New Bern, N.C., regarded in the 18th century as the finest public building in the Colonies, was built between 1767 and 1770 as the home of the Royal Governor and the first permanent capitol of North Carolina. Tour this Georgian-style palace that only 50 years ago was reduced to ruins. Tidings of Joy: The History of Christmas Cards in America When Christmas became an official holiday in 1870, sending decorative notes with well wishes to family and friends became popular, and the enduring tradition of Christmas cards was born. Vine and Olive Colony French expatriates traveled to the southwestern frontier of Alabama in 1817, looking for a home. The settlement they built, the Vine and Olive Colony, still fascinates locals in the region. DEPARTMENTS Historic Home: Dr. Benjamin Rush’s Cottage Farm Crafts: A Playful History: Austin Business Carries on the Craft of Handmade Wooden Toys More than 200 years after geography teacher John Spilsbury invented the jigsaw puzzle, Georgean and Paul Kyle are carrying on that tradition in their own toymaking shop in Austin, Texas. Spirited Adventures—Southwest: Arizona Discover the riches of Arizona’s northern region, stretching from the Grand Canyon to the Verde Valley. Bookshelf: Plus: Letters, Whatnot, PG Message To purchase an issue of American Spirit, contact magazinesubscriptions@dar.org To subscribe to American Spirit, visit Subscribe.
Coming in January/February 2010: A Remarkable Real Daughter: The Life and Legacy of Eunice Davis The Effects of Pollution and Climate Change on Historic Structures The Quasi-War: A Time of Conflict Between the U.S. and France General Nicholas Herkimer and the Tryon County Militia |
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