Get to know the real G.I. Joe with local historian Bob Boyd.

Across American history and during its conflicts, the American soldier has been known as “Billy Yank” or "Johnny Reb" in the Civil War, as "Doughboys” in World War I,” and in World War II American soldiers came to be known as "G.I. Joe."

The G.I. Joe of the Second World War could have been a member of the pre-war Regular Army, a member of the Army Reserve or National Guard, a volunteer enlistee or a draftee. They were thrown together from all regions and walks of life across the nation, to create an American military that would defeat the armies of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

During the program Bob Boyd will present the experiences of G.I. Joe, especially those serving on the front lines of the campaigns in Europe and the Pacific, using images and artifacts from their
lives. This will not be an overview of the grand strategies that governed the course of the war. Rather, it will be a close look at a soldier's daily existence within Army life, enduring loneliness, inhospitable landscapes and weather, and four years of what seemed unending combat against a skilled and determined enemy.


Local historian Bob Boyd is retired from teaching American History and World History in the Bend La Pine School District. He also served for 30 years as the Curator of Western History at the High Desert Museum. Throughout his life he has enjoyed visiting historic sites, gathering objects that reflect key historic eras, visiting with individuals who experienced our history firsthand, and sharing his enthusiasm with his students and the public.


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