STARS AND STRIPES MUSEUM PROVIDES PRICELESS HISTORY

"I do not believe that any one factor could have done more to sustain the morale of the American Expeditionary Forces than the Stars and Stripes."

-- General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, after World War I

BLOOMFIELD -- To truly understand the place American veterans hold in their hearts for the Stars and Stripes military newspaper, according to Gary Capps, you have to be a veteran.

Since World War I, the paper has been a primary source of news for servicemen and women stationed around the world, providing a link to what is going on in the country they are defending.

"The newspaper is so important to soldiers overseas," said Capps, a former officer. "Every soldier reads Stars and Stripes."

However, you don't have to be a veteran to appreciate the wealth of first-hand history contained within the newspapers' pages.

With the opening of the new Stars and Stripes Museum and Library in Bloomfield, area residents have access to a gold mine filled with priceless historical nuggets.

The first phase of the ongoing project opened in June, funded entirely through private donations. The estimated $5 million endeavor, which will include five more buildings, is hoped to be completed by 2010.

Currently on display are a variety of artifacts from the Civil War and all five of America's major conflicts this century. Less than one-third of the museum's ever-expanding collection is on public view, but that will change as the facility grows.

While the period uniforms, Civil War-era cannonballs, original Stars and Stripes photos and artwork -- including the famous Joe and Willie cartoons of Bill Mauldin -- and myriad other donated items will interest visitors, the archive of more than 4,000 editions of the newspaper is the foundation of the collection.

"It is an excellent source of history," said Jim Mayo, president of the Stars and Stripes Museum and Library Association.

"Stars and Stripes covered history as it was being made. The reporters talked to the people who were there from the average soldiers right up to the officers in command."

But the so-called "Soldier's Newspaper" provided, and continues to provide, more than battlefield accounts and other military news. It was a hometown newspaper for people a long way from home, providing the latest in sports, entertainment and political and social commentary.

The paper's key contribution, though, is that it chronicled the lives, interests and attitudes of American troops.

The museum hopes to collect every edition of the paper ever printed -- more than 40,000 at last count -- and transfer them onto microfilm. Eventually, a computer database of every person, place and topic ever mentioned in the paper will be compiled.

The goal is to create a top-notch research library.

"We are just getting started," said Capps, executive director of the Museum.

Most of the museum's archive was donated by former Stars and Stripes staffers, who dub themselves Stripers.

"When people learned we were here they just started sending boxes and boxes and boxes of them to us."

Birthplace of Stars and Stripes

The story of the newspaper begins at Bloomfield during the first year of the Civil War.

According to Mayo, in November of 1861, Brig. Gen. Ulysses. S. Grant ordered an expedition to destroy Confederate forces in Stoddard County, of which Bloomfield is the county seat.

With the approach of superior union forces from three directions, the Confederate-loyal Missouri State Guard troops withdrew south to Dunklin County, leaving Bloomfield, which would change hands many times during the war, undefended.

When the Union troops arrived on Nov. 7, they commenced looting the town.

"Ten soldiers found the abandoned newspaper office of the Bloomfield Herald one evening and printed the first Stars and Stripes," Mayo said.

That issue came out on Nov. 9 and was distributed among the more than 2,000 Union troops in the area.

Only three copies of that issue survive. The museum has one, on permanent loan from the Stoddard County Historical Society, while the Library of Congress and the University of Michigan own the other two.

The historical society purchased its copy more than 20 years ago for $250 from an Indiana man who found it tucked away among some old family possessions.

The museum currently displays a reproduction of the first edition. When adequate display cases are installed, the original item will be available for public view.

The Stars and Stripes was printed twice more during the Civil War, by different troops in Arkansas and at a prisoner of war camp in Louisiana.

The Great War

With the American entry into World War I, the commander of U.S. forces in Europe, Missouri-native Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, wanted something to maintain morale.

A publication for soldiers, he decided, would do the trick, and Stars and Stripes was reborn.

Printed in Paris, the first World War I issue came out on Feb. 8, 1918.

While only 1,000 of that edition were produced, circulation during the war eventually peaked at 526,000 copies.

The paper, according to Mayo, included the latest news and sports available from America and also was to provide a forum for poems, stories, articles and cartoons produced by American servicemen.

The paper also included advertising, a practice that did not continue during World War II.

It was produced for a time after the war had ended, but saw its last issue on June 13, 1919, when most of America's troops were back home.

The main headline on that edition read: "Stars and Stripes Hauled Down with This Issue" with the subhead "Yanks' own Paper was for the Enlisted Man First, Last and All the Time -- Goodbye."

World War II and beyond

When millions of Americans were again called into service for World War II, Stars and Stripes got the call as well.

Gen. George Marshall, the overall commander of American forces, ordered its reintroduction. Marshall had served on Pershing's staff during the previous war and remembered the affection the men had for the paper.

"He felt the behavior of the Army would have a lot to do with the kind of newspaper they put out," Mayo said. "I don't know if the boys listened to that or not."

Since America was fighting around the globe, each theater of operations got its own edition. It started in Europe in 1942 and in the Pacific in 1945.

"In World War II the paper followed the troops," Mayo said. "When American forces went into a town, the Stars and Stripes took over the printing press."

Unlike after World War I, the paper didn't cease publication with the end of hostilities. It continued to serve troops left behind for the occupations of Germany and Japan, and, later, to maintain an America's presence during the Cold War.

Two editions of the paper are still produced, one in Tokyo and the other in Darmstadt, Germany.

MUSEUM INFORMATION

What: Stars and Stripes Museum and Library.

Where: Off of Highway 60, just south of Bloomfield.

When: Daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Sunday, when hours are from 1-4 p.m., and Tuesday, when it is closed.

How Much: Admission is free, but donations are welcome.

More Info: Call 573-568-2055, or contact the museum's Web site at www.sheltonbbs.com/stripes.