Posted by LTC Tim Scherrer
on June 18, 2008, 10:30 am, in reply to "Re: Future of The Railsplitter Society, Inc."
204.184.63.102
I have been to two reunions, and plan on attending the Branson event. I am the leader of the Railsplitters Living History Company. I am also a Railsplitter, having served in 2nd Battalion of the 334th, and commanded D-2-334, which in WWII was H-334th, from 1996-1999.
The company as founded in May of 2002 to recreate the 84th ID at public and private WWII events, and educate the public about the WWII soldier with the 84th ID as a vehicle. We currently have about 50 members, and are very active at the Missouri Military Academy. We expect to grow to more than 30 members at the academy, and will continue growing with our adult group as well. Our website is www.railsplitterslivinghistory.org . We have about 10 vehicles, and a complete campsite set, including several large tents, a mess section, and lots of other gear.
We have always had interest in building our website to be a repository of on-line 84th ID information. I want to eventually get after action reports, and other documents scanned and available to researchers posted on the site.
We are also working on becoming our own 501 c 3 in order for us to self ensure, as well as receive donations. We also are trying to better facilitate our operations. We have several thousands of dollars worth of gear that are generally toted around by individuals.
We are wanting to buy an enclosed trailers to store our tents, field kitchen gear and other items. This will save a huge amount of work, cutting in half our loading and unloading requirements before/after events since all items would remain in the trailer. If anyone has a source for a trailer, please contact me. We have done all of this out of our own pockets, and getting the not for profit status will allow us to take corporate donations to offset some of the expenses of members.
The Military Academy has been very favorable recently about the railsplitters group, and I have had several staff members tell me the group is the "best new club to come around in years." The school intends to better publicize the group and use it as a recruiting tool for the school. Members have to be in good standing academically, and have no discplinary issues. It is basically an elite group of the best cadets interested in history and wanting to do a practical application of military tactics. I enjoy them because they act like real live "joes," doing the things that soldiers of their age do. The school also solidified it's bond with our group by hiring me as the Director of College Placement and Counseling, as well as history teacher for the school. I start there 1 Aug. Captain Shoemaker of the Academy has done all of the hard work with the school, as well as the nug work of equipping all of the cadets with WWII gear, no small task.
As for the society, we are interested in continuing with the society indefinately. This is our organizational mission and will participate as often as it can, considering the $4 a gallon gas prices, etc. This generally means we can hit the midwest events but not the east or west coast events.
LTC Tim Scherrer
CO, Railsplitters Living History Company
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