Tuesday, November 22, 2022
By: Deborah PetersOn November 9, 2022, the Rotary Club of Washington, DC, held its regular weekly meeting in person at the University Club of Washington, D.C. and via Zoom and welcomed guest speaker Dr. Frank A. Blazich, Curator at the Smithsonian's American History Museum. On November 9, 2022, the Rotary Club of Washington, DC, held its regular weekly meeting in person at the University Club of Washington, D.C. and via Zoom.
President Marilyn Nevy Cruz called the meeting to order at 12:30 PM and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Deputy-Secretary Debbie Peters led the introduction of guests and visiting Rotarians.
Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms Max Salas recognized birthdays and anniversaries for the week and offered words of wisdom.
TRF Chair Sterling Hoffman urged members to donate to The Rotary Foundation.
Bill Tobin discussed the $1,000 DC Rotary Foundation disaster relief grant to ShelterBox USA for the Floods in Pakistan.
DG 6380 Bala Murthy addressed the Club and reminisced about his time with us.
President Marilyn Nevy Cruz led the new member induction of Sibel Kulaksiz.
Fellowship Chair Mary Goldsmith reminded everyone to buy tickets for the holiday party on December 8th.
Monica Smith introduced the speaker, Frank A. Blazich, Jr., PhD, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, specializes in the American military experience in the twentieth century. A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, he holds a doctorate in modern American history from The Ohio State University (2013). His dissertation, “Economics of Emergencies: North
Carolina, Civil Defense, and the Cold War, 1940-1963,” examined the confluence of civil defense, natural disasters, and economic development, leading to the evolution of the state’s modern emergency management agency.
Following his doctoral studies, Blazich served as the historian at the U.S. Navy Seabee Museum in Port Hueneme, California before moving to Washington, D.C. to serve as a historian in the History and Archives Division of Naval History and Heritage Command. From June to December 2016, Blazich served as the historian on Task Force Netted
Navy working for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.
In January 2017, he assumed his current position as curator of modern military history at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. His first edited book, Bataan Survivor: A POW’s Account of Japanese Captivity in World War II, was published by the University of Missouri Press in February 2017. His second book, “An
Honorable Place in American Air Power”: Civil Air Patrol Coastal Patrol Operations, 1943-1943, was published by Air University Press in December 2020.
Additionally, he has published articles, essays, blog posts, book reviews and delivered public talks on numerous topics relating to modern American military history. His work has appeared in the Journal of Military History, Naval War College Review, The Northern Mariner, North Carolina Historical Review, Army History, Naval History, Air Power History, Marine Corps History, War on the Rocks, Volunteer Magazine, Center for International Maritime History, The Sextant, Seabee Magazine Online, Smithsonian Magazine Online, and the Washington Post.
He is currently the Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator for the Society for Military History and the National Historian Emeritus of the Civil Air Patrol at the rank of colonel. He received the Air Force Historical Foundation’s Best Article Award in 2019 for his article "Definitely Damaged or Destroyed’ Reexamining Civil Air Patrol’s Wartime Claims,”
published in the Spring 2019 issue of Air Power History. He recently received the Keith Matthews Award for Best Article from the Canadian Nautical Research Society for his piece “Inventors and Innovators: Naval Lighterage and Anglo-American Success in the Amphibious Invasions of German-Occupied Europe,” published in the Summer 2021
issue of Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord. Blazich is currently a Knight Commander in the Order of Prince Danilo I of the House of Petrovi?-Njegoš. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Nicole, and son William.
President Marilyn presented Dr. Blazich with a certificate for a planting of a tree under the Club’s Trees for the Capital program.
Sterling Hoffman conducted the raffle and Erminia Scarcella won, for a change. Salvador Farfán was the Zoom producer and Steve Liston was the producer in the room. The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 PM.
Read More