UWF Emerald Coast presents Military History through lectures

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. - The University of West Florida Emerald Coast will host a Military History lecture series beginning Feb. 28. The three-lecture series will cover a broad range of topics from World War II racism to historic preservation. All three lectures are scheduled for 5:30 p.m. in the Auditorium (Building 8) on the OWC/UWF Fort Walton Beach campus. The lecture series is free and open to the public.

The opening lecture, “Germany and the Vanishing Generation of the Nazi Era,” will be Feb. 28. The lecture will be presented by Derek Zumbro, military history coordinator at UWF and author of “Battle of the Ruhr: The German Army’s Final Defeat in the West and In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front.” Zumbro is a former Navy SEAL officer and served numerous tours of duty in the Middle East, Europe, and Central America. He attended the University of Heidelberg in Germany during the course of his doctoral program and received his Ph.D. at Louisiana State University.

The second lecture will be presented March 20 and will explore how African-American GIs had to combat racism in the Florida panhandle during World War II. The third lecture is “Family Mementoes to National Treasures,” and will be presented on April 24.

The University is also exploring the possibility of offering a master’s in military history track by video-conferencing and onsite instruction at the Fort Walton Beach campus beginning fall of 2008.

For more information on the series or the military history program, e-mail Jay Clune, chair of the UWF History Program, at jclune@uwf.edu or call (850) 474-2442.