Department of France Convention announced

The 2016 Department of France Convention will be held June 16-19 in Houffalize, Belgium. The convention reservation letter can be found at the Flanders Field Post BE02 webpage, at https://sites.google.com/site/americanlegionpostbe02/department-convention. The reservation deadline is May 1; contact the POC at flanders.fields.post.be02@gmail.com.

The guest speaker at the convention banquet on June 18 will be Martin King. King is a highly qualified British military historian/lecturer who’s had the honor of reintroducing many U.S. and British veterans to the World War II battlefields on which they fought. He lives in Belgium near Antwerp, where he spends his time writing and visiting European battlefields. In 2008 he left his job as a lecturer in European history at the University of Antwerp to work as a historical consultant for The History Channel. He also chose to focus on researching and writing about individuals and the battlefields on which they served. He is frequently in demand by the U.S. military and NATO for lectures and staff tours.
His activities came to the attention of some major military documentary makers in Hollywood. The History Channel hired Martin as senior historical consultant on their hit series ‘Cities of the Underworld.’ He appears in the episode titled ‘Hitler’s Trenches.’ Consequently, Breakthrough Films Canada brought him in to present and work as their lead researcher on their series ‘Greatest Tank Battles,’ one of the most watched military documentaries of the last 10 years. BAFTA-award-winning documentary makers WMR recently hired Martin to present ‘Black Battalions,’ an episode from their series ‘Narrow Escapes’ currently airing on the Military Channel in the United States and the Discovery Channel in Europe.
His voluntary work with veterans and tracing their individual histories has been a labor of love for almost 20 years. He is frequently contacted by relatives attempting to find out what their family members did during World War II. This usually involves extensive research and countless hours sifting through archives until the necessary results are attained. In 2011 he released the book ‘Voices of the Bulge,’ co-written with his longtime friend Michael Collins, to great critical acclaim. The ensuing publicity tour saw them presenting the book at West Point Military Academy, Valley Forge Military College, Fort Dix, USAF Spangdahlem and most Barnes and Noble stores between New York and Washington, D,C. The same year, his six-year campaign on behalf of black nurse Augusta Chiwy finally yielded positive results when, 67 years after the fact, she was knighted by the king of Belgium and officially recognized by the U.S. Army, which presented her with the ‘Civilian Humanitarian Award.’ Martin speaks fluent German, Dutch, Italian and French.