I have been lagging behind in posts throughout this journey and it certainly has been a labor of love. However, I can proudly say that It is Finished! I successfully defended my Thesis – Flying Tiger, Black Sheep: Legends in the Pacific on May 10, 2019.  So now to catch up on my posts as I wait for the summer to slowly drift by and I finally get to start on my Ph.D. in History.

I recently had all 139 pages printed and spiral bound for myself, and two of the amazing individuals who assisted me with my research. The first went to the Chennault Aviation Museum in Monroe, LA where Mrs. Nell Calloway (Chennault’s granddaughter) assisted with a few well-placed quotes including thoughts on how she saw her grandfather’s legacy continuing on. The second went to The Black Sheep Squadron currently based in Yuma, Arizona. Lt. Col. Bucklew provided a great deal of assistance with the current unit’s continuing mission as well as their perspective of their fearless founder, Gregory Boyington.

The process itself of writing, editing, and more writing as an Online student working with a chair in a completely different state than myself was certainly interesting at times. However, without Dr. Jason Frawley’s patience and willingness to work with me, my thesis might not have been possible.  So a great deal of debt is owed to him and I do not think I could thank him enough. For my reader, one of my favorite mentors, Dr. Chris Smith stepped in to take on that heavy task and believe me to get the thesis literally the same week I defend made it a very heavy task for him to complete.

When it came time to defend, I was fortunate enough to be afforded the opportunity to present in person vs. using a program that would have video conferenced me into the defense. Allowing me to do meant that some of my most important mentors such as Dr. Carey Roberts, Professor Ritchie, Dr. Chris Smith, and Dr. David Snead were able to attend along with a few other favorite professors which gave me the confidence that I could get through it.

I can not express how emotional it was for me to hear the words “Congratulations on a successful defense” I literally wanted to cry. Especially to hear them from one professor that I honestly did not know how to approach for most of my time in the program.  However, he approved of it and even posed a question that has had me thinking since then about potential avenues I want to explore as I move into my next degree. So now I will be exploring over the summer a more definitive answer to his question and I look forward to possibly sitting down with him with a deeper answer.

I know I have not been good at keeping a more detailed record of this process, however, as with life, the thesis overtook all my time and writing efforts. I hope to go back and fill in the gaps between now and the last post over the next few weeks and give anyone considering completing a Thesis as part of an Online Masters program. It truly is worth the extra work to do so, especially if you think there is the slightest chance that you may one day want to go for that Ph.D.  I also plan to keep the blog updated throughout the next several years as I do enter the next phase of my academic life.

Starting August 19, 2019, I will be officially starting my first classes in my Ph.D. program and much like I attempted to do with the blog during the Masters I hope to continue writing about the experience so that future students can see what they are getting into. Personally, I am excited as I will be focusing on Civil War History during this next phase.

The Civil War has been my passion, I have lived in the South most of my life and many of my ancestors were soldiers during the war on both sides. Unlike most of my contemporaries, I plan on focusing on the Prisoner of War experience, laws and the ramifications. In particularly I plan to focus on The Lieber Code written by Dr. Francis Lieber which created the Union’s rules of engagement for the war while laying the foundation for how POWs should be treated, who could be considered POWs and would go on to be the foundation for many international codes/laws impacting various aspects of war.

As can be seen, I have a long road ahead of me, one that will inevitably be met with resistance since POW studies in the Civil War is still considered controversial but I have never allowed that to stop me and thankfully I have a History Department behind me that will allow me to pursue it to the fullest.