Fort Hunt Federals of ALL CLASSES are invited to gather one more time this Holiday Season at The Village Wharf in the Hollin Hall Shopping Center
Saturday, January 3rd – 7:30 to close

Joe Gililland, '73, offers his take on what Mr. Barr might have to say about the subject:
“If I don’t see you at The Wharf, then I’ll see you in the Principal’s Office!!”   
  - Mr. Timothy Barr, Assistant Principal & Full-time Disciplinarian, FHHS ‘73

And speaking of disciplinarians, a while back, our classmate Tim Harris sent an interesting link to an online interview with the former principal, Mr. Rodney B. Taylor. In this very candid interview, Mr. Taylor spills some juicy tidbits about what a challenge the new school was, how he dealt with the peak student population of the day, with racial integration, with a sorority of cheerleaders and teachers and other pressing problems. A couple of fascinating items are the fact that Mr. Taylor was the principal for Groveton before going to Fort Hunt, and that his son was a senior at Groveton the year the two schools merged. 

You can listen to an audio file of the interview, or read the full text  at the link above, or click, "Read More."

Okay, not really.  But the clothes are so 1977 and the haircuts make it all so plausible! 

Today, Tom Harvey sent me that email about the JC Penney's catalogue from 1977, and it's just funnier every time I see it.  It's kind of alarming to think that people (us?) thought that any of this merchandise was cool.

Go ahead. Take a look. It's like a car wreck. Ugly. Frightening. But you can't not look.

JC Penney’s 1977. Another great one is Plaid Stallions. Ooh.  How about the 1978 Sears Catalogue?

Fort Hunt GIs Sent WWII POWs Care Packages
by Pam Fessler
Last in a three-part series.

All Things Considered, August 19, 2008 • Fort Hunt, a park by the Potomac River in northern Virginia, may have grassy fields and picnic areas now, but during World War II it was the site of a secret camp known as P.O. Box 1142. Though they've been razed, there had been a hundred buildings there at the time — some with German prisoners who were interrogated about Nazi war plans and weapons.
Two structures — code-named "the Creamery" and "the warehouse" — housed a highly classified effort to help American prisoners of war escape from their German captors.
Cameron LaClair recalls getting a tour of P.O. Box 1142 in 1944, when he was a junior intelligence officer.
"We were shown the room where packages were made up to be sent to POWs in the various parts of Germany. Important was the fact that these packages were sent under the rubric of fake charity organizations," LaClair says.
The phony foundations, such as the War Prisoners' Benefit Foundation, were set up as part of an elaborate scheme to fool German censors into thinking American prisoners were getting innocent care packages.
The baseballs, pipes and cribbage boards inside the packages had been crafted at Fort Hunt. They contained hidden compartments.

Former GIs Spill Secrets Of WWII POW Camp
by Pam Fessler
Correction: The story described a German scientist who was aboard a U-boat that surrendered to the U.S. in 1945, and said, "On that same U-boat was Germany's top rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun." Von Braun was in Bavaria when he surrendered to the U.S. Army.

This is part two in a three-part series

All Things Considered, August 18, 2008 •             Amid the shade trees, swings and picnic grounds at Fort Hunt Park just outside Washington, D.C., there are few traces of the site's top-secret military past. But for the GIs who were stationed there during World War II, the park is alive with memories of what it had been: an interrogation camp for nearly 4,000 mostly German prisoners of war.
The park, then code-named P.O. Box 1142, was where the military elicited crucial information from top enemy officers and scientists. It also was where the United States had a clandestine program to help American POWs escape.
Until recently, much of what occurred at P.O. Box 1142 was unknown. Many who participated went to their graves without revealing — even to their families — what they'd done. The buildings were razed after the war. And many documents about the camp were destroyed in an effort to conceal its existence.
The National Park Service, which now runs Fort Hunt Park, is trying desperately to capture some of this history before it disappears. It has conducted more than 40 oral interviews with vets who had been stationed there.
(Click "Read More")

Breaking The Silence Of A Secret POW Camp
by Pam Fessler, NPR
This is part one in a three-part series.

Morning Edition, August 18, 2008 •                         About two years ago, National Park Service employees stumbled upon a fascinating and largely untold piece of American history.
It involves a secret World War II interrogation camp at Fort Hunt, Va., not far from the Pentagon. During and right after the war, thousands of top German prisoners were questioned there about troop movements and scientific advances.
Soldiers at the site also prepared special "care packages" for American POWs that they sent overseas. They included maps, radios and other escape tools.
Many of the camp's records were destroyed right after the war, and those who worked there were sworn to secrecy. Many veterans never spoke about it, even to family and friends, although the operation has been gradually declassified over the past two decades. (Click "Read More")

This is not "news," per se, but really fun.  I stumbled across an old story from an online Florida newspaper.  It made me smile, because my own Army family is astonished with how we run into Fort Hunters all over the globe.  Looks like the two women alumni in the linked story here had the ultimate Fort Hunt connection.  Click "Read more" to read the story of "2 Pams, 2 kids and a wedding."

There are a couple of holiday gatherings already in the makes.  Mark your calendars for Friday, November 28th at Peyton Place in Springfield, Saturday, November 29th at the Hollin Hall Village Wharf. In December, folks will gather at Peyton Place again on December 26th and again on December 27th at Hollin Hall's Village Wharf.

 I imagine that other Fort Hunt Happy Hours may bubble up between now and then, but get these on your calendars now.