American Overseas Schools Historical Society Museum and Archives

04/09/2021

AOSHS Museum GRAND OPENING!

AOSHS Museum GRAND OPENING!

03/26/2021

American Overseas Schools Historical Society Museum and Archives updated their information in their About section.

American Overseas Schools Historical Society Museum and Archives updated their information in their About section.

08/18/2020

We've got some really exciting developments happening at the American Overseas Schools Historical Society Museum and Archives (or AOSHS), beginning with this presentation to unveil our new facility! Coming up next-- information about our Artifacts and Memorabilia that you won't want to miss, so JOIN US and STAY TUNED! www.aoshs.org

04/11/2020

04/07/2020

03/29/2020

03/21/2020

01/20/2020

Our resident archivist, Adam Gossman, has come across yet another treasure! Heidelberg Lions, meet your mascot, saved for preservation and future display at our archive and upcoming museum!

12/21/2019

12/16/2019

Forrest Gump Star Gary Sinise Takes 1,000 Children Of Fallen Soldiers To Disney World

I love this man!!

https://www.unilad.co.uk/film-and-tv/forrest-gump-star-gary-sinise-takes-1000-children-of-fallen-soldiers-to-disney-world/

Forrest Gump star Gary Sinise has flown 1,000 children of fallen soldiers to Disney World in Orlando, Florida

11/19/2019

American Overseas Schools Historical Society Archive's cover photo

11/19/2019

American Overseas Schools Historical Society Archive

03/10/2019

Trace of history overseas - IGS

02/09/2019

01/24/2019

Did you know that AOSHS is associated with the following Facebook Groups???

We’ve joined with them with their permission to better share with our overseas Brats and TCKs all the artifacts and memorabilia that we come across almost on a daily basis; but truthfully, it’s much easier to post these photographs and articles on our own FB group and page sites, and if you are not a member of our group site or follower of our page site, you might miss them, so join our sites as well:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/169980156354700/

https://www.facebook.com/AOSHSArchive/

Alconbury High School - It's a Family Thing
Army Brats from Mannheim Germany
Atterberry/Frankfurt Elementary School No. 2
BAHS - Bonn American High School
Baumholder!!!
Berlin American High School (BAHS)
Bitburg American High School
Bitburg High School Alums
Bonn Crusaders
BRATCON ... The Brat Connection
BRATS: Honoring our Heritage
Brats: Our Journey Home
Brats Without Borders, Inc.
Central High, London - Bushey Hall
Central High School - Bushy Park
Chicksands Brats Fraternity
DoDDS Teachers
Forrest Sherman High School, Naples, Italy
Frankfurt American High School (01)
Frankfurt American High School (02)
Frankfurt American Junior High School
Giessen High School -ALL CLASS OFFICIAL ALUMNI
Growing up as a Military Brat
Hanau American Middle School
Honoring Military Kids (HMK)
If you grew up a military brat, you might remember this!
INCIRLIK ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
I Went to a DoDDS School
Kaiserslautern American High School Alumni
Kindley High School Bermuda
K-Town, Germany Former Students
Kubasaki High School Alumni Association
Lakenheath American High School Alumni
LCHS Bobcats Forum
LCHS of the 70s, 80s and 90s
LCHS of the 80s and early 90s!!
London Central High Alumni
London Central High School - High Wycomb U.K
London Central High School and West Ruislip photos and videos
Mannheim American High School Reunion 2017
Melloteens-Frankfurt American High School
Military Brat Humor and Memes
Military Brats & Third Culture Kids - Our Virtual "Hometown"
Military Brats from England Unite
National Military Brats Day
Neu Ulm American High School – Germany
Overseas Brats (www.overseasbrats.com)
RAF Greenham Common
RAF Upper Heyford Brats and Friends
Ramstein Air Base Brats
Rhein-Main Air Base Brats
Rhein Main Brats
Seoul American High School SAHS
Third Culture Kids Everywhere
TMW/KAHS Sultans in Exile
UHHS Hadites Alumni Upper Heyford High School
USA Military Directory
You might have gone to London Central if you remember....
You're Probably A Military Brat If...
Würzburg American High School Alumni

01/23/2019

AOSHS would like to formally welcome the LEE MEDIA GROUP to our organization as our new website developer! Those of you who have ventured to our current website know how outdated it is and revamping our website has been on our drawing board for quite a while. It is, as we know, “our window to the world”. We are excited that, along with our museum, AOSHS is moving forward to bring these new developments to you!

01/13/2019

HAPPY 30TH ANNIVERSARY, AOSHS!!

I know it’s hard to believe that AOSHS has been in existence for 30 years, especially when so many of you have only discovered us in the past few years!

From 1946 until 1989, no attempt had been made to record (or preserve) the history of Department of Defense Dependent Schools students and educators who had lived overseas. Dr. Thomas Drysdale, prior to his retirement as Director of the Atlantic Region for DoDDS, researched this issue and all who he came into contact with agreed that there should be an archive and museum, so in 1989 with the help of Dr. Eugene Hughes, President of Northern Arizona University, the American Overseas Schools Archives (AOSA) opened on the NAU campus in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Following the end of the Cold War in 1991, U.S. leaders began reshaping its military posture and several installations began to shut down as troops were reduced overseas. This, then, lead to the closure of the dependent schools, and Dr. John Stremple, Director of DoDDS, issued permission for the schools to send their memorabilia to the Archives at the government’s expense. By now, AOSA had become the American Overseas Schools Historical Society (AOSHS) and was incorporated as a non-profit organization by the Arizona Corporation Commission.

The memorabilia being sent to the archive soon exceeded the storage space that was available, and in 1997 Dr. Drysdale began a letter campaign to nineteen major cities within the continental U.S. seeking to relocate the Archives. Seven cities responded, a committee selected and visited the top three choices, and Wichita, Kansas was accepted by a unanimous decision. The story continues, which can be read on our current website at: http://www.aoshs.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Book-1.pdf.

Now, 30 years later, we are excited to announce the development of our new museum which will begin next month, located next door to our Archive. This has been a long time coming since, being a non-profit organization, our very existence has been predicated on membership dues and monetary donations, and it’s only been recently that our Brat and TCK community has become aware of AOSHS as the repository of their overseas schools’ memorabilia. As little as one year ago, the outlook for AOSHS was pretty grim, with the assessment being that we only had maybe five more years left to financially maintain the Archive; and while it's still very (in BOLD and italics) important that we continue to increase our membership and request donations to keep the Archive up and running, it is the Department of Defense Education Activity (or DoDEA, previously DoDDS) who has provided the means for us to develop our long-awaited museum!

We are also preparing to bring our much-dated website into the 21st century (those of you who have visited it knows it’s atrocious)! It will be totally revamped and (the content that we choose to keep) updated, and will include a digital library of every yearbook in our possession as well as the digitized copies of yearbooks loaned to us, photographs of the memorabilia we have at the Archive & Museum, and links to other great sources.

So, as we begin our year-long anniversary, we go forth with our new motto: “COMMITTED TO THE PAST, PLANNING TOWARD THE FUTURE”, and hope that you will join us in doing so by supporting AOSHS.

01/12/2019

American Overseas Schools Historical Society Archive

01/12/2019

American Overseas Schools Historical Society Archive's cover photo

12/25/2018

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all who visit our archives and take a walk through our "Memory Lane". May 2019 find you healthy and enjoying life to the fullest.

12/22/2018

It’s really fun when you come across cool things at the American Overseas Schools Historical Society (AOSHS) Archive, like finding actress Olivia Munn in the ‘94, ’95 and ‘96 Yokota High School yearbooks. Yes, Olivia (back then going by her first name, Lisa) was an Air Force Brat and attended Yokota HS as and eighth grader through her sophomore year, and was pretty popular even back then.

12/06/2018

Good going, Berlin. Glad to have been a part of the educator team even for one year. Berlin was a special place and I enjoyed my "revisits" when I had a chance to get back. Merry Christmas to the Brats and Colleagues, especially those from the early 70s.

11/24/2018

Does anyone know how and when Brats got to be called BRATS? I know what the letters mean but a Brat at church asked me about the history. Research time......

11/22/2018

Happy Thanksgiving to our visitors and the whole gang. Spending the day with DoDDS friends. I hope you are having a great day as well.

10/29/2018

American Overseas School History Society

Our first segment aired tonight and for the most part they covered us pretty well. They didn't mention DoDEA helping us to establish a museum next door to the Archive which was important so I'll have to get that point in during our live segment this coming Thursday, and they said I was the Executive Director when I told Mr. Grimes I was the Operations Manager (he didn't make the correction to his notes during the interview). Be that as it may, we're very happy to have received the $500 award and this publicity, and look forward to more "news bits" in the future!

KAKE News On Your Side | Wichita | Kansas | Breaking News, Weather and Sports

10/27/2018

More on Col. Gail Halvorsen, The Candy Bomber.

We are excited to be attending the 50th Anniversary Conference/Expo of our partners the Airlift/Tanker Association being held this weekend in Dallas! Gail is wowing everyone, being the youngest 98 year-old at the symposium. Our message of STEM education experiences for youth at the planned Education Center is resonating with other attendees, and we are gaining new friends to help us in our mission, as we will be helping them with theirs.

Today, Gail spoke to the senior leadership of the Air Force and many industry partners. Our host, General Duncan McNabb, USAF (ret) has been fabulous in his support. Thank you to our friends at A/TA- especially Colonel Mike Cassidy, USAF (ret) for including the Halvorsen Foundation in this great event!

10/27/2018

Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Education Foundation

Here’s a great Gail story from Airlift/Tanker Association Expo: pictured with Gail is Colonel Christian Guntsch of the German Air Force. Colonel Guntsch is the Air Transport Branch Chief at German Air Force Forces Command. His father was a hungry 10 year-old boy living in Berlin in 1948 who had a candy bar on a small parachute dropped from a passing USAF cargo plane land nearby him. It was the first chocolate he had to eat in three years. Today, seventy years later the son is united with the man who dropped the parachute...none other than Gail Halvorsen, the Berlin Candy Bomber. #unclewigglywings #BerlinAirlift70 #ATA50th

10/23/2018

Real quick before I leave for the day, my "photo op" emailed to me from the KAKE studio with KAKE news anchor Jim Grimes (far right) and standing between Dustin DeVaughn and Richard James from DeVaughn James Personal Injury Attorneys.

10/17/2018

Today AOSHS, along with four other non-profits, was recognized by KAKE News and the law team of DeVaughn James in their “Wins for Kansas” program which awards a $500 grant to a deserving non-profit organization in the Wichita area. With this program, local organizations receive community wide recognition for the ways they support, motivate and give back.

We filmed a spot where I thanked the attorneys, anchor Jim Grimes, and KAKE News for awarding AOSHS with the check while holding an oversized check with our name on it, then after the other four groups did their bit, I was interviewed by Mr. Grimes where he asked me questions about AOSHS and I told him about who we are, what we do, our founder, Dr. Drysdale and how the archive came to be in Wichita, about our work with the support of DoDEA, our exhibits and the local Museum of World Treasures, and our upcoming museum next door to the archive. He seemed genuinely interested in our archive and our story and wanted to give me his card to keep him up to date on our news and the progress of the new museum but when he went to get one from his suit pocket he didn’t have any on him as he had just finished the midday news and came straight from the set to us. I told him that I had his information from one of the KAKE managers and would definitely keep in touch, and I gave him a disc of several photos from the archive for the 2-minute news piece they put together with my interview. I have no idea what they’ll use from my interview, but I hope they don’t cut out the things I mentioned above. It will air here on the 10:00 evening news Sunday, October 28th, so if they cut certain things out I’ll try to work them in when I go back on November 1st and do a live bit during their midday news. More than anything, I’m super excited about the publicity we’ll be getting!! More later!

10/13/2018

Wanted to share with you Clarence the Crusader, mascot for Bonn American High School as he was yesteryear, and Clarence today at the Museum of World Treasures in Wichita, KS, on loan from the American Overseas Schools Historical Society (AOSHS) Archive, Clarence's new home after the school closed.

10/10/2018

Bitburg AMS Peeps--Here are scans of the photo plaques (and one framed photo) now on display in our front office at the Archive. The photo will be followed by the names on that plaque (photo):

10/04/2018

Good story! Three weeks ago when our Board was in Wichita for their annual meeting here, a few of the members stayed behind to help go through boxes in our back storage room to see what was worthy of saving (actual memorabilia) and what was just, well, trash—like loose papers that meant nothing. Among items sent from David G. Farragut High School in Rota, Spain which is still active, were two yearbooks from the 1991-92 year that had been mailed to a brother and sister who had moved, but which was returned to the school in ’92 because the address was incorrect. They ended up here at the Archive (what year, who knows) and have been sitting in a box all these years just waiting to be discovered. Thanks to the www and social media, I was able to hunt down Andrea Ponserella Checkon on Facebook, sent her a FB message inquiring if she was the Andrea Ponserella in question (she was!) and inform her that we had her yearbook and that of her brother, John, who also had a few journalism awards to boot! This, my friends, is what AOSHS is all about. We are the Keeper of Memories. We are about YOU.

10/03/2018

Just a taste of the goodies we've found in the Bitburg boxes (Sorry Gerald and Evelyne! We HAD to sneak a peek!!) Gerry and Evelyne Christich will be here tomorrow to help unpack, inventory, photograph and videotape the treasure trove.

10/02/2018

Bitburg AHS is IN DA HOUSE!! Just arrived to its new home at the American Overseas Schools Historical Society (AOSHS) Archive in Wichita, Kansas.

09/29/2018

Have been looking at the comments and appreciate all your help and ideas. Remember that the first American schools for the military Brats overseas opened in 1946 after the war. Many schools have opened and closed since then and the first AOSHS members started the search. I know a couple who were in the schools in Germany and Japan near that time. It is hard to trace those in out of the way places but we still are doing that research. Then, there are those from the elementary schools who had no year books and have to recall our experiences from memories and personal photos. I appreciate all your help you are giving to the staff in Wichita. Keep sending in your memories, especially some of you "old timers" and I put myself in that category as I started on Okinawa in 1967 during Viet Nam. There are still a group around that started before me and several have worked hard in our visits to Wichita. Whatever bit of history you can bring to the archives is welcome. I left the board in good hands and the Brats have stepped up as well. Give it some thought and think about taking a board position as the present members take a step down.
Sincerely,
Tina Calo, Past President, AOSHS