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Acclaim and a Shame for Oct. 19, 2009
Published October 19, 2009
Lake Jackson author looking ahead to new history project.
There are history buffs, and then there are history buffs.
An avid reader about aviation since childhood and a Navy veteran, Lake Jackson resident Donald Caldwell said he wasn’t satisfied with materials available about the German Air Force.
So Caldwell decided to rectify the situation himself.
He and co-author Dr. Richard Muller spent more than 10 years working on “The Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich,” which was published in 2007.
Muller is a professor of military history and associate dean at the USAF School of Advanced Air and Space Studies.
Awards were probably the farthest thing from his mind during the decade-long project, but the Air Force Historical Foundation selected it as Best Air Power History Book for 2008. Earlier this month, Caldwell and Muller were honored by the group at a ceremony in Virginia.
“I’ve been writing for close to 20 years now and this is the first award that I’ve won,” Caldwell said. “For something like this to happen, I guess it kind of justifies the work we put into the book.”
“The Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich” was chosen for the award out of a field of roughly 150 books that had been reviewed by the foundation’s journal, Air Power History.
Caldwell and Muller sought to present a comprehensive historical overview of Germany’s daylight air defense during World War II.
Caldwell’s historical toils on the subject are far from over, however, as he is working on a follow-up book that will be a detailed, day-by-day war diary of German air defense operations.
The book should be published in 2010.
“This will be really a specialist title, but it’s something I want to do for folks who want to follow up in detail,” Caldwell said. “They’ll be able to reference any particular mission and find out exactly what happened.”
With Caldwell’s passion for his subject matter and dedication to research, the project should truly be a labor of love.
New facility fosters hope for fresh beginnings
The Women’s Center of Brazoria County recently celebrated completion of its new offices in Angleton with a grand opening that drew more than 100 area residents.
The event marked a special occasion for the center because it now has clean, new, cheerful and welcoming spaces and surroundings at 715 N. Valderas St. to provide women and children a new beginning.
The 3,000-square-foot building will be home to offices, a supervised visitation facility and storage space for donated items, according to Executive Director Vicki Ennis.
“It’s a way to celebrate what amounts to a new beginning for us,” Ennis told The Facts. “We’re more attractive and confidential. The building is so pretty it gives a semblance of hope. You know what it’s like when a place is dingy and dirty. This is anything but that.”
Families often will use the facility for court-ordered, supervised visitations, to attend weekly parenting classes, counseling and workshops on how to deal with troubled teens.
The center works with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and provides a pair of shelters. There are Women’s Center annexes in West Columbia, Freeport, Alvin and Pearland on top of the central office in Angleton.
Construction on the new building, which sits on three lots, began in February and cost about $400,000. Most of the funding and property were donated.
The effort is well worth it, helping families in crisis to build a better community and repair shattered lives.
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