Monthly Archives: February 2025

Meeting of April 15, 2025

Dana Lombardy on “Bloody Omaha: The Big Red One at D-Day”

2024 saw the 80th anniversary of the decisive World War Two battle in Western Europe: the massive Allied invasion at Normandy, France, called D-Day. Dana worked with acclaimed military artist Keith Rocco to publish a comic and hardcover book based upon the two huge wall murals Rocco created for the First Division Museum. Dana will present the backstory of the murals, the books, and will show his latest solitaire and 2-player board game to be released this summer: Bloody Omaha: The Big Red One at D-Day.

Dana Lombardy was an Associate Online Editor for Armchair General and now does research, writing and design through LombardyStudios.com Dana appeared on television nearly twenty times, including multiple episodes of The History Channel’s “Tales of the Gun” series. He has contributed as an editor, cartographer, graphic artist and designer on many books, games and magazines, was Publisher of Napoleon Journal from 1996-2000, published nine issues of World War One Illustrated, and was consulting historian for the Armistice Centennial exhibit in the San Francisco War Memorial Veterans Building lobby (now on display on the second floor).

Meeting of March 18, 2025

Mark Costin on “Battle of Buena Vista – Training Ground for the Civil War”

This talk describes the 1847 Battle of Buena Vista where the American forces of Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexican army of Santa Anna. The battle saw significant contributions by many future Civil War stalwarts. Particular attention will be paid to the important contributions by Jefferson Davis and Braxton Bragg in securing the victory. The talk will conclude with an open discussion of the comparison between the two wars.

Mark Costin is an Engineer living in Sunnyvale, CA, working on functional safety for automated and autonomous vehicles. A longtime history buff, this is Mark’s first presentation to the PCWRT on the subject of the Mexican-American War. He holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, a M.Eng. from McMaster University and a B.Eng. from McGill University.

Meeting of February 18, 2025

Kathryn Olivarius on “The Role of Disease and Infection in the U.S. Civil War”

During the United States Civil War, diseases like dysentery and sepsis—not bullets—killed and estimated two-thirds of the 750,000 war dead. And at least 200,000 Union soldiers—mostly unmarried men in their teens and twenties—contracted venereal disease. Some died from it. But many others survived the war and brought it home, making this war for freedom a super-spreader event for syphilis and shame.

Kathryn Olivarius, Associate Professor of History, at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA on Wednesday, August 21, 2024. Photographer: LiPo Ching

Kathryn Olivarius is Associate Professor of U.S. History at Stanford University. Her research focuses on the antebellum South, the Caribbean, slavery and disease. Her BA degree in History from Yale University and her Masters and Ph.D. in U.S. History are from the University of Oxford.