York College Professor of History Dr. Tim McNeese was recently featured on Nebraska Educational TV (NET/PBS) on a segment of “Nebraska Stories” on April 25 and April 29. McNeese helped to tell the fascinating
story of Nebraskan Barney Oldfield, press/public relations liaison for Eisenhower
during World War II.
“When D-Day was being planned, Oldfield thought it would be valuable to ‘embed’ journalists,” explained McNeese. “Not only did he line up dozens of reporters to land on the beaches at day, but he suggested that a half dozen journalists be recruited to parachute behind German lines the night before the D-Day landings. He managed to get six volunteers, who had to go through parachute jump school and accomplish five successful jumps to prepare. When they jumped that night, they went behind lines without weapons, but with portable typewriters strapped to their chests. Miraculously, all six survived their jumps and managed to file some of the first reports by journalists, including one reporter who took a couple of carrier pigeons with him and sent a dispatch out on a leg band of one of those birds.”
“When D-Day was being planned, Oldfield thought it would be valuable to ‘embed’ journalists,” explained McNeese. “Not only did he line up dozens of reporters to land on the beaches at day, but he suggested that a half dozen journalists be recruited to parachute behind German lines the night before the D-Day landings. He managed to get six volunteers, who had to go through parachute jump school and accomplish five successful jumps to prepare. When they jumped that night, they went behind lines without weapons, but with portable typewriters strapped to their chests. Miraculously, all six survived their jumps and managed to file some of the first reports by journalists, including one reporter who took a couple of carrier pigeons with him and sent a dispatch out on a leg band of one of those birds.”
One of the six journalists who made the jump was a Reuters war correspondent, also
from Nebraska, an Omaha man named Bob Reuben.
“It's all a pretty good story,” says McNeese.
You can view the segment here.
In May, McNeese will be filming for an upcoming project with CuriosityStream, a streaming service founded by the Discovery Channel. McNeese will appear as a consulting historian for the show “America’s Greatest,” which investigates famous Americans to unearth what made them exceptional. The series will examine the lives of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR; thought-leaders and innovators including Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Edison, and Walt Disney; and popular cultural icons including Babe Ruth and Mark Twain. No release date is yet available for the series.
Previously McNeese was featured as a consulting historian on the award winning documentary “Black Jack Pershing: Love and War.” He was also on the History Channel program “Risk Takers, History Makers” in 2006 and several episodes of “America: Facts Vs. Fiction” on the American Heroes Channel in 2014 and 2016.
“It's all a pretty good story,” says McNeese.
You can view the segment here.
In May, McNeese will be filming for an upcoming project with CuriosityStream, a streaming service founded by the Discovery Channel. McNeese will appear as a consulting historian for the show “America’s Greatest,” which investigates famous Americans to unearth what made them exceptional. The series will examine the lives of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and FDR; thought-leaders and innovators including Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Edison, and Walt Disney; and popular cultural icons including Babe Ruth and Mark Twain. No release date is yet available for the series.
Previously McNeese was featured as a consulting historian on the award winning documentary “Black Jack Pershing: Love and War.” He was also on the History Channel program “Risk Takers, History Makers” in 2006 and several episodes of “America: Facts Vs. Fiction” on the American Heroes Channel in 2014 and 2016.