The League Of Wives: Vietnam’s POW/MIA Allies and Advocates By: Leah Davis Witherow, CSPM Curator of History The board and staff of the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum are thrilled to announce its newest exhibit, The League of Wives: Vietnam’s POW/MIA Allies and Advocates. CSPM is the second institution in the country to host this ground-breaking exhibit in partnership with the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics in Lawrence, Kansas. The League of Wives will open to the public on Saturday, March 24th and will be on exhibit through December 29, 2018. This important national story is extremely relevant to our community, which has a long history of military service and sacrifice. Colorado Springs Vice Mayor — and later Mayor — Larry Ochs worked closely with Helene Knapp, a local and national leader in the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, to advocate for and support the Vietnam-era POW/MIA families in Colorado Springs. CSPM is tremendously honored to be able to bring this exhibit to the Pikes Peak Region and excited to work with the Dole Institute of Politics to raise awareness of this significant era in American history. On May 1, 1970, Sybil Stockdale, Phyllis Galanti, Louise Mulligan and Jane Denton, founding members of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, rallied with 1,000 family members of prisoners of war at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, an early and ardent supporter of their cause, helped draw a crowd of 3,800 to the event that helped establish the league’s influence and national visibility. EXHIBIT OPENING March 24th The Dole Institute of Politics created a new special exhibition about these leaders which opened in May 2017. The League of Wives: Vietnam’s POW/ MIA Allies & Advocates tells the story of the military wives who founded the organization, which would later become the National League of POW/ MIA Families. The exhibition – the first of its kind from the institute – features documents, artifacts, oral histories, multimedia and regionally specific components. President Nixon addresses Helene Knapp with Darlene Sadler and Phyllis Galanti January 26, 1973. Washington, D.C. The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. WHPO-E0113-33. The project is funded by a generous gift from Harlan and Alice Ann Ochs of Colorado Springs, Colorado. The gift honors Harlan Ochs’ late brother Larry Ochs, former Vice-Mayor and Mayor of Colorado Springs and a strong advocate for the POW/MIA cause. Virginia-based historian and 2017 Dole Archives Curatorial Fellow Heath Hardage Lee curated the exhibition, which is based on her upcoming book, “The Reluctant Sorority: The True Story of Survival and Rescue from the Homefront,” due for release in 2019. “The wives’ weapons were organization, tenacity and their willingness to ditch the very military protocols they were trained to adhere to,” Lee said. “Ultimately, these Vietnam War wives quit waiting for their husbands to be rescued by the American government. Instead, they did the job themselves with aid from MUSELETTER MARCH 2018| PG 2
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