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Below, are the details for this June 12th, 2010 Event.
Traxler’s 3rd Annual
Military Living History Day
June 12, 2010
This great public Living History event began in 2008, as a tribute to soldiers of all nations that have fought in various wars from the 19th Century to the present day. This year’s event will be held on June 12th, 2010 and will be the third such event at the Traxler Hunting Preserve, located in Le Center, Minnesota.
Traxler’s Hunting Preserve is one of the top and premium hunting game farms located in the state of Minnesota with over 1500 prime acres of land for individual and group hunting outings that the site hosts, Jeff and Kathy Traxler have now made available for use as a military day themed public event. The Traxler Living Military History Day is currently being developed to now continue to grow into an annual event that is expanded each year.
This June 12th presents a perfect opportunity to pay tribute to an event of great historical significance. ‘D-Day’, the Allied invasion of Hitler’s Fortress Europe in Normandy France, which that took place on June 6th, 1944. The theme this year for the 2010 MHD event is again, ‘ A Salute to D-Day’.
This June 12th, 2009, Living History Military Reenactors will represent soldiers of the Civil War, World War 1, World War II, and Vietnam conflicts - all at Traxler's Hunting Preserve. This annual event is a really great chance to get up close and personal with individual Reenactors that portray various military period impressions of different nations and also real and notable WWII Veterans.
Most of the Reenactors are from Minnesota, but many others travel in to the event from Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Illinois, and will also be participating once again this year.
Civil War Federal Troop Military Reenactors will representing two reenactment units of Union Army forces during the conflict and both will also offer ‘Live Fire’ demonstrations of Civil War era cannons, mortars and heavy artillery. The New Ulm battery will do Cannon live firing demonstrations and, the 1st Litchfield will demonstrate live firing of period Heavy Artillery and Mortars.
In 2010, there will be an expanded presence of current US Military forces represented by both the Minnesota Army National Guard and the US Army Reserve. Last year we had a Blackhawk helicopter and several other pieces of current heavy material and fighting equipment assets. The area for this has been expanded and developed for 2010 and both of these arms of the US DOD will be recruiting there this year.
There will also be an expanded involvement of the Minnesota Military Vehicle Preservation Association.
We're looking forward to their members bringing in a good variety of military vehicles of various time periods. There will be military vehicles of the WWII period, which includes Jeeps, Halftracks, Motorcycles, Troop Trucks, Tanks, and other armored vehicles, Korea and Vietnam vehicles as well.
Some of the WWII Reenactors engage in military vehicle collecting, as part of their hobby of Reenacting. They love to show their vehicles at events of this nature, as well as at public air shows each summer.
There will be a restored Sherman M1A1 tank there, as well as other various WWII period vehicles that will be there to participate throughout the event, as well as also in the two scripted public battle segments.
There also will be the involvement of vintage United States WWII period Military Aircraft, during the public battle segment of the event. In 2008, there were five T6 Texan aircraft stage an air attack on combined German forces defending against an Allied forces advance. This segment was scripted and choreographed to a pyrotechnic display to add to the realism of the staged battle. Last year, in 2009 the MHD event was unable to have the aircraft participate, due to inclement weather.
There have been significant changes made to the 2010 WWII public battle. The event is once again working with the pyrotechnic company that did the effects of the two somewhat recent Clint Eastwood movie; ‘Flags of Our Fathers’ and ‘Letters form Iwo Jima’. Their battle effects are truly spectacular.
This year, the event is again doing a Vietnam timeframe public battle segment that is representative of the rescue effort of a downed US Army Huey helicopter personnel, who were shot down behind enemy lines. The military unit that represents this time period at this years event also has a group of individuals that portray some Viet Cong reenactor military impressions to add to the reality of the demonstration. Vehicles also participate in this.
The event has featured some WWII Veteran guests the previous two MHD events and, other new WWII Veteran guests, Korean War Veterans and Vietnam War Veterans have also been invited to participate in the 2010 MHD event.
This year’s event even has actual German and American WW II Veterans, who are special guests that are very much a part of the event. This year it is Herb Suerth of the famed 101st Airborne Division, ‘506 Easy Co.’ of ‘Band of Brother’s’ fame and Yogi Puesch of the German Wehrmacht, survivor of the brutal Eastern Front conflict in Russia.
Still, World War II continues to fascinate and hold the interest of many people that are drawn into the hobby of Military Reenacting. There is quite a variety of Reenactors of several nations that fought during the 1939 to 1945 WW II time frame period.
One of the stimuli for this steady and growing interest and new involvement in the hobby of Reenacting is the release of great WW II movies, such as ‘Das Boot’, ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ ‘Band of Brothers’ and several others.
Almost every year brings the release of new motion pictures that deal with stories of soldiers and sailors of that period. Last year, it was ‘Val Kyrie’, starring Tom Cruise, who portrays a German war hero who is a pivotal player in the nearly successful assassination attempt of Adolph Hitler in the summer of 1944.
Make sure that you take time to come to the 2010 Traxler's Military Living History Day,
June 12th, 2010 and experience the sights, sounds and smell of military conflicts of all time periods that the event covers. Being there and seeing this is like watching a movie right in front of your own eyes, only it is live and you are there to witness it. It is a phenomenal experience.
Our mission, in putting on the Military Living History Day, is to honor the fighting men of all nations that fought during all times of war.
Video footage from the previous events is available on YouTube at www.youtube.com and at the ‘Search’ box enter: traxlers military history day and several video downloads will be available to view there, which were shot by spectators, participants and even a professional film production company last year, 185Media.com
Additional information is available on the the WWII HRS websites ‘Events’ page of and the Overall Military Reenactor Coordinator is Larry Fryklund. E-mail: ww2germans@hotmail.com
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Our mission, in putting on the Military Living History Day, is to honor the men of all nations that fought during this time.
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