The 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment will participate in the two battle reenactments held from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday during World War II Weekend. (Photo Provided)
GLEN DALE — Area residents can step back into “the war years,” from swing dances to victory gardens, this weekend during the Cockayne Farmstead’s World War II Weekend.
The free weekend-long event will kick off on Saturday with a small parade at 9:30 a.m. that will begin at John Marshall High School and head up 13th Street before returning to the high school. At 10 a.m., an Honor Guard flag-raising will be conducted.
Glen Dale Mayor Janet Scott will then give the opening remarks for the event, which coincides with the city’s centennial. Scott’s speech will commemorate the milestone and welcome visitors to the event.
The opening ceremony will also honor three remaining World War II veterans in the Marshall County area. Cockayne Farmstead Site Manager Kara Gordon said that while the event’s theme is World War II, the weekend serves as a way to “honor all veterans.”
“We’re going to honor whatever World War II veterans can be there,” Gordon said. “All three are in their 90s, so we’ll see.”
After the opening ceremony concludes, the World War II-centered festivities will begin. Historical reenactors, historians and veterans will be stationed at the two speaker tents at John Marshall High School all weekend to share stories, facts and wisdom about the war.
Cat Gardiner is one of Gordon’s favorite presenters. She is returning after participating in last year’s event.
“Cat comes all the way from Florida with an entire house that she sets up that looks exactly like a 1940s house on the inside,” Gordon said. “She has all these different artifacts you can walk through and see.”
Using her recreated 1940s house for her display, Gardiner explains what people on the home front did to support the war effort, including how women and children rationed and worked together to ensure soldiers had what they needed to win the war.
After stepping into a 1940s house, attendees can step into a World War II battle reenactment held at Cockayne Farmstead from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. A group of reenactors will portray the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which Gordon said is a unit that “would have dropped into France” if the U.S. invaded the country.
“The battle will represent what it would have been like if the U.S. stormed through France,” Gordon said. “It’s not a huge reenactment, but you will see soldiers sneaking around corners and performing a small-action battle.”
Though no tanks will be rolling onto the battlefield for the event, other World War II military vehicles, including Jeeps and trucks, will be displayed during the weekend. In addition to bringing history to life through recreation and reenactments, the event will include a museum display brought by American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Museum Curator Jim Brockman.
The Cockayne Farmstead will also have a World War II-centered exhibit on display at its building, “We Did Our Part: Marshall County in the Second World War.” The exhibit will focus on the activities of Marshall County residents and businesses on the home front during the war, which Gordon noted is information that residents are sometimes unaware of.
“Not many people know that different factories here, such as The Marx Toy Factory, manufacturers shell casings during the war,” Gordon said. “I always grew up hearing stories about how factories switched to making war goods during World War II, but I never knew that was happening right here.”
Marshall County veterans will also share their stories from World War II and other wars throughout the event. Displays from local veterans organizations, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, and the Moundsville Honor Guard, will be set up during the event so attendees can learn about war experiences firsthand.
“All these veterans being at the event provide people a great chance to sit and talk with them and learn their stories,” Gordon said. “They provide a perspective entirely different from a reenactor in that you’re hearing somebody’s actual individual experience of a particular event, and you can’t replace that. Once those veterans are gone, their story dies with them, so important that we don’t just learn the general facts, but we hear their side of it as well.”
Activities catered to younger attendees include the Scrap Drive Scavenger hunt and Bootcamp Obstacle Course, both held at John Marshall High School field. Gordon noted that the scavenger hunt would include kids speaking with presenters about how children helped in the war effort.
On Saturday evening, attendees can step away from the battlefield and onto the dance floor during the 1940s Swing Dance, held at St. Jude Hall on Jefferson Avenue from 7 to 10 p.m. A beginner swing dance lesson will occur before the main dance at 6:30 p.m.
Festivities will continue into Sunday, beginning with Rev. Spencer Curry’s presentation on World War II Chaplain Service, which will be held at 10 a.m. at Speaker Tent 1. Speakers are scheduled at both tents until the event wraps up at 3 p.m. with the Honor Guard presentation and subsequent flag lowering at 4 p.m.