Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/November 2022/Op-ed


 * By Vami

Howdy, or Grüß Gott as the Swabians say. I'm Vami, and I thought I should introduce myself.

How did you become interested in Military History?

As an autistic and attention-deficient child, I was something of a loner. I spent a lot of time by myself reading and watching television, which at the time I grew up meant the Military Channel and the History Channel, when it was Hitler-o-clock over there. My parents were both in the US military, as were a lot of my relatives going back 200 years. I guess the interest, then, was preordained! I had a particular interest in the Pacific Theater of World War II and, because of other media, the Middle Ages.

How did you become involved with the Wikipedia Military History Project?

My first edits, all the way back in 2015, were machine translations of German Wikipedia articles about Austrian castles. I eventually moved into more general topics (and southern Germany, hence the greeting above), but always had something MILHIST going on. My first actually good edits to WP:MILHIST started with List of sunken battleships in 2017 or so; Operation Majestic Titan enchanted me with its lore, achievements, and mission. I didn't actually put my name in the Members column until 2018, though, triggering this message from outgoing lead coordinator Peacemaker, which I continue to appreciate. Three years later, I was elected as a Coordinator after Hog Farm suggested it to me. My specialties now are US military history, specifically the US colonization of the Western US. Presently, my favorite child is Fort Concho.


 * By 

As another one of the returning coordinators, I want to share a little more about my background and how I ended up here.

How did you become interested in Military History?

I have always had an interest in military history, but I can't pin down exactly how it came about. Although I had grandparents in the military as well (one served on HMNZS Achilles during the Second World War and just missed out on the Battle of the River Plate and the other was a subaltern in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, just missed on the Second World War but was a military courier during the Korean War), my family never really talked about the military when I was growing up in New Zealand. I suspect my interest probably began with reading Battle Action Force and Commando comics as a youngster and then as I grew up graduated to much more serious reading matter, usually around the Second World War in northern Europe. I didn't really have the interest in the other fields of conflict like Italy, North Africa, or the Pacific which was where most New Zealand forces saw action. This was reinforced by the fact it seemed that there were relatively few books published about the New Zealand experience in military history.

How did you become involved with the Wikipedia Military History Project?

Although I started editing Wikipedia back in mid-2010, it was not until a year later that I started working in the MilHist project. Frankly, I was a little intimidated by the sheer quality of the project and didn't think that I could contribute to the same standard. I tinkered around the edges initially, adding infoboxes and the like. My initial editing focus was in relation to the Korean War, not so much because my grandfather served there but because I had lived in the country for a time teaching English as a second language. I really enjoyed Korea and read extensively about its history, including the war there. However by the time I started editing, Korean War topics were in pretty good shape thanks to the work of Ed! and others so I moved onto topics relating to Australia, mainly because there were some good online resources.

Then, having cut my teeth on some biographies of Australian biographies, and being guided along the way by some experienced Aussie editors (Ian, NickD, AustralianRupert, and Anotherclown spring to mind), I turned to New Zealand military history (while occasionally dabbling in other fields). At the time, coverage of New Zealand content on Wikipedia was pretty patchy as it seemed there were few New Zealand editors in this space, particularly compared to the number of Australians! Some pretty significant individuals, e.g. Howard Kippenberger, Alexander Godley, were the subject of quite stubby-like or poor quality articles. There was clearly a lot of scope for improvement so I began to build up my personal library with New Zealand sources, found online materials, and set about improving things. This work overlapped with the First World War centenary, which really saw a boom in interest in military history in New Zealand so there were increasing numbers of new books coming out on the topic.

I focused on biographies, but also worked on or create articles on military units and formations, military historiography, battles and equipment. Highlights have been working on getting some of the articles for New Zealand Victoria Cross recipients up to GA standard and beyond, and also the New Zealand Division article up to A-Class. While the coverage and quality of New Zealand-related topics has definitely improved, with a lot of articles at B-Class or better, there is still scope for improvement. These days I still focus on biographies, which to my mind are usually "easy" to write, and a recent focus has been military aviation, as I have picked up some useful resources in this field. I know more time needs to be spent on the core topics, e.g. Military history of New Zealand during World War I but the scope of these are really significant so am slowly chipping away at it...should be done in another few years!

It has always struck me that the MilHist project is one of the most well organised projects on Wikipedia, particularly in respect of assessment, and this is reflected in the quality of its articles. There is also a camaraderie as well which I feel helps with developing the skills of editors and building towards a better encyclopedia. I certainly benefited from this and was honoured to be invited to stand as a coordinator for the 2016/2017 tranche and have remained since then, helping out where I can.