Museum honors veterans with 'Profiles in Service'

ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. - The Elkhart County Historical Museum will be presenting “Profiles in Service”, a program that presents stories of men and women in Elkhart County who have served in the military.

The program will take place at the museum on Thursday, November 9 at 7:00 p.m., and is free and open to the public.

The Elkhart County Museum is located at 304 W. Vistula St. in Bristol.

“There are so many amazing stories to choose from,” said Curator of Education Patrick McGuire. “For this program, we have picked a few veterans from different eras of history, and the program will provide an overview of their lives and time in the military.”

Some of the people featured in “Profiles in Service” include Arsinoe Martin, a nurse who served during the Civil War, and Paul Converse, a veteran of the Vietnam War who later went on to work in the Elkhart Police Department.

“Our museum collection certainly has a lot of items from veterans, but we have some holes in that story,” continued McGuire. “Our collection has gaps in artifacts, images, documents, and stories from roughly the last 60 years of military service history. This includes the history of the conflicts in Vietnam, Desert Storm, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. At this program, we will be making a call to our community to share with museum staff information so we can reach out to veterans. Our hope is that it will encourage veterans and their families to share their experiences with us so they can be preserved for future generations.”