Regular monthly meeting, guests welcome

Dr. Andrew Wiest, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi will present the program. Dr. Wiest is an award-winning historian and author. He will be speaking on his new book Dogwood: A National Guard Unit’s War in Iraq. The book and talk chronicle the deployment of Mississippi’s National Guard to Iraq in 2005, focusing on the 150^th Combat Engineers. The 150^th faced an uncertain war against long odds in 2005 while occupying the last rung of the American logistical chain. Against all odds, the Mississippians succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations, but paid a heavy price. Sadly, though, as the war dragged on, the brave contributions of the Mississippians were forgotten.