Were we “railroaded” in World War II?
Join us on May 14, 1 p.m. at DesertView Theater. “American Railroads & Logistics in World War II, and the Southern Pacific Railroad”—Mark R. Schwartz (Lt. Col., USAF, retired).
American entry into World War II came during a transition from economic depression to full-capacity manufacturing. Soldiers, raw materials and war goods transversed the country and moved to departure ports—mostly on US rails. Our homefront production miracle would never have occurred if American railroads had failed to sustain the exceptional movement of people and materials. The Southern Pacific, in particular, rose to this need and merited close government attention as a critical segment in the wartime rail system. SP beat the expectations and serviced military and commercial transportation needs to help assure victory and America’s expansion to global superpower.
Mark Schwartz, a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel and F-4 Phantom Weapons Systems Officer, lives in Tucson and lectures on military and political subjects—to include America’s rise to global power during and after World War II. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Ohio State and a masters from Arizona State in History. Mark also belongs to a Tucson model railroad club and operates Southern Pacific equipment. His current focus is getting scholarly papers on politico-military subjects published along with an alternate history on World War II.