Centre for Military Studies

[Chris Goss]

Has anyone had any dealings with this Centre & in particular Gerald Kochan in respect of families of wartime Polish aircrew being persuaded to donate or sell memorabilia?

[mattm1970]

My Grandfather , Fl Lt Tarkowski 605 , 315 and 307 Squadrons sold his WW2 Log Book to Gerald Kochan from The Center For Military Studies in Greenville Texas.

In the spring of 2001 my Grandfather was six months away from death and very ill . It was extremely distressing to see somebody who took such pride in his memory fade before your eyes.What I must say is that his death was relatively quick - we didn't see him deteriorate over years and years.

What shocked us was that we only discovered in 2006 that he had sold his Log Book.My Grandfather would never have done so if he was in complete control of his facilities - my Grandmother pleaded with not to do so and we are at a loss to understand why he did so - to be blunt he was a wealthy man and certainly did not need the money.
Secondly he was a great collector - he never threw anything away and would never have wanted it to leave the family.

As soon as my mother discovered that the Log book was missing ( it took 5 years for her to go through his belongings ....and we've yet to finish doing so !) she contacted Mr Kochan ( via "The Center For Military Studies" ) - she received a definitive "no" to its return.

It has taken another four years for me to discover this ( my mother was very distressed and refused to talk about the episode ) and I must say I am absolutely determined to recover the original Log book .

I note from his internet site http://centerformilitarystudies.org/sitemap.php that my Grandfathers log book does not seem to be in the archive ( which worries me )

Has anybody had any contact with Gerald Kochan or The Center for Military Studies ?

[mattm1970]

I was contacted last night by a BBC TV reporter regarding the sale of WW2
Memorabilia - specifically in relation to my posts about the issues with my
Grandfather and the loss of his Log Book to the Center for Military Studies in
Greenville Texas .

I have made contact with families from The UK , Canada and Europe on the issue
and was wondering if anybody else had any stories / information regards this
area ?

Please feel free to contact me on my email mattm1970@hotmail.com and I will pass
on any further information about this emotive issue to him.

[mattm1970]

Further to my post on the BBC -I have now had contact with CH4 as well -it seems that there is greater interest in this story than I appreciated .

I'd like to thank all of you who took the time and effort to contact me over the last few weeks ( especially those who made the effort to meet face to face )

This story is far from over - but I believe the publicity will do wonders for our cause.

Finally I'd like to promote The Keith Park Memorial http://www.sirkeithpark.com/ - The permanent bronze statue of Sir Keith Park will grace a new Plinth in Waterloo Place; the unveiling will be a principal part of the RAF's celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and will take place on 15th September 2010.