Meet the Authors - After Hours Event at Chennault Aviation and Military Museum

Join Chennault Aviation & Military Museum for a special evening of extended Museum hours and book signings in celebration of Museum Month.

Local authors and veterans Arthur Edwards and Wes Wesselhoeft will be available to meet with visitors as well as discuss and sign their books, both of which provide insight into their lives and time in the military.

Visitors are encouraged to mingle with the authors and tour the museum.

“Art Edwards is a Louisiana native who enlisted in the United States Air Force straight after graduating high school in 1966. In 1969, he did a tour in Vietnam, where he was involved in a special operation called “Operation Safeside” in a Combat Fighting Unit.
After leaving the Air Force in 1970, Edwards graduated from Northeast Louisiana University and also spent three years in the Army Reserves, 95th Division, 3rd Battalion. He is best known in the area for his extensive career in radio advertising. He has served for three years as a co-facilitator of a self-help group of Combat Warriors with P.T.S.D that meet at the Chennault Aviation & Military Museum twice a month. For many years, Arthur has written an extensive number of poems about P.T.S.D. as part of his self-help therapy.

His book, From Sword to Pen is a collection of Edwards’ poetry geared towards uplifting those living with P.T.S.D. as well as himself. He uses a poetic approach to explaining what PTSD is and how it affects combat veterans. Edwards calls the book ‘pain medicine for the combat veteran with PTSD’.”

“Wesselhoeft: Traded to the Enemy is the story of an innocent six-year-old American boy who was caught up in the events of World War II. No longer playing on the beach in Chicago, going to school and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, he and his parents were suddenly taken away to a desolate internment camp in Texas. One year later his family, and many U.S. citizens like himself, were traded for other Americans with our enemy Nazi Germany into an active war zone. Taken to Hamburg, he endured the heavy bombings by the Allies, followed by hunger and deprivation in post-war Germany.

In spite of these events he took the first opportunity to return to America and join the Air Force. After 22 years of service, including two tours in Vietnam, he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Now legally blind from Agent Orange exposure, Wes competes in tandem bicycle races and still lets very little stop him. Wesselhoeft tells his story of faith in God, American perseverance and love of country.”