A Thank You to my Support System

Acknowledgments

Haley Heil would like to acknowledge the contributions of the 203rd Coast Artillery Battalion from Southwest Missouri who served during World War II. She also thanks Charles Machon and Doug Sheley of the Museum of Missouri Military History in Jefferson City, Missouri, and the staff of the Center for Missouri Studies in Columbia, Missouri for their assistance in the research of this project. She also wishes to thank the members of her thesis committee: Dr. Charles Chamberlain, Dr. Robert Dupont, and Dr. Allan Millett. She would also like to thank Dr. Marc Landry and Dr. Connie Atkinson for their help and support during the thesis project. She would also like to acknowledge the contributions of her family and friends, especially her parents Kirk and Sarah Heil, and her three sisters Tanya Rhodes, Carly Heil and Cecelia Heil for their continued support throughout the entire thesis project.