Officers and Directors
of the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia
(2018-2019)
Gordon V. Berg, President & Director (Chair)
Gordon Berg is the immediate past Vice President of the Round Table. He also served as President during the 2007-2008 program year and as an officer or director during other years. Mr. Berg also is a member of the advisory board for The Alliance to Preserve Civil War Defenses of Washington, DC (http://dccivilwarforts.org/) He is a retired civil servant doing freelance writing on the Civil War. His book and media reviews and articles appear on the Round Table’s website at http://cwrtdcreviews.blogspot.com/ as well as in the Civil War Times and America's Civil War, among other publications.
John Bessette, Director
John Bessette, the husband of Carol Bessette (former CWRTDC Secretary and Director) is, like her, a retired Air Force officer. He discovered the American Civil War as a high school student in a small New York State village in 1953. The saleslady in the local bookstore, knowing John's interest in science fiction (SF), sold him for 50 cents a new paperback combining SF with the Civil War. This was Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore. John was captivated. The book took him back to the 1950s in which the South had won the war, via a victory at Gettysburg. He was hooked! John then discovered Bruce Catton, and the long march began...
A 1958 engineering school graduate, John entered the Air Force via ROTC. After becoming a navigator with a choice of assignments, he selected Virginia, knowing the Centennial was coming. He was able to see some reenactments in 1961-62, but Air Force reality prevented more. But it did not prevent John from meeting Carol (then an AF lieutenant). They married in 1964; the rest is their history.
John served in both flying and intelligence assignments. After 20 years of duty, including a tour in Vietnam, John retired and became a civilian analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, concentrating on the Soviet Union/Russia. About that time Carol and John went on their first tour with Ed Bearss (First Manassas, of course). Beginning in 1996 they both became regulars at the annual summer Civil War Institute, at Gettysburg. Carol and John also joined the CWRTDC about 2008, always learning new twists and turns of this conflict that has colored our nation's history for over 150 years.
John has reported that, with Carol's term as a Director having expired and her passing earlier this year, he will try to fill her Civil War "combat boots" as best he can.
Mr. Hilliard is a founding member at the law firm of Wiley Rein LLP. He represents clients on a wide variety of matters before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), including wireless technology, mobile radio operations, and electromagnetic compatibility regulation. Mr. Hilliard also represents clients on matters involving unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
Mr. Hilliard received his law degree at the university of Virginia and his and his undergraduate degree at the University of Kentucky.
A. Kent Schweikert, Secretary & Director
Kent Schweikert, Col. (Ret.) served as the President of the Round Table, in 2014-2015. He is the President of BOOKS OF VALOR, a book company focused on the Civil War. His company website is: https://www.ebay.com/str/booksofvalor
Kent is a civil servant working with the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization. He commanded an infantry brigade combat team in Afghanistan. He served three tours in the Army Rangers as well as conventional assignments. Kent served as the Executive Officer of the Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Executive Officer of the Commanding General of the U.S. Army NATO. He has three Masters Degrees and is a former instructor at the Nation War College.
Dianne Smith, Director
Dianne. Smith, Lt. Col (Ret.) is a retired Army lieutenant colonel with 28 years active duty as a Military Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, and Military Historian. She taught Russian military history at the United Stated Military Academy, West Point; as a Seminar Historian at the US Army War College (USAWC), Carlisle, she spent three years as a staff ride guide at Gettysburg. While stationed for seven years at the NATO headquarters in Brunssum, the Netherlands, she served as a staff ride guide to Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, Heurtgen Forest, the Meuse Argonne, and Market Garden. Upon retirement from the Army she worked as a senior analyst at the European Command Intelligence Center, RAF Molesworth, UK, and as a Master Instructor at the Academy of Defense Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC.
Dr. Smith holds a PhD. from the University of California, Davis, and is a graduate of the USAWC. She also is a member of the British Commission on Military History, dating from her assignment as US Army Exchange Officer to the British Army Intelligence Corps. She retired from government service in 2017.
Douglas B. Stuart, Treasurer & Director
Douglas Stuart, Col (Ret.) is serving as the Treasurer for the Round Table for the first time this program year. He has been a member for over 10 years.
Col. Stuart has written about his experience in Vietnam in his 1981 work The Fall of Vietnam: A Soldier's Retrospection, in which he reflects upon the war, the military principles demonstrated there, and the reasons for the South Vietnamese failure. He is a Certified Public Accountant with a practice based in Fort Washington, Maryland.
Paula T. Whitacre, Director
A 1958 engineering school graduate, John entered the Air Force via ROTC. After becoming a navigator with a choice of assignments, he selected Virginia, knowing the Centennial was coming. He was able to see some reenactments in 1961-62, but Air Force reality prevented more. But it did not prevent John from meeting Carol (then an AF lieutenant). They married in 1964; the rest is their history.
John served in both flying and intelligence assignments. After 20 years of duty, including a tour in Vietnam, John retired and became a civilian analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency, concentrating on the Soviet Union/Russia. About that time Carol and John went on their first tour with Ed Bearss (First Manassas, of course). Beginning in 1996 they both became regulars at the annual summer Civil War Institute, at Gettysburg. Carol and John also joined the CWRTDC about 2008, always learning new twists and turns of this conflict that has colored our nation's history for over 150 years.
John has reported that, with Carol's term as a Director having expired and her passing earlier this year, he will try to fill her Civil War "combat boots" as best he can.
David E. Hilliard, Director
David Hilliard is serving as a Director of the Round Table for the first time this program year. He has been a member for almost 10 years and has assisted the organization with recording the speakers' presentations at the meetings, available at https://cwrtdc-audio.blogspot.com/
Mr. Hilliard is a founding member at the law firm of Wiley Rein LLP. He represents clients on a wide variety of matters before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), including wireless technology, mobile radio operations, and electromagnetic compatibility regulation. Mr. Hilliard also represents clients on matters involving unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
Mr. Hilliard received his law degree at the university of Virginia and his and his undergraduate degree at the University of Kentucky.
A. Kent Schweikert, Secretary & Director
Kent Schweikert, Col. (Ret.) served as the President of the Round Table, in 2014-2015. He is the President of BOOKS OF VALOR, a book company focused on the Civil War. His company website is: https://www.ebay.com/str/booksofvalor
Kent is a civil servant working with the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization. He commanded an infantry brigade combat team in Afghanistan. He served three tours in the Army Rangers as well as conventional assignments. Kent served as the Executive Officer of the Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Executive Officer of the Commanding General of the U.S. Army NATO. He has three Masters Degrees and is a former instructor at the Nation War College.
Dianne Smith, Director
Dianne. Smith, Lt. Col (Ret.) is a retired Army lieutenant colonel with 28 years active duty as a Military Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, and Military Historian. She taught Russian military history at the United Stated Military Academy, West Point; as a Seminar Historian at the US Army War College (USAWC), Carlisle, she spent three years as a staff ride guide at Gettysburg. While stationed for seven years at the NATO headquarters in Brunssum, the Netherlands, she served as a staff ride guide to Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, Heurtgen Forest, the Meuse Argonne, and Market Garden. Upon retirement from the Army she worked as a senior analyst at the European Command Intelligence Center, RAF Molesworth, UK, and as a Master Instructor at the Academy of Defense Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC.
Dr. Smith holds a PhD. from the University of California, Davis, and is a graduate of the USAWC. She also is a member of the British Commission on Military History, dating from her assignment as US Army Exchange Officer to the British Army Intelligence Corps. She retired from government service in 2017.
Douglas B. Stuart, Treasurer & Director
Douglas Stuart, Col (Ret.) is serving as the Treasurer for the Round Table for the first time this program year. He has been a member for over 10 years.
Col. Stuart has written about his experience in Vietnam in his 1981 work The Fall of Vietnam: A Soldier's Retrospection, in which he reflects upon the war, the military principles demonstrated there, and the reasons for the South Vietnamese failure. He is a Certified Public Accountant with a practice based in Fort Washington, Maryland.
Paula T. Whitacre, Director
Paula Tarnapol Whitacre is a freelance writer and editor of articles, reports and web content (e.g., related to health, the environment, and education) for organizations and government agencies. Her company website is at http://www.fullcircle.org/ She also volunteers for Alexandria Archaeology Museum http://torpedofactory.org/archaeology.
Ms. Whitacre previously worked at The Washington Post and as a Foreign Service Officer in Costa Rica. After a year traveling with her husband in Asia, she returned to Washington and worked for a forestry organization and for an environmental education project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Ms. Whitacre earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University, but, in retrospect, admits that her favorite courses always involved history. That interest lead her to author A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time; Julia Wilber’s Struggle for Purpose, published in 2017 by Potomac Books. See http://www.paulawhitacre.com/
In her book, Ms. Whitacre brings to life a 19th-century woman who faced issues still relevant today. In the fall of 1862, Julia Wilbur left her family's farm near Rochester, New York, and boarded a train to Washington, DC. An ardent abolitionist, the 47-year-old Wilbur left a sad but stable life, headed toward the chaos of Civil War. She spent most of the next several years in Alexandria, VA, devising ways to aid recently escaped slaves and hospitalized Union soldiers, working closely with Harriet Jacobs and often battling the male establishment.
Ms. Whitacre previously worked at The Washington Post and as a Foreign Service Officer in Costa Rica. After a year traveling with her husband in Asia, she returned to Washington and worked for a forestry organization and for an environmental education project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Ms. Whitacre earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University, but, in retrospect, admits that her favorite courses always involved history. That interest lead her to author A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time; Julia Wilber’s Struggle for Purpose, published in 2017 by Potomac Books. See http://www.paulawhitacre.com/
In her book, Ms. Whitacre brings to life a 19th-century woman who faced issues still relevant today. In the fall of 1862, Julia Wilbur left her family's farm near Rochester, New York, and boarded a train to Washington, DC. An ardent abolitionist, the 47-year-old Wilbur left a sad but stable life, headed toward the chaos of Civil War. She spent most of the next several years in Alexandria, VA, devising ways to aid recently escaped slaves and hospitalized Union soldiers, working closely with Harriet Jacobs and often battling the male establishment.
Jon F. Willen, Vice-President & Director
Jon Willen, M.D. is a retired infectious disease specialist who many know as the guy in the bloody apron at Civil War reenactments. Dr. Willen has put his medical expertise into researching the medical treatment Abraham Lincoln received during his time as President, most notably the actions of Dr. Charles Leale and other doctors who rushed to Lincoln’s aid at the assassination.