Join us at Harry’s Hofbrau in Redwood City on Tuesday, January 19. Harry’s opens at 11 am for cafeteria style lunch; our meeting will start promptly at 12 noon. See the MEETING INFO menu item for directions. This month’s topic is

Mark Gersh on “Technologies Impacting the Civil War”

In 1995, Mark Gersh led a comprehensive exhibition in Northern Virginia that showcased advanced information technologies being performed by the Department of Defense. This exhibition not only featured technology but included keynotes and speeches by prominent military and civilian leadership about the influence of technology on warfare and war-fighting. Among the invited speakers was Ed Bearss who at the time was the Chief Historian for the National Park Service and a renowned expert on the American Civil War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Bearss). Ed regaled the audience with his perspectives of how various technologies impacted the civil war. This presentation is a video recording of that talk.

Mark Gersh retired in March 2022 after a distinguished 38-year career working as a military officer, government civilian, and executive in the private sector. He led path-finding information technology research & development activities with a special emphasis on artificial intelligence applications. Mark’s first dream was to be a high school history teacher but chose computers instead. He maintains his love for history focusing on the Civil War, war fighting strategy, and military leadership. He has an extensive collection of military-themed books, Civil War artwork, and has explored nearly 50 military battlefields and counting!