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RAINBOW DIVISION VETERANS MEMORIAL FOUNDATION, INC. (RDVMF)

After WW I ended on November 11, 1918, officers of the Division formed the Rainbow Division Veterans Association (RDVA). The annual meeting date was chosen in memory of the Battle of the Champagne, and to this day, the Association annual meeting is in or close to the second week in July. July 14, 1943 was chosen as the date for reactivation of the WW II Rainbow Division. The RDVA, comprising veterans of both world wars, remained active from its formation until July 19, 2003, at which time it merged into the surviving, non-profit corporation, Rainbow Division Veterans Memorial Foundation, Inc. (RDVMF).

The Rainbow Divsion Veterans Memorial Foundation, Inc. organizes reunions, publishes the "Rainbow Reveille" newsletter, establishes and maintains memorials and monuments in both the U.S. and Europe, supports historic research, new publications, archives, museums, and holocaust memorial organizations.

Brief History:

In 1970 when the average age of WW I men was above 70, Dan Glossbrenner, a past national president, promoted the Memorial Foundation. Among his proposals was the establishment of a charitable foundation, and he suggested that the initial funding goal be for an outdoor amphitheater in Muskogee, OK overlooking the Cookson Hills where the reactivated WW II Division trained at Camp Gruber before going overseas. The site was dedicated in 1976, and the finished Rainbow Memorial Amphitheater was dedicated at the time of the National Reunion in 1982 held in Tulsa. National TV, "Real People" covered the dedication, and featured Dachau's liberation. At Honor Heights, Muskogee ceremonies, July 2002, the remodeled and improved Rainbow Memorial Amphitheater was rededicated.

The RDVMF has merged with and has become the successor organization to the RDVA. Since 1970, the Foundation has raised more than $500,000, funded more than 200 Rainbow Scholars, established new memorials, including the Dachau liberation plaque, and the WW I General Gouraud Navarin Farm Tomb and Monument Rainbow plaque; refurbished old monuments in need of repair, and funded and otherwise supported a number of important publications, especially Lise Pommois' Winter Storm, War in Northern Alsace, and  the book edited by Sam Dann,  published by Texas Tech University Press, entitled   Dachau 29 April 1945, The Rainbow Liberation Memoirs.