Harrisburg alum helps preserve Marine Corps history

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — Penn State Harrisburg alum Jessica Sheets preserves insights of military leaders through her work as an oral historian at the U.S. Marine Corps History Division at Quantico, Virginia.

Sheets earned her doctorate in American studies from Penn State Harrisburg in 2020. Her path to Penn State Harrisburg began while she was working at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle. She said she wanted to pursue a doctorate while continuing her career.

Although she initially considered a history doctorate at schools outside south central Pennsylvania, she said the American Studies program aligned with her interests and her desire to remain in her job. Her dissertation focused on family divisions and historical memory of the Revolutionary War, examining how the war functioned as a civil war within families.

In September 2021, she joined the Marine Corps History Division, where she conducts oral history interviews with general officers and other senior leaders in the Marine Corps, documenting decisions and initiatives from their time in service.

Sheets said she prepares for each interview by getting ideas from the interviewee’s staff, reviewing archival materials and conducting online research to develop neutral questions.

“As a historian, you need to be neutral, conduct thorough research and find good quality sources,” she said.

Her interviews are audio recorded and preserved by the Marine Corps Archives at Quantico.

“The purpose is to get this information while it’s fresh on their minds, and historians or researchers can later hear that perspective,” she said.

Before taking her current job, Sheets worked as an archivist and later as a research historian at the Army Heritage and Education Center. She said the roles shaped her understanding of preserving and learning from historical records.

One experience she recalled was processing the papers of U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore, whose military service was documented in the book “We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young” and portrayed in the movie “We Were Soldiers.” Moore passed away at age 94 while his materials were still being processed. That affected the archivists, Sheets said.

“When you process somebody’s letters, photographs and records, you really get to know them,” she said. “To think that we had a part in preserving his story, that was a powerful experience.”

Sheets said archival work presents both physical and digital challenges. Older documents can become fragile over time, requiring careful storage conditions, while digital materials can be lost as technology changes.

“So much is lost today of people’s stories because really who preserves emails and texts like letters have been?” she said.

Sheets said her time at Penn State Harrisburg helped prepare her for her career by strengthening her research skills, attention to detail and critical thinking. Being a doctoral student helped her compete for the research historian position at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center and, likewise, her current job at the Marine Corps History Division.

For students interested in the field, Sheets emphasized persistence, especially for those balancing graduate study with other responsibilities.

“Just keep at it,” she said.

Preserving these stories and insights of military leaders is important, Sheets said, because it provides information for future research and decision-making.

“How can we learn or make educated decisions in the future without having good records of the past?” she said.