Dr. Jessica J. Sheets, a native of southwestern Pennsylvania, is an Oral Historian in the Histories Branch, History Division (HD), Marine Corps University. She joined HD in Sep 2021. She previously was a Library Technician (2007-2010), Archives Technician then Archivist (2010-2018), and Research Historian (2018-2021) at the US Army Heritage and Education Center, US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pa. She spent two weeks in Crystal City, Va., with the Chief of Staff of the Army’s Archive Team, processing General Ray Odierno’s personal papers (2015). She was a fellow in the 2016 West Point Summer Seminar in Military History and served as Project Officer for the Army’s Archives Practicum Training Course (2018). In 2020, she scored 173 essays in support of the Army’s Battalion Command Assessment Program.
Her Ph.D. dissertation, “‘No More Striving of Brother against Brother’: Family Divisions and Historical Memory of the Revolutionary War,” examined three families politically divided by that war and how that war has been remembered. She was a Lord Baltimore Research Fellow at the Maryland Historical Society and the first member of Army Career Program 61 (for archivists, historians, and museum personnel) to receive Ph.D. funding. Dr. Sheets has presented papers on her dissertation and other topics at the Society for Military History, Fort Ticonderoga’s Seminar on the American Revolution, the Army War College’s National Security Seminar, and before Sons of the American Revolution groups, West Point classes, and more.
Education
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Ph.D. American Studies, 2020, Penn State University - Harrisburg
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M.A. Applied History, 2005, Shippensburg University
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B.A. English, 2004, Bob Jones University
Selected Publications
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“Army Medical Capacity: Ready to Meet the LSCO Challenge?,” US Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC), Aug 2021.
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"More Bang for Your Buck: Eisenhower's New Look Policy and the Armed Forces," USAHEC, Dec 2019.
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“Temporary Promotions of U.S. Army Officers: A Brief Overview,” USAHEC, Nov 2018.
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“Scattered across the Globe and the Political Spectrum: The Tilghman Family in the Revolutionary War,” Underbelly blog, Maryland Historical Society, 25 Oct 2018.
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“Siege of Yorktown, September-October 1781,” Military History, Oct/Nov 2009.
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“The Redoubts at Yorktown,” Military Heritage, Dec 2012.
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“An ‘Inflexible Patriot’: Major James Armstrong Wilson and the Home He Left Behind,” Cumberland County History, 2012.
Service
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Graduate Student Representative, Society for Military History (SMH; 2018-2021)
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Membership and Staffing Committee, SMH (2020-2021)
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Electives Committee, US Army War College (AY 2020)
Professional memberships