The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences launches the 2023-24 season of the Pryor Center Presents lecture series at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, with "Eaker Air Force Base: Reflections on the Cold War."

Blytheville Air Force Base, located in Blytheville, Arkansas, opened in 1942 and was renamed Eaker Air Force Base in 1988. This presentation will highlight the conversion of the decommissioned base into the National Cold War Center.

Randall Woods, Distinguished Professor in the Fulbright College Department of History, will interview former Army Chaplain Col. Robert Certain, who was stationed at Blytheville Air Force Base in the early 1970s. Certain will talk about his experiences as a POW at the Hanoi Hilton.

The Pryor Center is located at 1 E. Center St., Suite 120. The event is free and open to the public, and parking is available on the Fayetteville Square. If you are unable to attend, please look for a recording of this presentation next week on the Pryor Center Presents web page.

Upcoming Pryor Center Presents:

• Oct. 19 — "The Arkansas Paradox" presented by Rex Nelson
• Nov. 16 — "Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps" presented by Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch
• Dec. (Date TBD) — "Arkansas News History: Exploring the KATV Collection #4" with Randy Dixon and Kyle Kellams

About the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History: The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History is an oral history program with the mission to document the history of Arkansas through the collection of spoken memories and visual records, preserve the collection in perpetuity, and connect Arkansans and the world to the collection through the Internet, TV broadcasts, educational programs, and other means. The Pryor Center records audio and video interviews about Arkansas history and culture, collects other organizations' recordings, organizes these recordings into an archive, and provides public access to the archive, primarily through the website at pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center is the state's only oral and visual history program with a statewide, seventy-five county mission to collect, preserve, and share audio and moving image recordings of Arkansas history.

About the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with three schools, 16 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the majority of the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research and Economic Development News.