Our Last Mission: An American Prisoner of War in WWII Germany Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, Hardcover, November 2003, Cloth 2005.

“In this remarkable tale of courage, historian Dawn Trimble Bunyak recounts the experiences of her uncle, Lawrence Pifer, who survived fourteen months of internment as a prisoner of war in World War II Nazi Germany.

A radio operator and ball turret gunner on the American B-17 bomber Slightly Dangerous, Pifer was shot down during a raid on March 4, 1944. Captured by Nazi soldiers and taken to a series of German Stalag Luft camps, Pifer and other servicemen endured torture, starvation, disease, and forced marches.

Basing her account on forty hours of interviews with Pifer, Bunyak retells the enthralling story of an average enlisted man’s struggle to survive in the face of hopelessness.”

—from the book jacket

Available through the University of Oklahoma Press, on-line bookstores, or can be ordered through most chain bookstores.

Publications

Articles

  • “The Inventor, the Patent, & Carrie Everson: Defining Success,” in Mining History Journal (2005). link >>
  • “The Shenandoah-Dives Mining Company: The Boom and Bust of a Colorado Enterprise, 1925-1953.” Colorado Heritage, May 2003.
  • “Shenandoah-Dives Mill National Historic Landmark,” in National Historic Landmarks Network, 3 (Summer 2000): 5-6.
  • “To Float or Sink: A Brief History of Flotation Milling,” Mining History Journal (2000): 35-44.
  • “Colorado Mill Achieves NHL Status,” National Historical Landmarks Network Vol. III, No. 1(Summer 2000): 5-6.
  • “Gerda Lerner: Pioneer in Women’s History,” University of Colorado at Denver Historical Studies Journal, 16 (Spring 1999): 13-26.

Papers Presented

  • The Miners of Central Pennsylvania. Presented at the 2005 Mining History Association Conference, Scranton, PA, June 2005
  • History of Flotation Milling. Presented at the Shenandoah-Dives Mill HAER Documentation and Historic Structure Assessment Workshop, Silverton, CO, September 2004 and August 2005
  • Carrie Everson: An Inventive Woman Lost in a Man’s World. Presented at the Mining History Association Conference, Farmington, MO, June 2004
  • The Everson Myth. Presented at Mount Rosa DAR, Littleton, CO, March 2004
  • Early Twentieth-Century Century American Flotation Mills. Presented at the 2nd Annual Conference on Mining Technology and Mining Town Architecture, Deadwood, SD, March 2004
  • A Woman’s Journey in the Mining West: The Life of Carrie Billings Everson. Presented at the Mount Rosa Daughter’s of the American Revolution Chapter meeting, March 2004
  • The Shenandoah-Dives Mill, Silverton, CO. Presented at the monthly meeting of the Colorado Archeological Society, Denver, CO, February 2003
  • A Woman’s Journey in the Mining West: The Life of Carrie Billings Everson. Presented at the 42nd Annual Conference of the Western History Association, October 2002
  • Carrie Everson. Presented at the monthly meeting of the Women in Mining Association, Lakewood, CO, September 2002 and Colorado History Group Spring Conference, Idaho Springs, CO, June 2002