Local Focus Helps NHS Junior Earn Trip to National History Fair

Don "Archie" Barrett with Diego Regalado

at this year's state history fair in Austin. 

Navasota High School junior Diego Regalado has earned a trip to the Kenneth E. Behring National History Day Contest to be held at the University of Maryland June 9-13. Regalado placed 2nd in the state competition held May 3-4 at the Bob Bulloch Texas State History Museum in Austin to advance to the national contest.

Regalado's project focuses on 1953 Navasota High School graduate Don "Archie" Barrett, whose work was instrumental in passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 which made sweeping changes to the structure of the United States Military. The act was designed to facilitate more inter-service cooperation among the nation's military branches. Regalado's project tells the story of Barrett's highly decorated military career and how his work through the House Armed Services Committee represents the 2013 National History Day theme, "Turning Points in History."