First & Last Shots Fired in WWII

This project was an extensive 8-month volunteer initiative aimed at preserving the legacy of Sgt. Harvey "Mack" Abbott, a US Marine who fired the first and last shots of WWII. The project spanned both physical and digital product development, including editing and publishing a memoir, manufacturing challenge coins, coordinating a limited-series M1 Carbine reproduction, and building a comprehensive digital memorial using Next.js, React, and Firebase.

The primary challenge was orchestrating a complex, multi-channel crowdfunding and publishing campaign while managing diverse vendors and a small, family-led team. Midway through the Kickstarter launch, an unforeseen health crisis required an immediate halt to all marketing and social campaigns. The challenge instantly shifted from scaling a crowdfunding campaign to crisis management, requiring a rapid pivot to ensure the core mission—preserving the legacy and fulfilling promises to existing backers—was still achieved.

I led the end-to-end operational, technical, and editorial strategy. This included establishing the LLC, managing copyright and ISBNs, typesetting the book, and ideating/negotiating proprietary contracts for the M1 Carbine reproduction. I sorted through hundreds of pages of historical service records to verify accuracy, while simultaneously driving marketing through social media reels, Reddit campaigns, and remaking legacy video interviews into modern digital clips. Following the marketing halt, I pivoted the digital strategy by utilizing AI "vibe coding" to reconstruct the platform. This Next.js web app features a custom CMS and deployed Google Genkit AI flows that power automated photo categorization and a semantic "smart search" that contextually extracts and queries passages from the memoir.

Despite the severe disruption to the crowdfunding campaign, the initiative was a resounding success in its core mission. We successfully printed and distributed the memoir and commemorative coins to 100% of the project backers and family members. We secured a limited-series M1 carbine reproduction with a gun manufacturer and successfully inducted Sgt. Abbott's story and photographs into the Atlanta History Center's WWII exhibit. The digital platform now stands permanently to capture ongoing interest and preserve the legacy for future generations.