Words
cannot express how important those who serve our country are.
Their courage and determination have guaranteed the freedoms we enjoy.
This year, I am especially moved by and thankful for all that these
men and women do.
They will never be forgotten.
Every Era has it's
Heros
In every American war from the Revolution to the Persian Gulf War, military
men and women captured the horror, pathos and intensity of warfare by writing
letters home. Many of them were still teenagers at the time. Taken together, the
letters form an epic record of wartime events. Read individually, they reveal
the deep emotions of people in the midst of a unique -- and terrible --
experience.
Featured here are excerpts from some of the letters in Andy Carroll's book,
War
Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars, dramatized in the
American Experience film. Read each excerpt to find out more about the letter
writer, and what happened to him or her at the end of the war.
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Letter
"Myself and eight other Negro soldiers were on our way from Camp
Claiborne, La., to the hospital here at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. ...We
could not purchase a cup of coffee at any of the lunchrooms around
there... As you know, Old Man Jim Crow rules. But that's not all; 11:30
a.m. about two dozen German prisoners of war, with two American guards,
came to the station. They entered the lunchroom, sat at the tables, had
their meals served, talked, smoked, in fact had quite a swell time. I
stood on the outside looking on... Are we not American soldiers, sworn
to fight for and die if need be for this our country?"
Resolution
Trimmingham had been very religious until the incident mentioned in the
letter. After the war, he worked as an electrician, repairing sewing
machines for Singer, and married a librarian. He died in 1985.
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Letter
"With my Pearl Harbor plates on I had the right of way and I
was out there in nothing flat. ...I hurried up to the Surgery and
already the casualties were pouring in... It was hell for a while.
These poor devils brought in all shot up and burned. Many of them
hopeless. We gave them plenty of morphine and sent them out in the
Wards to die. The others we patched up as best we could..."
Resolution
When the war ended, Spangler headed to the Philippines on a Navy
hospital ship to bring back POWs. Then he started a private
practice in Portland. Two years later, he returned to the service
and finished out his career as a Navy doctor. When he retired, he
went to Asia on a hospital ship, the Hope, and later became
a prison doctor in San Luis Obispo. He took up running at age 67,
and was an avid competitor until he died at the age of 95, racking
up 85 national running records for various age groups and
distances.
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Letter
"Jan is snoozing in her afternoon nap & Jay is dragging
himself blearily about trying to keep awake. He hardly even takes
a nap anymore & is really ready for the sack at night... I
think it is high time you are coming home because Jan is beginning
to call every man she sees in a magazine 'Daddy'."
Resolution
Duquette's plane was shot down; he spent 587 days as a North
Korean prisoner of war. This letter was returned unopened to his
wife, Louise. She only found out he was alive after 19 months had
passed, via a radio broadcast of the names of released POWs. When
Duquette was repatriated, he'd lost 70 of his 170 pounds, had a
stomach-length beard, and suffered from a number of diseases and
ailments as a result of his ordeal. Duquette continued his career
in the Air Force. He returned to Korea in 1998, to visit his son
John, a lieutenant colonel in the Army who was stationed in Seoul.
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Letter
"...the acres of little shelter tents are dark and still as death, no
wonder for as I gazed sorrowfully upon them, I thought I could almost hear
the slow flap of the grim messenger's wings, as one by one he sought and
selected his victims for the morning sacrifice... Oh northern mothers
wives and sisters... would to Heaven that I could bear for you the
concentrated woe which is so soon to follow..."
Resolution
After the war, Barton went on to found the American Red Cross.
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Letter
"Busy, Busy, as all hell -- Been moving constantly --
Excuse brevity -- I love you -- you make my foxhole warm
and soft..."
Resolution
Diamond had proposed to his girlfriend, Estelle Spero,
while on a temporary pass home in 1943, a year after he'd
volunteered for the army. They never had a chance to get
married. Diamond was shot in the stomach in the
Philippines in January 1945, just over a week after
writing this note, and died ten days later. He was 22
years old.
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Letter
"...Last night one more Marine died. No one will ever hear or
care about it except his parents and us... His name was Corporal
Lee Clark... He didn't deserve dying in a damn country not worth
fightin' for. ...He had about 38 days left in the Marine Corps and
in Viet Nam. 38 days to start living again, to see the world, and
home... It makes you wonder."
Resolution
Eight months later, Daniel was killed by a sniper. He was 19 years
old.
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Letter
"A year ago today I was sweating out shells on Anzio Beachhead --
today I am sitting in Hitlers' luxuriously furnished apartment in Munich
writing a few lines home. -- What a contrast. -- A still greater contrast
is that between his quarters here and the living hell of DACHAU
concentration camp only 10 miles from here. -- I had the misfortune of
seeing the camp yesterday and I still find it hard to believe what my eyes
told me..."
Resolution
Evers took time to write home while he and his men were setting up a
command post in Munich. Finding themselves in the apartment of Adolph
Hitler, they discovered some sheets of Hitler's personal stationery. Evers
wrote home on this stationery, gold-embossed with an eagle, swastika, and
Hitler's name at the top. When he returned home, he resumed working for
the U.S. Postal Service. For years, he never discussed the war with his
family, but when his parents passed away and he received a number of his
old letters in the mid-1990s, he assembled albums of his experiences in
the war. His collection includes a love letter he sent home to his wife,
also on Hitler's stationery.
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Letter
"I'm coming home! It's official as of this morning. ...That little
house is going to look like a palace to me. ...Is it true some people
eat three times a day, or more? And they sit on a chair, by a table.
What's the matter, can't they dig a hole in the backyard like everybody
else? ...There were times I would have traded my soul for a drink of
cold water, or a cup of hot coffee. But I am coming home now. Chuck
isn't. He's listed M.I.A. If he's on this side of the line I hope he
makes it. If he's on their side I hope he's dead. He'd wish the same for
me. ...I am going to tell you now. You'll need a lot of patience with
me. Patience, and, understanding. We all will."
Resolution
When he returned from Korea, Puntasecca was stationed in Lewiston, New
York. At a local YMCA dance one night, he met a woman from Niagara
Falls. They got married a month before Puntasecca was discharged. He
went to work in his father's construction business, and started a
family. He has two children and three grandchildren.
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Letter
"Men fought to kill, to maim, to destroy. Some return
home, others remain behind forever on the fields of their
greatest sacrifice. There was a war, a great war, and now
it is over."
Resolution
Plush was honorably discharged from service on February
15, 1919. He returned home and homesteaded property in the
coastal mountains. He married in 1923, planted apples and
raised turkeys on his ranch, and died in 1956 at age 63.:
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Letter
"We were all kneeling in among some bush, and every one of us could
not refrain from casting a glance at the dying man who lay there trembling
in every limb and the blood spirting from his nostrils and the wound in
his forehead. In the heat of action such scenes do not much affect one but
at a time like this it is awful indeed."
Resolution
Embree survived the war. He joined his father's law practice and worked
there until he died in 1877.
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Letter
"For the Nth time, thanks for your package. Please don't send me any
more underwear, socks or candy...This week they are teaching us to kill...
I know how to break any hold or grip and throw a man flat on his face --
They even teach us how to scientifically stomp on a man....
Confidentially, I'm tired."
Resolution
Elevitch fought under Patton in Germany. He sustained serious injuries
from mortar fragments, and was hospitalized for six months. Under the GI
bill, he went to college and graduate school after the war. He lived in
Europe through the 1950s and 1960s. A writer, professor, and traveller, he
published 3 books of fiction. He also founded a magazine, First Person,
that featured personal narratives, including letters and diaries.
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Letter
"Take a combination of fear, anger, hunger,
thirst, exhaustion, disgust, loneliness,
homesickness, and wrap that all up in one reaction
and you might approach the feelings a fellow has. It
makes you feel mighty small, helpless, and alone...
Without faith, I don't see how anyone could stand
this."
Resolution
This letter, sent to his younger brother from Anzio,
Italy, was the last one Curtis would mail home.
Three days later, as the Allies approached Rome, he
was killed.
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WASHINGTON (Nov. 8) - For 20 years now, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has
helped heal a war torn nation and inspire tributes to other victims of tragedy.
The 58,229 names of those killed or missing in the war from 1959 to 1975 - all inscribed in black granite -
are being read aloud over four days to help mark the memorial's anniversary.
Michael Milan's uncle, Army Pvt. George W. Milan of Atlantic City, N.J., is among those names.
His should be read sometime this weekend.
Pvt. Milan was 22 when he was killed. His death came before his nephew was born.
The wall bearing his name went up when the younger Milan was only 9.
Still, Michael feels a connection to his uncle and the service he gave his country.
``He's the reason I went into the Army,'' said Michael, a specialist from Evansville, Ind.,
as he used charcoal to rub his uncle's name onto paper in the blustery hours
Thursday before the name-reading began.
``This memorial makes it permanent, what they went through,'' Milan said. ``
As long as this wall is here, people know what these soldiers fought for. They will know what they died for.''
The recitation of names is part of the healing process that designer Maya Lin envisioned when
she sought to build a memorial that would separate the nation's political divisions over the war
from the human loss that resulted.
Its V-shaped arms were intended to draw people together at a quiet spot that dips below
ground-level where, she hoped, people would grieve for those lost.
The past and present, Lin said, would meet on the shiny surface, where the chiseled names
of the dead would mingle with the reflections of living visitors.
``This was something that gave Americans the license to mourn publicly,'' said Jan Scruggs,
founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund that is sponsoring the anniversary events.
A concert Wednesday was followed Thursday by a ceremony that opened the name-reading
at the memorial. That endeavor was expected to take 65 hours over four days,
ending at midnight Sunday. Veterans Day will be observed there a day later.
The names form the structure's emotional centerpiece. Inscribed in chronological order of death,
they make the war's cost personal. First listed is Army Maj. Dale R. Buis, 37,
of Pender, Neb., one of two killed July 8, 1959.
The last is Air Force Lt. Richard Vande Geer, 27, of Columbus, Ohio,
one of 18 who died May 15, 1975.
On any given day, people leave notes, flowers and other trinkets. Someone left a can of beer
Thursday, in a tribute to a soldier lost. Many make charcoal name rubbings to take home.
As a teenager in California, Carolyn Squires wore a bracelet bearing the name of
Air Force Col. Stanley Scott Clark, even though she had never met him. On Thursday,
she stepped back from rubbing his name and marveled - at the time passed, the expanse
of names and the unexpected feeling of being soothed by the sight of the wall.
``I was angry for a long time because when they came back, people treated them badly,''
Squires, now 45, said of returning veterans. ``But now they are being honored.''
The memorial has inspired the creation of others, such as one across the Potomac to
the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon.
Choosing six finalists last month from some 1,126 entries, the Pentagon memorial's jury was struck
by some familiar characteristics in the designs - quiet gathering places, visitor interaction,
the inscription of every name.
``We began to realize what a powerful effect or influence the Vietnam Memorial had on our thinking,''
said jury member Terence Riley, chief curator of the department of architecture and design at
New York City's Museum of Modern Art. ``It has changed everyone's thinking about what a memorial is.''
In Memory of my Dad Vernon
Stuart
1915 to 2000
USMC
In
remembrance of those We've loved
who have left this life. they shall always
live on in our hearts...
