Hiatus

I have been away for some time this month with the passing of my Dad on February 17th. As we were going through his papers we uncovered literally dozens of letters that he wrote home while an enlisted man in World War Two. Dad was never in combat but had been shipped to the Philippines in 1945 with an artillery battalion that was staging for the invasion of Japan. The photo shown here is of him and his sister Betty sometime in 1944 when he was home on a furlough. The letters along with a diary of his that I found on an earlier visit tell the story of a nineteen year old boy a long way from home. It makes for compelling reading. I have committed myself to organizing these papers in some fashion, not necessarily for public consumption, but for the family. Drawing back to my interest in the Civil War, these letters are not unlike those of another generation of young American men, in the 19th century, also far from home facing dangers unimagined. So this new project goes on my plate. Reading these letters is like meeting and talking to a long lost relative. He mentions family members that I know and places that I have been to though many years later. It is eerie but in some ways comforting to realize there are more things I will learn about and from my father in his letters. He was quite a man!