We Proudly Salute All Veterans and Military Personnel
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Wartime Letters: A window into realities of war Veterans Day Remarks: • Ridgecrest mayor Peggy Breeden............................................... 8 • NAWCWD commander Rear Adm. Scott Dillon................... 9 • Kern County First District Supervisor Mick Gleason........ 10 Leaving a Legacy: Ways to celebrate veterans before they pass on and after they’ve died................................................................... 11 In foster homes, veterans are cared for like family....................16 JACK BARNWELL/DAILY INDEPENDENT FILE PHOTO Attendees salute the U.S. flag during the Veterans Day ceremony at VFW Ship 4084 in 2017. This year’s event will begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Robert E. Bloudek U.S. Navy - Journalist Pete Smith Howard Edwin Auld William C. Elliott Discharged U.S. Air Force - Retired U.S. Navy - Deceased U.S. Marine Corps - Discharged 14 Years Active January 31, 1944 - June 6, 1946 2 Years Service 1966-1968 4 Years Service Meritorious Service Victory Medal WWII Good Conduct Medal Navy Commendation National Defence Good Conduct National Defense Vietnam Service Medal Expert Pistol Rifleman-Sharpshooter Honoring and Thanking our Service Men and Women for all they do to Protect our Freedoms HONORING AND THANKING ALL PROUDLY HONORING ALL WHO HAVE SERVED WHO HAVE SERVED THANK YOU FOR YOUR SACRIFICE TO PROTECT OUR GREAT COUNTRY 1501 1/2 N. China Lake Blvd. STATE LIC.NO 672679 760-446-4004 Heating & Air Conditioning www.cardinalplumbing.net 760.446.5577 821 W. INYOKERN RD. LIC#496447 2 VETERANS DAY SALUTE 2018 Wartime Letters: A window into realities of war BY JACK BARNWELL “What is so breathtaking about the correspondence For The Daily Independent is the history they capture,” Carroll told a room full of veterans and active duty service members. artime letters provide a window into the He recounted a question asked of him by an realities of such times, according to Chap- Iraqi soldier during a visit to that country. Wman University’s Andrew Carroll. “‘Why focus on war letters,’ he asked me,” Carroll “I’ve traveled to all 50 states and 40 countries in said. “No one had asked that me that before and I search of letters,” Carroll said. mumbled that this is very personal project me and Carroll spoke at the October Historical Society I thought it was worth saving history.” of the Upper Mojave Desert’s veterans luncheon However, he noted there was more to the story on the topic, highlighting his personal mission of than that answer. Carroll noted he doesn’t come collecting such correspondence. Carroll serves as from a military background and hated history director of Chapman’s Center for American War growing up, an irony not lost on him considering Letters, which contains hundreds of thousands of his profession. correspondence dating all the way back to the “My sophomore year in college, our house in American Revolutionary War. Washington, D.C. burned to the ground and we CREATIVE COMMONS PHOTO First Sergeant Richard Stinnett PFC Andrew J. Carr James R. Carr CTI2 Alyson K. Reamy U.S. Air Force U.S. Army - Deceased U.S. Army - Retired U.S. Navy - Active Honorable Discharge 3 Years Service 21 Years Service 1961 - 1982 2014 - Present 4 Years Service WWII 2 Meritorious Service Medals WWII First Infantry Division - 2 Army Commendation Medals Germany Army Nuclear Power Plant Operator Badge 4 VETERANS DAY SALUTE 2018 everything we had went up in smoke,” Carroll said. He said a distant cousin of his, a War World II veteran pilot named Jim, contacted him about WWII memorabilia he had stored which included a letter written to his wife in 1945. Carroll held the letter up for the as- sembled group of veterans to see. An onion-piece of paper protected by a plastic sleeve, the letter contained Jim’s reflection on why he realized U.S. soldiers were in Europe fighting Nazi Germany. Carroll said the letter described his cousin’s walkthrough of a concentration camp the Allies had liberated. “I will never forget the contrast of holding this very thin paper and com- paring it to the weight and significance of its contents,” Carroll said. He said that letter was “the spark to start talk- ing to other veterans about what they do with their correspondence.” Through word of mouth, he started collecting dozens of letters. Dozens turned into hundreds and thousands. He gave it a name:—The Legacy Proj- ect — in 1998 to preserve the legacy of troops through their memories and letters. Carroll said he wrote to the Dear Abby Column some 20 years ago about JACK BARNWELL/DAILY INDEPENDENT FILE PHOTO his project and soon after that his The Historic USO Building hosts a Veterans Breakfast each month on the third Thursday. post office was inundated with let- ters. different eras and conflicts, and high- tangle with a large hole, started off, censors,” Carroll said. “It was only be- From there, the project ballooned. lighted how soldiers in WWI and “Dear Mom and Dad, so here I am in cause Bill’s mother had been pestering Chapman University established the WWII used censorship of letters to ...” followed by the huge chunk cut him to write home and this was just center after Carroll donated more their advantage, including coming up out, and ending with “Well, I hope so easier.” than 100,000 wartime letters in 2013. with codes they relayed to their loved too. Love Bill. P.S: They might censor Some letters described moments It is housed at the Leatherby Libraries ones. this letter.” and eye witness accounts of historical building in Orange, Calif. And then there were letters with a “What I found out from his brother moments such as one sailor’s involve- In addition to the center and his humorous story behind them. Ernie is that Bill would take a piece ment during Imperial Japan’s attack project, Carroll has written several One letter written by a Bill Kaiser of paper, write the first line, jump on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. books around the subject. during WW II from the Pacific Theater, down to the bottom, and then he Another was a letter collected by a He brought with him letters from which was nothing more than a rec- would cut out the middle, blame the Union soldier from a dead Confederate Thanking those who Serve Thanking and We Support our Troops FREE 1 FREE Honoring all 6” Sandwich Meal Who Serve to Scoop Protect our with Military ID with Military ID on Veterans Day on Veterans Day Freedom 501 N. China Lake Blvd. (760) 371-1376 501 N. China Lake Blvd 216 S. Norma St., 1-760-384-4541 Ridgecrest, CA 93555 1-760-384-3131 FD 1184 VETERANS DAY SALUTE 2018 5 soldier’s body during the Civil War sonal to me and but also important and then passed down through gen- to history.” erations. Baker served from 1953 to 1957, Honoring and Others described near-death expe- serving in South Korea toward the riences during World War II, or Viet- tail end of the Korean War. Thanking all nam War. Some were written on paper, He said the letters he wrote were others video messages burned on personal and important, and while DVDs during the second Iraqi War he hadn’t thought about saving or Who Serve following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist sharing them, Carroll’s presentation attacks. More still take the form of might make him reconsider, providing emails sent between service members he still has some. and loved ones. “This might sound flippant but I A 14-page narrative describe’s one wrote letters because it was the only civilian woman’s account of the af- way to communicate back then,” Baker 501 W. Ridgecrest Blvd., Ridgecrest, CA (760) 375-4123 termath right after the planes hit the said. “Phone calls were expensive, World Trade Center in New York City email wasn’t around then and it was on Sept. 11. She had been giving a the only way I could hear news from presentation when the terrorist attack home.” This nation will remain occurred, resulting soon after in the Carroll told the Daily Independent evacuation of their building near following his presentation that he is the land of the free only Ground Zero. Carroll said that the working on a new project called “Mil- so long as it is the pages carry tear stains from when the lion Letters Campaign.” woman wrote the letter. “I’m just barnstorming the country home of the brave. “Our focus really is on those who talking to museums, libraries, historical haven’t gotten their dues in the history societies, veterans groups and high books,” Carroll said. schools, encouraging people to seek Elmer Davis He added that letters are a true tes- out war letters,” Carroll said. “It’s timony to the memory of war. amazing wherever I go, there are just “When we think of war memorials, so many of these letters out there and we envision these grand structures of our urgency is to get them preserved stone and steel,” Carroll said. “But to before they’re lost.” me, these letters as fragile as they ap- He said one of the center’s goals pear, are really one of the most pow- was to preserve letters from service erful and enduring tributes to those members who “haven’t gotten their WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK AND who served and their loved ones be- due,” adding that group includes HONOR ALL THE BRAVE SERVICE cause they remind us of their sacrifices African American, Latino, and Asian beyond the battlefield.” American soldiers and veterans, MEN AND WOMEN WHO He said it extends to missed mo- women who served in the military, as ments.