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mahatmakanejeeves

(60,972 posts)
Thu Jan 4, 2018, 11:57 AM Jan 2018

Letters found abandoned in storage locker in Arizona tell the story of four brothers during WWII

Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

@LettersOfNote thought you might be interested in this thread and in this podcast. would love to share this with your followers!



Hundreds of letters were found abandoned in a storage locker in Arizona. They tell the incredible story of four brothers during WWII -- from Pearl Harbor to their role in the war's dramatic end. And this podcast brings them to life: https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/letters-from-war/?utm_term=.d80befe843c5



Like this letter, written the day after Pearl Harbor by the oldest brother, a Marine: "Will listen to Roosevelt's speech and hope you do the same" (that speech, of course, "a date that will live in infamy"



And this letter, written after that same brother saw his first combat -- at the Guadalcanal campaign, the first Allied offensive in the Pacific -- and was back home getting treated for combat fatigue: "My nerves were kind of jittery" (now we'd call it PTSD)



Or this letter, after Allies fought in freezing, wet conditions to take back the Aleutian islands: "There were no atheists in that battle" (things I learned working on this podcast: The Japanese invaded Alaska!)



Or this one, by the youngest brother, who served as a airplane mechanic throughout the war, and became part of the unprecedented events that brought the war with Japan to an end


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