When Taps’ final notes have sounded and the echoes fade away; Night’s darkness is prevailing at the end of each long day A fellow starts to thinking and he feebly tries to pray. “Dear Lord, be ever with her;” is the most that he can say. It’s pretty crude and simple but it sets his heart aglow- There are lots of thoughts put in those words - He’s sure that God will know. She’s the sweetest little woman and her face with kindness blessed That has a beauty all its own which shames the angels’ best. And her eyes are always shining - its a beacon in the night. When we look to her for guidance from the wrong way to the right. Her smile is like a sunbeam as it brightens her kind face And it makes all our unhappy thoughts seem sadly out of place. She’s the dearest most unselfish soul that I have ever known. And it fills her sons with surging pride to say that she’s our own. For she heals us in our sickness both in body and in mind. And a better mother than our mom is something you won’t find. From our time of birth to manhood we have brought her much despair We could ne’er pay all our tribute to that lovely silver hair. So, Mom, if ever we do wrong, you shouldn’t feel the shame for you’ve done your best-that’s plenty good. So let us take the blame.

We may not always show our love, I know, too well, that’s true. But believe me when I tell you, Mom we’ll be always loving you.

Darrell - speaking for the three of us.

Darrell R. Duggins written while sitting in a foxhole during Korean conflict 1st Marine Division at the Chosen Reservoir (“three of us” is in reference to two other brothers serving during that same period) Submitted by Pat Duggins (son), Dry Ridge

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04/10/04

Hi Mom,

How are you doing? I’m alright just missing everybody back home. We got attacked three times yesterday, but they didn’t hurt anyone thank God. Happy Easter. This is the first email I’ve ever sent out. So I heard you talked to Seth how did that go? I don’t get to check my email everyday so it might take me a while to reply but I will read it when I can. Hope you are enjoying your weekend. We don’t get any days off we have to work 7 days a week. It won’t be so bad but they like to attack us at night with mortars so we have to get up and go check in to make sure everyone is ok. I love you. Hopefully I’ll get RR in June so I will be able to come home and see everyone. Well got to go but thanks for writing me it’s good to hear from you. Will you give Dad my email address so maybe he’ll write too. Tell grandpa I’ve tried to call him a few times but its early I guess for him. Tell Diane thank you for the package and the cards and I love and miss them too.

Love you, your son
Jared

Pfc. Jared Webber
Currently serving at Camp Anaconda, Iraq
Stationed in Manheim, Germany, with wife Malinda and children Dominique, Alyssa, and Jared Sent to mother, Debbie Randle, Norwood

—

Hi Mom,

How are you doing? OK I hope. Well here I am in the lovely hell hole of Falluja, Iraq. The weather is starting to get hotter everyday but the good thing is that the nites are cool so far. I am on duty from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. so I am out most of the night. Haven’t had a day off yet kinda getting a little burnt out and tired. Been getting mortar attacks here at Camp Falluja just about everyday. The good thing is that the Iraqi’s target isn’t very good. They have only hit target a couple of times. The food here isn’t all that good but it’s food.

Vikki is doing OK, she is dealing with this pretty well. She’s a strong woman and I love her a lot. Matt, doing OK, he’s going to go for his road test in May. He has his own car and is in love with this cute little girl. Her name is Tara. Only seen her a couple of times because they started seeing each other just before I left. He’s 17 years old and a junior in High School. I hope that I am home when he graduates. Sarah is still at home. She’s 26 and still not grown up yet. She’s doing O.K. just taking a little longer than normal to mature. Nicole is in Florida with her boyfriend, She’s doing OK, struggling a little as far as money but she’s bound and determined to make it on her own. Vikki and I offer to help her but she wants to do it on her own. I wish some of her maturity would rub off on Sarah. How’s Ken doing? OK, I hope tell him I said Hi and would like to meet him someday. Well mom I guess I will go for now. Say Hi to everybody and tell them I am doing, OK and waiting for the day to come home and be with my family. I am hoping that we can get together also. It’s been a long time since we saw you and we miss you.

I end here for now and will keep in touch.
Love you,
Roger

Sgt. Roger Eugene Reed
168 MP BN/Echo Co
Camp Steel Falcon
Sent to his mother Clara Williams, Villa Hills

Dear Mom & Ken,

How are you doing? OK I hope. All is fine in the hell home called Falluja. I am working the night shift 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Long hours and short time for rest. Haven’t had a day off since I got here in Falluja. Can’t wait to get out of here. We are supposed to be here for 60 days, but I think it will be longer. We should be out of Iraq around March or April of 2005. Thank you so much for the package you sent. It was great and I love it. I will share it with the guys I bunk with. It’s nice to see some things that they don’t have here. I’m sorry I haven’t written sooner been busy and the time off is rare and in between. I’m getting ready to go out again have zone time so I wanted to write you and let you know what’s up. This place is a rat hole and the people are poor and nasty. See things here that you would never see in the states. I am so lucky to have what I have and the family that I have. I am hoping to see you when I get back. Tell everybody Hi for me and let them know they are in my thoughts. Got to go for now again thanks for the package will always remember your thoughtfulness and love. Bye for now

Love your son, Roger

Sgt. Roger Eugene Reed

—

April 23, 1951

Hi Everybody

Well, I received your package. The bracelet is beautiful. Thank you very very much for it and the cigars, funny books too. We have been on the move pretty much up until now. It is getting pretty nice out too. Oh yes, I’m up for corporal. So when I come back may be I’ll have two stripes on my arm with a red long stripe on my blue trousers. That is an N.C.O. stripe. It’s just tradition in the Marine Corps. I hope everything is ok back home. I’m still a company runner, so everything is still ok over here. I guess I’ll be complaining about the heat pretty soon.

How are you, Joan and Patty? They say it gets pretty hot in Korea. I believe them too. I believed them also when they said it gets pretty cold in Korea and it did. I’ve received a couple letters from cousin Millie too. I can’t think of anything to write about. You ought to see me. I look like an old man. I got a beard about two inches long, and I’ve got that shining bracelet on my arm. It is very nice though.

The cigars didn’t last long buddies you know and more buddies. Ha Ha. The funny books are all over the company. Everybody’s reading them. Thanks for everything. Gee I’m sorry but there isn’t anything to write about. But sending loads of love and kisses.

Your loving Son,
Walter

Correspondence with sister Patricia (Norris) Markley, Cincinnati, and their mother, Mrs. W. Norris

—

Mar 28, 1945

Dear Folks

I’ve been sitting here for five minutes trying to remember the date. Right at this point, I’m not even sure of the day, but think that it’s Wed.

We can now say that we’re in the Third Army. Of course we still can’t tell where or what we’re doing. However, don’t worry because things are pretty safe around here.

Another thing that we can finally tell is that we slept one night in the French Maginot Line. They really spent a lot of time on those fortifications and it took the Germans about three weeks before they captured them.

The weather hasn’t been so bad so far. We had a few very warm days in fact. Some of the towns that we’ve gone through look like the city dump. The ruin and the damage that has been done was really tremendous after seeing this, a person can realize how lucky our country has been in this war to escape what these people are going through.

The Germans asked for it, but the French were forced to fight and they’re the ones I feel sorry for. They used to beg for anything we’d give them and even go through our garbage cans for food.

I’m going to try and enclose a serial tag from a Forke-Wolf 190 that had met an abrupt end. If it's not there when the letter arrives, you’ll know I was unable to send it.

Also enclosed is 10 francs in French money. Let me know if they arrive. I guess that’s all I have time for now, so I’ll have to close,

So Long, Dick

Letter from Richard E. Slaughter to his mother and father Former T/4, 264th Engineer Combat Battalion, World War II

Dear Dad:

I thought that this letter would probably be for more interest to you than to Mom, so I wrote accordingly. Today I saw with my own eyes the evidence of such Nazi brutality that it made me wonder if the people are human. I can only describe the place to you but it must be seen to be throroughly realized. The place is a labor camp that, until the Americans took over, housed Russians, Poles and other war prisoners ranging from 14 to 65 years of age. The camp was open only after five months, during which time approximately seven thousand men were beaten to death, hung or cremated. The first part of the camp to be seen is the barbed wire enclosures containing the living quarters. There is a double fence about twelve feet high with approximately four feet between the two fences and illuminated by spotlights. Inside the fences is a barbed wire entanglement.

Upon entering the enclosure, we came into a courtyard affair with a gallows in it. Here the men were hung or beaten. At one side of the courtyard there were about twenty-five coats covered with blood and also blood was on the ground, too. One of the Polish survivors said that when the Americans were coming the S.S. men rounded up about three thousand of the strong prisoners for evacuation. Among these were the twenty-five who were too weak to make the trip east. These men were beaten to death.

The living quarters were about as large in area as the Carson School auditorium (Cincinnati) and contained up to two hundred men with no sanitary facilities at all. This information was given to our First Sergeant, who can speak Polish, by one of the Poles who had escaped.

During the winter, the Nazis had a unique way of telling when a man was pretending illness. They stripped him to the waist and packed him in snow. If he was just pretending, he would bet to return to work, in which case he was beaten to death. If he was really sick, since he could do nothing about it, he froze to death.

The prisoners were working on an underground shelter in a hill of solid rock. One night three thousand Jews were brought in and put to work. Within twenty-four hours all were dead. The men were marched out kilometers through the town to their work every morning. On the way an average of twenty men fell dead each morning and the civilians would beat them and spit on them. Now these same civilians deny all this. For no reason, men were beaten with clubs.

Perhaps, you are all wondering what they did with all these bodies. About a kilometer away was the crematory - a pit about twenty by fifty feet. Fires were built in this pit of wood and oil. The men were tied on racks made of narrow gauge railway. About twenty men could be tied to each rack and there were four such racks. When our boys got there, men, or rather what was left of them, were tied on the racks. The Germans had left in such a hurry that the bodies were not completely burned. There were piles of charred bones about.

Nearby another pit was being dug. It was easy to see where each man had been digging since they were individual holes linked to form the big one. The pit was not completed, so the individual holes could still be seen. In the bottoms of these holes were pools of blood, and I’m not exaggerating in the least, the pools of blood were up to six inches in depth. When I saw the place, the racks had been stacked on the side and the bodies removed; the rest remained as I’ve described.

On a hill not far away, burial of these bodies was well under way. German civilian men were digging six-foot graves in almost solid rock. I counted over one hundred and fifty graves. The bodies were not pleasant to see. The violence done them was apparent.

The ashes from the crematory were distributed to the farmers for fertilizer, but they pretended they knew nothing about it.

All this is not pretty to write about, and certainly not pretty to see. The only reason I’m writing this is to show you that what you might have passed off, as propaganda is not propaganda but the Lord’s truth. I know because I’ve actually seen these things.

So, if you hear anyone say “more propaganda” put him right. These people are Never to be trusted. They don’t deserve to be called Humans.

Sorry to have laid you open to this description, but I wanted you to know the truth as I’ve seen it.

Dick

p.s. If you want to, you can show this to Rev. Cotton or anyone else. If he ever preaches forgiveness for the Germans, ask him how a person can forgive or forget such things.

Letter from Richard E. Slaughter to his father

—

3/18/04

Thank you Mom. I mean it. Everything you’ve done for me means so much. I love you Mom you’re the greatest.

Love Mack (Pooh)

3/20/04

Don’t worry Momma, I am outta harms way. Gotta run. I love you and thanks for the box. I love you Mom.

Love Mack (Pooh)

4/06/04

Hi Mom, I’m sorry we haven’t communicated lately I’m just really busy we started getting all our parts in and I have a lot of processing to do. I’m doing fine, I’m alive and breathing. Not much has happened here lately besides getting attacked again the other night. Another mortar attack, nothing to worry about. I was laying in my rack watching a movie on my lap top and all of a sudden a loud thunderous boom shook my hooch (living quarters 3 personnel per) I jumped up wearing only boxers and a brown t-shirt , I threw my gear on and ran to the bunker in flip flops it was kinda funny. I didn’t care all I wanted to do was get to the safe spot after it was all over I layed down on my rack and started thinking about what I got myself into. The main thing that kept playing over and over there is someone other there is trying to kill me. That’s a feeling that’s hard to describe. Right then I decided I wasn’t ever going to let my guard down for any of the Iraqis. I never planned on it before but now the reality of it hit me. I can’t trust anyone that doesn’t wear the same uniform as me.

Don’t worry Mom I’m gonna be ok. I’m always on point with what’s going on around me inside or outside the gate. Well I’m gonna run Mom I gotta get back to work. I’ll be online all night tonight so email me.

Love Pooh

4/14/04

Mom, I know you are gonna worry I just don’t want you to worry yourself sick. I’m ok really. I know I talk about getting attacked but you need to focus on something like your boot camp. Working out helps me keep my mind off of what goes on outside the gates of this hell I’m in. I just keep in my mind while working out of how I’m getting faster, stronger, and leaner. I know Toby worries about me but he does know that I’m wise to what’s going on around me. Mom just try not to take the news as what I’m going through because I’m in a position I don’t have to go into any towns I just stay on the highway going from camp to camp every once in a while and when I go outside the gate it’s weird, I feel like a totally different person. It’s like my senses are more keen and I’m on point with everything that’s going on around me. The Captain that’s in command of the maintenance section always likes it when I get assigned to his convoys cause he knows that I’m always alert.

Mom I don’t tell you that stuff cause I want you to worry, I tell you that because the higher ranks even know that I’m on point.

Well I gotta run, I love you Mom and try not to worry.
No mortar attacks yet at least

Love Pooh

E-mails received from Mack Thompson, PVT 2, U.S. Army, to his mother, Lori Thompson-Lawwill, Cincinnati

—

5/31/44

(Basic Training)

Dearest Mother,

I am very sorry I couldn’t write sooner, but wait until I tell the reason why. The day before yesterday we went on the range for dry firing with our rifles. We didn’t shoot but they marked the positions of our aiming. They told me I should be an expert because I shot three times in the bullseye and they were so close together that you could cover all three marks with the diameter of a pencil.

After our days work was done I was throwing a baseball with a fellow and the non-commissioned officers saw me and asked me to pitch for them on our company team. It was only softball but they thought I was good. I had a Sgt. catching, a Sgt. playing first, a Corporal playing second, a Sgt. playing short stop, a Sgt. playing third base and one Corporal playing in the field the rest were buck privates.

I pitched the whole game and struck out seven batters. I got 3 for 4 as my batting average, a home run, a double and a single We won the game 8-0. Tomorrow most of the team is getting shipped out so we will have to get some new players.

Well Mom I finally got payed today, I drew $21.78, not bad. As soon as I get the bond I’ll send it home. Well Mom, getting back to the reason for not writing. Yesterday after finishing our classes at 6 o’clock we had to go out on a night problem. We left at eight o’clock with a 35 lb field pack on our back and our rifle, which weighs 10 lbs. We didn’t get back until 12:30 and had to get up again at five o’clock. Boy am I tired. We go on another problem tomorrow night. So I’ll write you the day after.

The problem last night wasn’t so bad. We marched five miles and pitched our tents and then tore them down and came back. I don’t know what it will be tomorrow night. We found out one ting in the Army. If you are not a man and can’t take it you better say out and I’m not kidding. On top of being so tired from not getting any sleep, we had to get another shot. I only have twenty-two more to go.

I got your letter and Charlotte’s letter. Tell her thanks for writing and I’ll write her and Pearl again as I get time. Tell Ray and Dorothy to write. I got plenty of money now, I got your money and also got paid.

Well Mom I better get going now I only had three hours sleep last night and I have to shave, take a shower and get some sleep. I’ll write you again today after tomorrow. Tell Dad I’m going in to town Sunday and buy him a present. Give everybody my love and tell them to write.

Love Harold

p.s. I think of you all the time and surely enjoyed the pictures Charlotte sent. The yard looks beautiful.

Letters from Harold C. Banks, deceased, U.S. Army, World War II Submitted by his widow, Janice Banks, Mason, OH To his Mother