Letters from the Front: 1898-1945 is a collection of letters home from the Spanish American War to World War II.  They were written to Wisconsin but they could have been sent to anywhere USA.  They bring us the observations, worries, hopes and dreams of those who kept America free.  Some you may have heard of, like Billy Mitchell and Richard Bong, but most are men who, if they were lucky, went back to Wisconsin to live ordinary American lives. In their words we are introduced to the sights they saw, the hardships they endured, the battles they fought, their politics and their hopes for the future. 

Tourism existed in 1899 for Martin Stuhr who “reached the Hawaiian Island and a Paradise it seemed…we made a tour of the Island and Visited an extinct Volcano known as Diamond Head”.  

Amidst the carnage of 1918 Lee F. Pickett could appreciate nature “My dear mother:…Many song birds, chiefly sky larks, make the mornings beautiful with their songs.  Even on the front line while the whistling shells and bursting high explosives make everything hideous, these little birds keep on with their cheerful little songs.  Sometimes I wonder why it is that animals calling themselves civilized human beings dare to call themselves such and carry on such a war, while the little birds whom we class among the lower type of animals can spread so much cheer and gladness about on this earth.” 

In 1944 “J” wrote of practicing “darts” in an English pub.  Surprising numbers of letters were addressed to teachers, such as Miss Trowbridge who heard from Stewart C. Yeo from New Guinea: “wet clothes; no shelter; excessive rain and mud; dirty clothes; cold rations.  Several nights my jungle hammock only served to collect rain so by morning I’d be sleeping in a couple inches of water.  When morning came I merely took my clothes off; squeezed the excess water pit and put them on for another day.  If I had been able to remove my shoes there was usually a quart of water in each of my small boots to be poured out…we had a picnic as compared to the infantry-they really got the dirty work.” 

The letter writers preserved their views of their views of public figures and events of the day.  In a 1918 letter Lyle Phillips wrote: “Here no one care much about politics though.  Roosevelt and Tafts answer to President Wilson caused a unanimous laugh at our mess the other night, but that was all.  Wilson surely is popular here with everybody.”    According to Bene Smith a 1944 visit by Eleanor Roosevelt to a hospital in San Diego fell flat: “they haven’t forgotten her crack she made about Marines after she toured the South Pacific last year she said that Marines who’ve seen S.P. duty and fighting shouldn’t be allowed to come back her as they weren’t socially or morally fit to associate with American Citizens & should be left on island.”  The death of President Roosevelt left Thurm  only able to say “its better to have Truman enstead (sic) of Wallace” while Miss Trowbridge heard that President Truman “failed to impress me as being the eloquent statesman and leader”. 

I was surprised to learn that POWs were able to send letters and request items.  Writing from Stalag Luft I in 1945, Paul asked “My dearest” “if you send a food parcel to include plenty of chocolate and all things as condensed as possible-such as-Bisquick-Buckwheat-Pancake flour-jams-nut-fruit cake e.t.c. perhaps some dried fruits.” 

All wars end and the warriors ponder their future.  In 1945 Don Gocker worried “employers will holler no education” and when he gets out of college ask “How much experience have you had?”  Apparently things worked out better for Don than he feared. 

These letters are gems, snippets of the threads that linked troops and home.  We are fortunate that Michael E. Stevens so skillfully selected and arranged these treasures and supplemented them with photos.  The Wisconsin Historical Society Press has made a great contribution to preserving our heritage in this book and “This Wicked Rebellion” by John Zimm and Michael Edmonds, which I also read and reviewed.  Pick up “Letters from the Front”.  Read it, savor it and tuck it away where, like the letters of which it is composed, you can enjoy it again and again. 

I did receive a free copy of this book to read and review.