We’re keeping the Christmas spirit alive, by sharing incredible letters written by service members deployed long ago.
The letters come to us from Andrew Carroll, the Founder of The Center for American War Letters, who has archived and preserved over 200,000 letters – with some dating back to the Revolutionary War.
We discussed several pieces from the collection, including; a letter from an Army nurse, expressing her condolences to the family of a soldier she cared for at the end of the war, and who didn’t pass from combat injuries, but rather from influenza. Like the era we experienced during the global pandemic in 2020, the letter shows an empathy and compassion we wish we could see more often today.
Carroll also shares letters from the Pacific during World War II, a snow-covered Germany during WWII, and a Christmas-themed letter that offers an inspiring look at post-WWII Europe.
Together, these letters portray how previous generations beautifully captured the human spirit in a writing style that sounds like classic Hemingway.