The WWII Memorial has become a place where people can channel their love and grief. Doing the “Jewel of the Mall” book has brought me some beautiful letters… and I thought I would share this one with you and remind you that you should make sure the veterans in your town are registered with the Memorial. If you don’t fly them in like Honor Flight/Air, acknowledge their contribution by registering them. It’s relatively simple but the mere act will require you to get in touch and bring together a couple of generations.

Lynn Mavrakis of Washington State wrote recently:

Thanks so much for your prompt reply, And that photo took my breath away!

I’m including a suggested message for three of the books (a surprise for the recipients) and would love to have you autograph the one I’ll keep for myself–just your name, as I’m not a vet.  Please feel free to alter the messages as you might wish.



One of the books will go to LTC Charles T. Borg, USA (Ret.) in Anchorage.  I need to tell you a little about him.  He’s my older brother and served two tours in Viet Nam. He’s going on 71 and he and his wife are avid skiers, doing the triple black diamond slopes almost exclusively.  They do 20 mile day hikes, climbed Denali years ago. .. . .. You get the pictures.



He has a passion for the WWII vets, understanding as only a fellow veteran can what they went through and what they sacrificed.  He has said many times, “These guys must not be forgotten.”  My husband, who died last March, was a WWII vet, a staff sergeant (I’m several years younger than he was) and we attended the Memorial dedication in May 04.  What an absolute thrill.  I was moved to tears the entire time we were there.  I learned about registering the vets and told my brother about it, and the rest is history.


We grew up in the country in eastern WA.  Our little  home town and surrounding area had about 100 young men, all of whom went off to WWII.  My brother says that as a young boy, he remembers there were no young men around.  When he learned how vets could be registered, he took it upon himself to get our home-town vets registered.  To date, he has done 87.

These aren’t just name, rank, and home town.  He gets in touch with a family member or someone who could supply the information and copies of official records as well as a photo of the person in uniform, if available or a high school graduation photo if not, and then he researches and types up their war records.  He then sends the information to me and I enter it on the Memorial website.


He is always thanking me for the work I’m doing, but honestly, Steve, it’s he who is doing all the work.  He puts in hours researaching  just one vet.  I just keyboard.



Most of the vets’ family members have gotten interested and involved in the project, and I daresay a whole by-gone era has come to life again for those who served or are old enough to remember the war.  For those younger, a chapter of history has opened up.



My brother attended a multi-class reunion at our little high school about three years ago (I wasn’t able to attend because of my husband’s health), and for the event, he commissioned a large plaque with a mounted name plate, organized by service branch, for each of our home-town vets.  It’s a beautiful thing with 100+ names on it. He donated it to the high school during a special ceremony at  which he talked about what the American involvement was and meant.



As a side note, a neighbor of our mother’s while she was growing up in another little town about 40 miles from the town above was one of the original Band of Brothers.  He was KIA in Holland.  My brother established a memorial scholarship from that little school in this neighbor’s name, and we contribute annually to it.  It goes to an outstanding graduate.



Well, my stories are starting to roll off my fingers, so I need to stop.



Your book will be a potent testimony to my brother’s work, and he will treasure it as will the two WWII vets who will also receive it.  One of them, Dee Eberhart, was in on the liberation of Dachau, fought in the battles of Hatten and Haguenau, and all of those particularly horrid ones.  He’s a retired college prof. who has written two books of war poetry that give me chills (I’m retired English teacher).



The other vet, who lives here and whose book will come to me along with my copy, was in the Navy and at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.  He went on to become a Hellcat pilot.  He will travel to D.C. in May along with about 100 other WY WWII vets on Honor Flight-Wyoming, if his health permits.



Enough again!



Thank you, Steve.  I am so eager to receive my copy of what I know is a beautiful work of art and to gift the other three.