Frank's "Ebner's" Mom just before he was drafted, Jan. 1943 For Mother's Day, I'm publishing both a letter my uncle wrote in May, 1943, and my grandmother's response, written about a week later. In his letter, Frank reveals [...]
A World War II soldier son coming home for a visit was cause for a celebration. This iconic photo of the breakfast spread my grandmother made for her youngest son, who was stationed at Truax Field in Wisconsin, must have been taken shortly after Frank wrote this postcard during his World War II training, telling his folks he was coming home and bringing a friend.
"The Beam," a kind of "Facebook"/"Yearbook? for the trainees stationed at Truax Field in Madison, WI Truax Field, Madison, Wisconsin, was a training ground for radio operators and mechanics in World War II's Army Air Corps. The Beam, a [...]
My grandmother's letters to her son were written in a foreign language—English. Lisi Gartz's schooling back in Austro-Hungary, before it became Romania after World War I, only went as far as the fourth grade, so even in her native tongue, spelling and grammar had never been mastered.