I WANT TO SAVE YOUR The Institute on
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From a Daughter of WWII Vet August 24, 1998 Dear Dr. Oldson, I can't begin to tell you what it meant to me to see the piece about the Institute on WWII and the Human Experience. Before the segment was over I was in tears and I've been crying intermittently ever since. It's as though a Pandora's box of long-hidden, much-denied feelings has been opened. I suddenly had insight into so many of the questions I've been living with - that my family has been living with - and little by little I hope we'll learn to deal with them. I suspect that will be true of many of the families who participate in the development of the Institute. It could well provide a great source of release and healing for many people. I am not a WWII vet, I'm the daughter of one. My dad was an Army Air Corps B-17 pilot who was shoot down on a routine bombing mission "a milk-run" and spent the final 17 months of WWII in a German POW camp. Though he rarely mentioned and would never actually discuss his war-time experiences, especially his POW experiences, I can not remember a time in my life when my feelings - my imaginings - of my parents hardships and heart breaks didn't effect my life. Perhaps one of the best things the Institute will do is to give us the "baby boomers" a place to put those burdens down. Perhaps, for the first time, someone will recognize that we, too, carry burdens from that war. We lost my father in August of 1992. I was living and working in Kuwait at the time (post-war reconstruction) and came home on a short emergency leave. So the major sorting out of most of his old documents and records has had to wait until very recently. But I believe we have a wealth of material to donate to the Institute and I believe my mother will be happy to do that. Among the things I know we have is the small wooden box my dad was given when his camp was liberated to bring home his meager belongings. Among those belongings is the registration card the Germans used to record his presence and a number of often heavily censored letters. Somewhere in the family I believe we also have the telegrams my mother received informing her, first, that he had been shot down and was missing, then, some weeks later, the news that he was a POW. My mother's parents ended up running something of a boarding house during the war for women whose husbands were overseas. My mother was there, then her brother's wife, then her brother's wife's sister, then friends. My poor grandfather dealt, very patiently by all accounts with sharing one bathroom with 6 to 8 women! Their communal household received 6 or more telegrams over a 3-4 year year span; blessedly none were to inform of a death. My mother has very vivid memories of the day her first telegram arrived and, in the past few years, she's gotten very good about sharing them. She would probably be a good candidate for an oral history. I am currently a civil service employee and an Air Force Reservist at Homestead Air Reserve Station (formerly Air Force Base) in Homestead, Florida. My mother lives in Venice, Florida. I plan to talk with my mother and with other family members in the coming week regarding the donation of my father's artifacts. (It's taken me a few days to deal with my own feelings first). I will also share your web site and e-mail address with members of my extended family who, I believe, also have items worthy of preservation. Several of the women who shared my grandparents' house during the war are still living. Sadly, most of their husbands are not. What I'd really love to do is get the women together to share their stories. What a history that would be, for us, their children and grandchildren, as well as for the Institute. . . . God bless you for the wonderful work you've undertaken and God bless the Today Show for airing this important story! Sincerely, Barbara M. Vaughn
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