More memories waiting to be found

In October 2012 I published a short book titled "Postcard Memories From World War II: Finding Lost Keepsakes 70 Years Later."  It told the story of how I found postcards written by soldiers during the war, tracked down the soldiers or their family, and returned the cards to them.  The real story was the soldiers themselves -- their service to our country and the lives they led after the war as members of Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation."  The book included about 20 stories.  A synopsis of the book is here https://www.createspace.com/4003496


When I published the book I thought I was finished with the postcard hobby, but it's sort of like eating peanuts -- once you get started it's hard to stop.  Over the winter of 2012-13 I resumed searching for WWII postcards, mostly on e-Bay but also in antique stores, and returning them to the families.  Having honed my search skills, I was able to greatly improve my success rate.  By April 2013 I had returned nearly 20 more cards.

I plan to use this blog to share some of the stories from the book, and to add new stories as I find them. The men (and a few women) who wrote these postcards were mostly in their late teens or early twenties.  The war snatched them from their hometowns and sent them to faraway places.  Some of them never made it back home, others came back to lead long and happy lives.  They are all heroes.