[inaudible discussion] good evening, everyone. Thank you so much. Rainy day books and the National World war i Museum Museum and memorial are pleased to welcome Andrew Carroll, Andrew Carroll this editor of several New York Times best sellers including war letters, letters of na pigs and bind he lines am drown also edit an pro bono basis, homecoming which inspired the film of the same name. In 1998, andrew founded the legacy project, an allvolunteer initiative that honors veterans and active duty troop biz preserving their wartime correspondence, he has traveled to all 50 states and more than 40 country, including iraq and afghanistan and has collected today an estimated 100,000 previously unpublished letters and emails. Andrew donated the massive Collection Free of charge to chatman university which. The legacy project has been renamed the center for american war letters, and is now part of chapman university. Andrew serves as the centers director. Andrew is currently embarking on the Million Letters Campaign to seek out and preserve at least one million warrelated correspondences from every conflict in the u. S. History. Andrew will talk about the Million Letters Campaign tonight as well as this new book my fellow soldiers general ongoing pershing and the americans who helped win the great war. Andrew is featured the new Television Film on world war i, the great war, broadcast throughout the countries this spring and summer on pbs. Ladies and gentlemen, Andrew Carroll. [applause] thank you so much. Good evening. Thank you all so much for coming out on this beautiful night. I really appreciate it. Im so grateful to vivian and rainy day books, one of the great independent book stores and to laura for her participation in setting this up. Ive come to this museum, the National World war i museum as a sight seer and visitor, as a researcher and i always love coming bag here and now its a real honor to come here in this role. Ill give you some behind he scenes asks about my book and creation of the book and to forth. Do want to talk about the overall war Letters Campaign because its so integral to the creation of the book and i want to show you some extremely rare and i think in some cases breathtaking original war alerts from our archives at chapman university. I also love the discussion part of these events so please do feel free to ask questions and if theres anyone who wants to talk afterwards more personally, if you have letters or emails youre considering sharing, id love to discuss that with you. As vivian noted, in the introduction, i had the opportunity to travel the United States and to go to countries around the world in search of wartime correspondences, and one of the most surreal and also meaningful conversation is ever had was in baghdad, and i was actually just about to leave and waiting for a military escort to take me to the airport and i saw these four young iraqi men standing about 15 feet from me. They were in their 20s. Knew they spoke englishing because i could overhear their conversations and i really wanted to talk to them ahead. Gone iraq spend my time with the u. S. Military, which as incredible experience, but i wanted to talk to actual iraqi busy the war and their culture and history and to south. If was hesitant to just walk up to this group of iraqis, and i finally decided ill never have this opportunity again so i tentatively went over, introduced myself and said i was a writer traveling the world and looking for war letters and i was curious if if could talk with them. They looked at me, and then each other, and total silence. And one of the young men, whose name i later found out was amare, looked like he was about to Say Something and the end kind of held back. I said, feel free to ask me anything. He looks martinez me and breaks out in a big smile and says who are your favorite british authors . Theres a war going on around us, and this is the question that he wanted to know. So i thought, well, youre a writer. This is a slamdunk. So i stood there for a moment and taterred thinking, and not one name came to mind. And little beads of sweat started forming on my forehead because i felt like i was representing the entire American Educational system and i got to the point where i was like, forget favorite british author, just name any british author ands wail to sow thunder struck eye the question i could not think of asen ill name so the rakees started throwing out suggestions, dickens, longfellow. After a painfully long period of silence i finally came up with the name all by myself which was shakespeare, and as awkward as the moment was, it kind of helped break the ice and we had this really facinating conversation about our two nations and what had been going on. And amare said my escort arrived and i had to go but one last question. Why do you focus on letters . I was halfway around the world at this point and nobody had asked me that question. I think we all sort of took for granted they had sentimental value but i had never really been asked what is its these correspondences . And amare told me his brother had served in what was called the first gulf war, and he wrote home, and he hated hussein, hatedded the army but couldnt say that in this letters. Asked him if they saved the correspondents and he said no, burned them all. That stayed we me that question before whats it about correspondent one of the irony of the project was i have no military connection, never served, nobody in any family served and to be perfectly blunt i didnt like history growing up. To me i it was just this tedious enemy racing of dates and names and places and then something extraordinary happened. Our house in washington, dc burned to the ground, nobody was hurt, which is the most important thing, but everything we had went up in smoke. And back then when you lost your letters and your photographs they were again forever. And soon after the fire, we got a call from a distant cousin who had served in the military, world war ii veteran, james jordan who whom the book is dedicated along with another extraordinary veteran, and he just wanted to check in to see how we were doing. I said, all of ore memorabilia, irreplaceable family items are gone. And he said, just makes me think, i was going through my order world war ii box and i came across a letter i wrote to my wife issue was a young he was 23 years old at the time, p31 pilot and he ended up sending me a copy and this is the original. Three pages long, type. I says, april 21, 1945. I saw something today that makes me realize why were over here fighting his war. And he goes into graphic detail about walking through the nazi concentration camp at buchenwald, and i wont read it because its very graphic, and ill never forget just holding this thin onion skin paper correspondence in my hands and thinking how fragile it was and yet how significant the weight of the words and what he was writing about, and i called him and i said, jim, this is unbelievable, and i will of course return it to you. And he said, you know what . Just keep it. I was probably going to throw it out anyway. Soon after that experience, i was talking with a young woman who has become a dear friend, and i was telling her the story and she said my grandfather just read a letter at his 50th 50th wedding anniversary that he had written during world war 2 as well and he became part of the lost battalion and wrote a letter before they were surrounded by germans and this is not the lost battalion from world war ii and they saved by the 442 until japanese regimental combat team, a story i knew nothing about. This is hough it began. Just word of mouth, talking with vas and families. So i reached out to dear abbie because she continues to write about vas and military some support of the military community, and i said i want to encourage americans to go through the attics, basements, closets to tee set why have and preserve them because a lot of them are throwing these away. And i represented a post office box and wrote her a letter, can you wrote a column and she said, sweety, lets do this. On veterans day in 1998, this column happened in newspapers us around the country and floodgates opened. Thousands and thousands of letters were coming in and i didnt know this until i got a call from the post office, which is always a little weird when the post office calls you. They said get down here now and pick up your mail. This is just four days later if i jumped end on my bike and was there in 30 seconds and the guy kentucky expelled said you might want to bring a car or van. The were bin busy and bins of letters from all over the country and these are people who put something in the mail the first day, the tip of the iceberg, and i was sitting in hi car going through letters, it was like christmas, and what first struck me were the cover letters. I wasnt expecting that. These were the messages from the veteran order their families saying why they sent the letters. One woman wrote the original letters from vietnam her brother written and she said, my brother is gone, is missing, and then she put therron poetically but not a pow. He came back from the war but he was so traumatized by what he had seen and experienced that one day he just walked out the front door of the house and we have not been able to fine himself since and ended it with a sentence, i just want someone to remember who he was. And what was also important about the cover letters they gave context of the letters that werent immediately apparent, and this is not the only, too fragile to travel with, its a fax. It begins dear mom and dad. Here i am from the philippines, november 1944. And then the whole middle part of the letter is gone. At the bottom it says, i hope so, too. Love bill, ps, they might censor this letter. Now, i had seen letters where theres the name of a ship cut out, an aleaned. This is like he gave away the whole Pacific Campaign and from this brother earnie issue learned that bill would take a piece of paper, wright the first line at the top did this time and time gem write the last line and cut out the middle, blame the censors beau he hated writing letters home and this was just easier. Now, for the Service Members who actually decided to write something, the history that they were witness to was just extraordinary. This is one of the letters we received also from world war ii dear sis. Its now 9 05 sunday morning. We have b. Bombed for honever an your, the antiaircraft guns areamerring away him says i can hear men screaming over the intercom, people rushing for gas masks. In the upper righthand corner, december 7, 1941, uss new orleans, pearl harbor. He is right there in the eye of the storm describing what its like, and because he was trapped in the forward engine room, he wrote this 50page letter which he could not send originally and he hang on to it and thank any surveyed. We get letters and im eadess and people had similar experiences and and you see these echos. One of the most powerful letter wes received, 14 paint, hand written, by a young woman, anna miller who was also witness to one of the most horrific daves in American History and she is not writing this way the young fellow did world war ii. But its soon after it happened. Some she is writing a letter to her parents and she is narrating it almost like a short story and begins in a business meeting not unlike this circumstance with the speaker and 100 people, and they all she is again describing this the in first person. She is we hear this massive boom outside. And everybody stops and we talk amongst ourselves and we realize probably construct at a building next door because we notice it scaffolding and she said were sitting there and then suddenly we start hearing sirens and theyre getting louder and louder and we hear people screaming, and finally someone in the audience stands up and says to the speaker, im sorry to interrupt you but can we look outside . They walk over at the large bay windows with curtain on the and the moment the pull them back and see the second plane hitting the world trade center. Theyre in the mariott right next deer and she describes about rushing towards the exit, told to evacuate the build to go mariott Security Guard is blocking the way, just ash , like he has seen a ghost and she says, we have to get out. He says you cant go out there. You cannot see what is out there. And finally they convince him theyre just being told by the police to get out of the building and he says to them issue want you to run as fast as you can. And do not look at what is in the streets, which was of course impossible for them not to do and anna again goes into detail. And how she was caught up in the smoke and debris when the building saw and almost died, and theres one little comment, id like to just add, that it know this is hard to see but where obviously meticulous about the letters we received at chapman to make sure theyre kept in pristine condition and i notice these two little stains on them, little blurs and i thought, my goodness, i hope we didnt do anything to this, and i called anna and i said, i just have to be up front, i noticed these two kind of water stains. Were those there before in she said, yeah. Those are my tears because i was crying when i wrote this. People assume going back to the first and Second World War that because the censorship the alerts cant say anything, they got around censorship but theres an unsuspecting message in some letters. A letter written in april 29, 1945, camp lejeune, he was already away. And he just begins, my beloved, another sunday and we are still apart. Just wonder how much moore days like this. Mainly im worried about you and aunt ruth. Then we got the code sheet. When i start a letter, my beloved, as he does here, look for code names of aunt or uncle. There were no aunts or unclees on this side are all the fictitious names. Aunt ruth, saipan. Pearl, ewoe, bud, philippines and goes down the list. The letter was saying much more than it led on to censors. What was also to extraordinary about the letters is that the paper itself revealed the life and death circumstances under which the troops were living. Letters from desert storm and iraqi freedom coated in sand. Letters from civil war with mud and blood. Letters from korea that was written during a snow storm. And the most dynamic letter we have that shows this is also from world war ii and this is bay soldier who is writing to a friend, fellow soldier backer close call he had where a shell dropped right next to him and didnt explode. So he is till telling his friend about the close call, put thursday letter in his rucksack, out there though the back and this the bullet hole, right through the letter. He did survive. One thing i also about letters in many ways letter writing is the mose most egalitarian you dont need a stage or anything else, just a pencil and paper. And one of the most powerful letters ive come across was by a slave named spots rice who escaped prepare to freedom, joined the union army and found out that his regiment, by sheer coincidence, was bearing down on the plantation where he had been held as a slave and where his daughter was still held in bondage, september 3, 1864 he wrote a letter to his formermaster. I received a letter from caroline tell michigan you say i tried to steal my child from you. Want you to understand that mary is my child, and she is a god given right to my own. We are now make up about a thousand black troops, and when we come woe be to slave holding rebels for we dont expect to leave them root nor branch. Offered once to pay dour 40 for the own child but im glad now you did not accept so it you just hold on now as long as you can and enwhen i come after mother i will have a power and authority to bring her away and to execute vengeance on those who hold my child. You will then know how to speak to me. Spotswood rice. Not all of the correspondences we getting solemn or serious. We do have theres a lot of levity. One is bay Army Sergeant named sharon allen and she was serving in iraq and wrote home an email about it was kind of a camp fire sing along with a group after kurdish soldier whose had slightly misinterpreted a fame beatle song we think has to do with finding peace and sir rein any and she thought was agent green vegetable. This is sharon writing home to her family. July 2004. We the kurds love us. A guy brought a guitar around and played music for. The. Styes they try to join. In you havent lived until you seen a butch of kurdish soldiers complete with ak47s, sitting around and singing with gusto as they manage eled the beatles, let it be. When i find myself in times of trouble, mother mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, little pea, little pea. They really got into it. Little pea, little pea, little pea, little pea, whisper words of wisdom, little pea. That was a good day. Not all letter we have are combat situated or written in a war zone and one of most powerful letters is from korea by a young kid, i think 19 years old, and maybe even younger, and he was finally realizing he was on his way back home. And he wrote this to his family. This is just a small excerpt. Dear everybody. Im coming home. Its official as of this morning. Sometime with crash on your door, few weeks but im coming home. Im looking forward to seeing you again, but im in no hurry to see your expressions when you see me. Im spent 12 months here, the longest 30 years of my life. Time is would have traded my soul for a drink of cold water or a cup of hot coffee but im coming home now. Its almost funny, we see a guy in a wheelchair, guy in crutch, one arm, hooks hooks and be brer backs trying to help them. What about the wounds you cant see . The phantoms their nightmares, the ghosts in your head . Im going to tell you now, youll neat a lot of patience with me, patience and understanding. We all will. See you soon, see you soon, see you soon. And then we see as well how war affects those who served and those on the homefront, and again, one thief most i think poignant correspondences we came across is by a woman myrna whose son was in battle in iraq and lost his leg. A very athletic young man and it was a grave injury and so she lived near Walter Reed Hospital when it was open and would see him, and she sent this really kind of an email journal to other members of the family. I brought charles clothes home from walter reed. Everything had gone through the wash and dry cycles and i dumpled fresh he laundered clothes on to bed to fold. The it was late and i was quite weary, so i wanted to finish and get toed two try for a better nights sleep than before. I found one sock. Just one. I folded all the rest thief clothes and still just the one sock. Without even thinking i walked back to laundry room and served the drier for the meat, nothing was there i looked between the washer and dryer and all around the floor the case i dropped the other socks during the loading and unloading process. Still, my tired and preoccupied mind didnt get it. Is a walked back to the bedroom with the one sock in hand, it mitt me like a bunch to the gut. There was no other sock. There was also no other foot, lower leg or knee. Did there any bedroom and clutched the one clean sock to my breast and an involuntary moan came from my throat but originated in my heart. This was an email and i cant emphasize enough when wow talk about the project, i say letters i do include emails. There is something rather dynamic and important about a hand written letter, and when i was in iraq, i saw a young soldier who was standing in front of a video camera and i asked him, i dont mean to interrupt you. This is not the only, just a facsimile. I asked him what he cass doing, said aileye burning a dvd letter to my movement dvd just like this, and this dvd will probably by on lead went i within 10 to 15 years, just like videotapes. This letter which im not going to drop, is from the american revolution. This is the oldest letter we have and one over the oldest war letters in existence, and it is as pristine as the day it was written back in 1775. Moving on to general pershing and world war i, like many americans, survey after survey has shown, i was actually not particularly interested in this conflict. Even every started the war letters project. After we moved out of the house at burned down we moved into another part of washington, dc called spring valley. Over by american university. And as it turned out, au had been working toward world war i 0 create the most lethal gas constructed by man, and when the war was over they just dumped all omunitions in the ground and didnt put up any signs. A very rural area back. He had been worked on their and his beautiful wife, three daughters and a young boy. And he wanted them to stay there because they would be safe. He was in mexico because they were bandits across the borders causing trouble and that is why he was down there by himself. On the morning of august 27, a phone call came in to the headquarters at fort bliss. Reporter somewhat said, i need to get a quote general about the fire at the presidio. And pershing picked up his own phone. Usually his age was. And he said, what fire . And reporter simply because of who he was talking to. And he said sir, have you not heard the news . And pershing said i have no idea what youre talking about. The reporter said, im so sorry to tell you this, but your wife and your three little girls all gone. They all died in a house fire. And only warren was pulled out alive unconscious. And suddenly, pershing became human to me. And some i wanted to learn more about. And knowing from that day on as he went off to the war and as he trained in both the army and he led them to victory with the ally, that he is caring this enormous grief with him. I was looking for correspondences he wrote and i came across because i think those who have these correspondences by pershing do not realize how significant he was. It is like eisenhower or mccarthy. In fact he augments all of them. He is the only general in American History to be given essentially a six star in his lifetime. And he was just a fascinating character. In his letter dated december 1915. This is three months after the fire. He is writing to his wifes best friend. And they both still grieving. And this was a revelation because in the letter says warren, sexual son, does not know the loss includes mama and helen and the sisters in his prayers every night. I just cannot tell them. He thinks that they are in cheyenne. With his grandparents. That was so stunning to me. Just this little part of personal history. And he suddenly became not the rigid cold, almost a statue more than a man. A real human being who showed empathy for others in their times of crisis. And he was present was about. He deftly wanted to go wilson was in no mood to give it was about what he wanted. Wasnt declined was about called him a pacifist and called him yellow. Wilson rejected the appeal but teddy did send over four boys. And the youngest, was, wanted to become a pilot. And they have these letters about the experiences and on july 14, 1918, quentin was shot down and killed. And pershing was one of the first to reach out. He said i realize time alone can heal the wound. Yet i know such a time now that the stumbling was of understanding from ones friends help. I want to express to you and to his mother my deepest sympathy. Perhaps i can come to realizing what such a loss means. As anyone. And he responded, i am immensely touched by your letter. My dear fellow have suffered far more bitter sorrow often has befallen me. Youve worked with splendid courage i should be ashamed of myself by not trying a lesser way to emulate that courage. Because it was about status he received letters and telegrams from around the country from other heads of state and kings and so forth. But there was one letter and you want to include this because i think this really touched him. It was from a woman. Apparently, teddy would mostly just send back a quick one sentence, thank you for your message and so forth. But he really responded to this woman. I will put a few sentences from a much longer, almost a fourpage letter. He says, the loss is particularly hard on mrs. Roosevelt. Quentin was her baby. The last child left in the home nest. On the night before he sailed, one year ago, she did as she is always done. Went upstairs to talk him into bed. The huge, laughing, gentle hearted boy. It was always thoughtful and considerate of those with whom he came into contact. It is hard to open the letters coming from the ones you loved are dead. And this is common they were killed and because of the time difference they would keep getting letters after they died. So this was written whenever his wedge and an average man was killed every day. It is with real joy in the great adventure. He is engaged with a beautiful girl. Fine and high character. Is heartbreaking for her and his mother. But they said they would rather have him never come back to never have gone. He had his crowded hour. He died in the glory of the dawn. Despite all of Theodore Roosevelt bravado about war, and him almost harder than mrs. Rizzo. He died almost broken heart just months later. Before he passed away, he can be seen down at the stables at the oyster bay home. With the horses that quentin used to ride as a boy. He would sit there just looking out and saying to himself, the childhood nickname he had given his son. ahe left his body where he was buried but they retrieved the mangled axle of his airplane which is still on display in oyster bay. Not all the people i focus on and my fellow soldiers are president s or famous generals. I think among the most compelling are the characters that never had the names in history books. And i want to introduce you to a nurse named alta may entries. Its she wrote letters and journals starting with her training. Going over on the atlantic and then into combat. And like the man in the early matter, she really wanted to see action. She was just gung ho to get to the front and participate. And, like the man who wrote, one she saw firsthand. Her enthusiasm was tempered. There was one part of the hospital, was the wind it started coming in, that affected her more than any other. And it held a group of patients that were so terribly wounded that even the doctors and the nurses could only spend a few days at a time before they had to be replaced. This is what andrews wrote about it in her journal and her letters. In a low roughly furnished ward on the fourth floor of the hospital, where the low gabled windows emit the light which bring in the rough unfinished walls. One finds the john ward good is it that the conception of the horrors of socalled warfare are painfully evident. There are victims of the war strong young men permanently disfigured. Deadly shrapnel has done his dastardly work in the most of cases. While in others, bullets have exploded in their mouths. This becomes very disturbing and i will not read them in the more detailed parts. She goes on to say these unfortunate lines are called upon to bear more than their share of suffering. It is also harmful and cruel. And it is actually quite how they were dealing with it was quite positive. She wrote an atmosphere of however, bravery and splendid courage is prevalent among them all. Most of the patients are up and visit around the and all of them with nourishing liquid food such as raw egg, meat juices and then syrias good must offend three small tubes inserted through their nostrils directly into the throat through which the gaping wounds and through the gaping wounds on the side of their faces. They help feeding one another taking turns. Often jokingly while about the enormous capacity someone may possess. If speech is almost incoherent and is difficult for us to understand them. This truly must be the most pitiful part of war. Here they are, so happy and carefree now. So bravely enduring. Untold physical suffering was exhibiting an altruistic concern. How different it will be when they are separated and returned to civilian life. Andrews ends the journals and letters with a visit from woodrow wilson. The president has come over to negotiate. He came to the hospital. This is an interesting story because he visited all of the wards. And he said its what makes tracing everyone and he said had i seen everyone . They said pretty much. And he said have i seen everyone . And i said sir we have a ward if not gone to. Even the nurses and doctors have found it so disturbing they cannot stay there long. And he said take me there. She appropriately, exhibiting splendid courage, they went through the entire ward shaking the hand of every man so terribly disfigured by they self to the poor boys and swings can incoherent replies which were given with such great difficulty. Wilson had already met with hundreds of man that has lost limbs and suffered ghastly wounds. But nothing had shaken him like this. Upon leaving the chamber of horrors, the president was as white as death and his hands trembled. He appeared to stagger. A look of suffering on his face. He seemed completely crushed. These letters and journals by andrews, were found here at the National Museum and memorial thanks to a wonderful archivist that helped meet named stacy peterson. And to our knowledge it had never been published before. When we think of memorials, we often envision these massive structures of steel and stone. Like a credible Liberty Tower outside. But in many ways i think that these letters and even emails, as fragile and delicate as some of them are, are among the most powerful and enduring forms of remembrance that we have. That why letters . The effect of the street from the scholarly standpoint as answering a question. They put us in the eye of the storm. And these troops and families are more than stenographers. This mechanically recording what they have seen. What they created is real work of art. And like all masterpieces they transcend the subject. These are not just about war. It is about love and loss. Grief and courage. Heartbreak and resilience in many ways. War is never about theories and abstract idea. It is about people. And the men and women who serve and to continue to serve are not just sailors, soldiers, marines and airmen. Some of his child and perhaps somebodys parent, spouse, sibling or best friend. These are there words. Their voices, their experiences, their stories. And no one i believe, can tell them better than they can. Thank you all very much. [applause] yes, i would love it for you all to ask me questions about the project about the book, about world war i. Please feel free to ask and just make sure that we get a microphone to you so everyone can hear you. Is it takes me a little time to walk over to not hesitate to put your fingers up a little early for he finishes. Good evening, thank you for electra it was outstanding. I have two questions. First question is very much general pershing orientated. The second question will be more, your reflections about your project. First question, why did general pershing decide not to allow the two marine brigades in france to form a division and fight independently . He had general butler that was a noted marine corps hero that he relegated to basically desk duty. Second question, having spent a day or two in the military myself, i noticed that the type of person becomes a soldier or a marine transcends time. But i would like to know base of your research and your project, how we differ from generation to generation, if that is possible. Excellent question. Regarding general pershing and not allowing the two divisions to join. Pershing was a man of thought. There is no question. I do not gloss over that. One of the issues that came up of, he really did not want the american troops separated. This is one of the huge debates that he had with the french and the british. I go into detail about behind the scenes of the classes he had. He literally almost punched a french general in the face when he kept persisting saying just get us to the french line and pershing says i will not allow my boys to become slaughtered. As they were untrained with officers who spoke a different language. Different training procedure, different rifles, everything. It would have caused untold chaos and casualties if it had been done. However, he makes an exception for the africanamerican troops. Who he essentially gives off to the french is almost dispensable. I go into the race issue in the book about pershing and so forth. When it comes the marines is a little trickier because pershing had so many reasons for why he made different decisions. One thing i am sympathetic to him is, is bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders because he had come in there and secretary of war, baker, and the president delegated the entire ward to pershing. It is kind of not known how much responsibility he took. He had said to them, no, i want to amalgamate the trip he would say that is your view, do it. But he held strong on this. Keeping the americans as solidified as possible. And the marines are very well represented in the book. Some decisions i think were not known to others because he had his own reasoning of why he wanted to do something in a certain way. Perhaps it was that he felt these divisions were treated differently than others we want to be treated the same. To be honest, just do not know. In looking at the responsibility that he had come if we lost the war he would be blamed. It is the french and british troops that we told you, gettis your troops in. We could have done this and we lost. If that happened everyones reputation would have been destroyed. I cannot imagine the tension that he was under. And so, in hindsight we can secondguess, we can guess what he made certain decisions. But in this case i think he felt very strongly about keeping everything together as an american army. I even talk about how he tried to run both the first army in the american army. The first army was the major part of this but they were distinct. Finally, he just admitted he was overwhelmed. To be delegated to another general to take over the daytoday operations of the first army. And the second question, is there timelessness about marine soldiers over the generations . I have to say what has struck me in reading letters from the revolution of iraq is how universal they are. Whether youre in lexington or going in falluja doortodoor as marines were doing in iraq, a combination of the terror, exhilaration, this sense of duty, the sense of fear. All of these things are coming together. They do seem to transcend anyone generation. Now, how they express themselves is a little bit different. There certainly, when you read that war letters people say theyre so flowery and poetic and the sound different. Thats because most of the troops were illiterate. The one book that they all read that was written so beautifully and with such poetry was the bible. And so in many ways they let is really reflected that same formality. There are emails, im glad you brought this up. The feathers a belief that the correspondence that is cant be as good as what they used to be. Absolutely false. Whether as marines, soldiers, it airmen, letters are profound and beautifully expressed just as before. I will send the tonal role has changed. It is much more conversational. That is the big difference. It really starts i would say even in world war i. You see the switch from the civil war to the first world war. In world war ii and vietnam they were not censored so the letters are very different. I do think overall that in iraq and afghanistan, was a generation of writers that is absolutely brilliant. And some of them write their own books and playwrights. I think it shows how intelligent and how artistic a lot of the members of the military are and do not get credit for it. They really have crafted some beautiful works. Thank you. Any other questions . Do you have a question . My dad was in world war ii. I am right now in the midst of reading all of the letters he wrote and that my mother wrote to him. There must be close to 300 from the time he first went into the military training and i have been just amazed. The power of seeing my parents handwriting, let alone reading what he said. But there is so many. Im in the midst of this right now and i just figure there are so many that maybe no one would be interested in. So we are definitely interested. And this is a great opportunity. We talk about this project and if anyone has letters, we really love getting originals. We understand the personal meaning to them. It is kind of a double edged sword. We have families that come just as they would just cannot let go of the originals will give you a photocopy or a scan. That is great. At least we have something as a backup especially if something happens to yours. But theres something about originals are very special for scholars like to see that postmarks and the paper and so forth. What a lot of people have said to us, i think that the next generation of family or maybe the one after that will throw these away. By donating them to the war letters project, air preserved forever. Anyone, if you have letters, if you have someone that may have letters, please go to our website. It is very easy to remember. It is just war letters. Us. And i packed a lot of institutions, i can sense how passionately they thought about this project. The students were so respectful of the material. They use the english literature, the Film Department and Theater Department is also supported the faculty and administration was. My key concern was given a collection notice lock them up and say thank you, we are done. But they said no, we want to grow this question. We want this to be the longest archive of war correspondence in the world. Outside of the library of congress and government institutions. Our hope is that people spread the word. Even if you do not have letters, you might have a cousin that know someone has served in iraq or vietnam or korea. These help get the message out. One thing i will say, i think is a wonderful Family Activity to bring his letters out and go through them. What always strikes me as the younger generations. You know grandpa is the biggest grumpy guy i have ever met. Then they read his love letters when he was 18 or 19 years old in war. And they say where was this guy . He is funny and engaging and you know, he is like a kid it shows them a different side of family members that they think they might already know. There is something about that tangible aspects. Likely my cousins letter from world war ii. The concrete is there is a bond. Let students hold newsletters and say i held a letter from pershing and the originals enable us to do that. Thank you for your questions and comment. Andrew, you and i have known each other now since almost 20 years thats right, 9 11. I know you took the opportunity to go, you know im a vietnam vet and he went back to vietnam. He speak about talking about the war letters from the other side that you discovered in vietnam . Yes. Part of the reason for my trip, i went to about 20 countries around the world to sign letters from our troops. I spoke to troops in combat in iraq and afghanistan. I was never in combat but i was meeting with them in the safety of the base. They had just got back permissions. But like a story i wanted to see what they were writing. Just a quick side story. I went to iraq and talked to a lot of people eventually who had connections with the group that they promised they would look for letters and emails. I got nothing. I came home, had this wonderful assistant from a small town in nebraska. And i said i went to iraq and i did not get any iraqi letters. He said there are a lot of iraq is in nebraska. I can ask them. So he went to the iraqi community, they are immigrants. We got all of his letters and emails about the iraq he perspective. Not the enemy perspective but what it was like to live in iraq under hussein. It was interesting in vietnam because the encouragement of Vietnam Veterans who said you know we would like, we are curious what was the other side writing throughout this . Vietnam was an interesting dilemma. Because it is a communist country. And so, there are crimes are heavily censored. What they would allow us to see was very well picked out. The way that i got from the letters i eventually found, i was lamenting to someone about the trouble of these archives. I think this is a gentleman who worked in a hotel. Like a concierge. He said you know, i had a guy that was looking for stamps. And i sent into an antique shop and he came back complaining that there were not a lot of stamps but all of these letters he had no use for. And i said that is what i am looking for so we went back to this antique shop dealer. The guys that go through it. With my interpreter who skimmed the letters and said this is a great love letter or this is a battle letter. And it was really the stamp collectors that want to bees and they could not care about the letters and what was inside. I think he was more actually what struck me going back to the issue of timelessness, was that we had this beautiful letter by a wife of a south vietnamese officer working with the americans. She was saying how your little boy wont let anyone sit in your seat at the dinner table. He says that is for papa. And he goes around the house saying your name all day long. I had the civil war letter from the american civil war. Almost identical. A mother writing to the husband saying that no little robert wont let anybody sleep in your bed or sit in your chair. And he goes around the house playing pop all day. It just struck me as similar the emotions work. The trip to vietnam was especially powerful. Because i went there with you and other veterans. I think really the highlight for me was, this is the group of american soldiers and scientists discover the world to find the remains of american troops. They will drain an entire lake in vietnam. It will scale mountains, go underwater. They do anything they can. No country in the world does more to retrieve missing Service Members. One of the letters that came out of the trip was from the guy that headed their vietnam mission. He wrote a letter to his wife about going over there with the mother of a young man who was killed in vietnam. And what the experience was like with her. It was one of my favorite correspondence. It is in the book i did called behind the lines. It was with the russian variety and the german and the french and the bricks and all these different countries. Just to give an International Perspective about the wars and the emotions are timeless. Maybe one more question . Yes i will repeat it. A technical question. [inaudible question] they did not have ballpoint. They actually had these trench pens. They were rather ingeniously made so they did not blot up a lot. It is really how personal pens became you know very common. It was not just the quill anymore. They did create a kind of ballpoint pen. It was really because of world war i. We have this revolution in people using a personal pan. To me, was also fascinating was the censorship issue. That this was the first time that there was massive censorship throughout the letters. It was interesting how people got around those. One of my favorite, and i will end on this because it is a local perspective. One of my favorite people i focus on the book as a young harry truman. Artillery captain. I grew up, i will not name names. In a household of republicans refer to treatment as the failed salesman who became president. And actually call him a haberdashery. You read his war experience and he was literally killed almost several times. Not just from artillery fire. He brought all of his men hold i would was rather impressive in itself here but theres a story i not read anyone else and i included as an anecdote. During shell fire worse fell on top of truman and he was suffocating to death. He wrote about this and said i was within seconds of no lights out. And the officer, came over and pulled him to safety. And saved his life. And at the end of the book i directly postscript. I follow back on all of these people. One of my favorites, bill donovan was again, like truman. Under fire during world war i. So its like what happened to all of these guys . And speaking of truman and donovan, they had a big clash in the white house. When truman was president donovan came to him and said we need to create a Central Agency that gathers intelligence. And truman said, no. I will not do it. And he said i hope you got my letter of congratulations. My grown son has been lost in combat and shut down and we cannot find him. I know you have all of these things going on but if you could help me find my boy i would be grateful. It is poignant but i will leave it there. But to circle back is that truman was also the sensor reading the letters meant to say what is really going on . But it was interesting to hear his comments to say that this didnt happen or to be modest about their experiences and truman would talk about himself that he would write that in such a way that they love their commander and their captain but he did get a kick out of it so i am going tomorrow so they are all in line check them out because there are some wonderful gems in their training through combat and of course the president ial papers. The intent is to make them more human but i cannot think the world war i museum man thanks for coming out i look forward to talking to you all on a personal basis. Thank you so much. [applause] clearly the war debtors project is a story. Dont forget to go online but also if you are looking into the books they are both there itll be more poignant after you have read his book. Please join us for the book signing. [inaudible conversations] tonight have 11 with her book shoot like a girl. [applause]