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Post by Melinda Janzen on Apr 16, 2008 10:44:47 GMT 8
Just wanted to pass along the comments regarding the article which you did on George Leland Taylor's Letters Home at corregidor.org/heritage_battalion/taylor/pages/taylor_01.htmlMy family has spread this particular website all over the country! I have been in contact with the family of the marine whose class ring my uncle returned to them and they are spreading the website. I am approaching the school history teacher with these letters so that kids might know "first hand" what it was like during WWII. Many of my contacts have not had the experience of living through WWII or even have a direct connection to it, and they say "I had no idea." So I thank you whole heartedly for encouraging me to make this information public. I am in the process of doing the same with my father's military information, as well as my grandfather's in WWI. Those who read this seem to always ask for more!! I have a cousin here in town who has started working on her dad's military history after reading the website. I have been in contact with a man from Colorado who is doing the same thing with HIS uncle's information with the 5th armored, and I am going to my dad's 5th armored reunion in Louisville, Kentucky this summer simply because you got me started on this history quest. The irony is that in high school, military history was probably the lowest on my list of favorites. Thanks again for all your encouragement and all your hard work. It really is worth it. Melinda
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Post by EXO on Apr 17, 2008 4:54:08 GMT 8
BACK ON MINDORO, FROM CORREGIDOR, ATE THE TROOPERS FROM KANSAS. (George Leland Taylor is front row, third from the left)
The George Leland Taylor's Letters Home article was actually the longest veteran’s web-article I have done, and it was the inclusion of the many pieces of paper, documents, letterheads, V-Mail and cards which challenged me, design wise, to make the pages visually interesting. It was from this experience, I felt I could tackle the manuscript of Combat Over Corregidor. George’s photo is in it – in the Kansas state photographs. Essentially, it will educate anyone about Corregidor and every man’s experience there. It’s not a military text, it is a story about the men. corregidor.org/heritage_battalion/px/px_combat_over_corregidor.htmlSpeaking about Troopers' photos, I have been working this last fewdays on 120+ pictures of the 503d in Australia and New Guinea. It’s before the point when the 462nd got involved, so George isn't pictured. But one of the things which struck me was that, looking closely into their faces, one can see the difference between the “boy” troopers (unblooded) and those who have seen combat. Maybe it’s the way they look at the camera, the straight at camera way they carry themselves. They have grown up. I mention this because that’s what one notices in George’s writings…the sudden growing up, the seeing it all…the becoming of a man. Aye, there’s many a treasure in the footlockers and attics of the US. Thanks for assisting me to bring GLT’s treasures to everyone.
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Post by Melinda Janzen on Apr 17, 2008 5:05:26 GMT 8
Paul - I noticed the difference immediately in the pictures of George when he left and when he came home. They had to grow up fast and hard.
My nephew commented on how the letters home changed - excitement and determination to serve, and the frustration that was obvious before they were sent home. Amazing. And what is even more amazing is how they "just worked through" all they saw and experienced first hand once they got home and were expected to just become civilians again. My dad had nightmares all his life, as does my uncle who was in the Army Airborne.
One of the comments I have heard about the writings is "Did the guys really talk like that - fine and dandy? Sonny-boy?" Well, from what I read in my dad's letters and my grandad's from WWII they did when they wrote home. That also changed from beginning to end. "Work ethics" were high going in, really low coming out. It's awesome though that these veterans are still the first to rise when the flags are flown - their patriotism is first and foremost. What these young men lived through is certainly to be respected.
Another question I hear is "Why did they have to write home so much?" - meaning where were the computers!! Different generation. They are amazed that they couldn't "Call Home.." They can't imaging not hearing from their service families for months and even years, not knowing whether they were dead or alive. In my mother's letters to my dad - she didn't hear from him for 8 weeks when he was injured and hospitalized - she writes every day and begs for a response. Letters were returned to her stamped "Hospitalized" and "not in hospital registry". Unimaginable today. The family of the marine whose ring was returned heard nothing from their son from 1940, until he was declared dead in 1944. And to be told his ashes were found in a Japanese temple and buried in Manila, with none of his personal belongs left. (They still talk about the importance of the return of the ring.) They later learned he had survived the Bataan death march, and died of pneumonia in a POW camp.
Anyway -
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Post by Registrar on May 18, 2017 8:45:12 GMT 8
Today I received the following from Melinda Jansen, which I shall share with you:
The further the immediate past recedes, the more necessary and intense we need to be about telling it in a fashion that enables its significance to be propagated. Reading books and putting them on a shelf just doesn't cut it any more.
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