This is a thank you but it’s not from me. It’s from a 26-year-old man sitting in a foreign land on July 27, 1945 – also his birthday.
Why am I sharing this with you? Because this young man is important to me. He was my father in law. Someone who left his family while still a kid to fight a fight that has provided the rest of us the freedoms we enjoy today. And he’s the one doing the thanking.
Dear Friends:
The least I can do is write a few lines to express my appreciation for the birthday card I received from you. I wish I knew the correct words to express just how much a message like that means from friends at home, when a fellow is away.
I think that a large percent of the fellows that are in the service would agree that too many of us didn’t fully realize the value of “home” and of “old friends”, before we entered the service. I don’t say that it was necessary for war to come along to wake us up, but that is the way it has happened, and I think by the time we get home we will have learned a lesson the hard way. We will come back equipped to be better Americans, due to the experience we are having now. We have seen the suffering and destruction a few power crazed individuals can cause. So now, we are thoroughly determined to set the “rising sun”.
You people at home are making it possible for us to do that job. You are sending us the equipment that is necessary for us to use in our fighting and you also provide for our enjoyment and entertainment during our short periods of relaxation in rest camps when we return from the front lines.
There are many fronts in the war and the home front is the most important of all. You are the people who are on that front and you are doing a wonderful job.
That is the reason it makes my heart swell and a lump come up in my throat when I realize that the people of the church at home, take the time and trouble to send their best wishes to me on my birthday. To me, it’s one of the nicest things that could happen.
God Bless you, and I hope in a very short time all of us may be reunited.
Sincerely yours,
Lloyd R. Zeorian, T Sgt Infantry (Co. F 130 Inf)
Happy Veterans Day to those who have served and to those who are on the home front! The sacrifices you have made are the reason me and my family can comfortably sleep tonight.
THANK YOU!
