Sunday, October 6, 2019

Soldier Boy: The WWII Letters of Donald G. Reimer



During this past week, I’ve avidly read the e-book entitled Soldier Boy: The WWII Letters of Donald G. Reimer. A fellow blogger—Cynthia Reimer—discovered the letters a few years ago in her grandparents’ attic. Along with her dad’s letters home she also discovered letters that had been sent to him. He’d kept them and at one point during the war had sent them back home for safekeeping.

Thus, these letters vividly show us what was happening—between January 1943 and late 1946—on the home front as well as in the boot camps in the United States and the jungles of the Pacific.

Cynthia sorted these handwritten letters, added transition; clear explanations for what was happening month by month in the European and Pacific Theaters of War; and entertaining information on the camps her father was in and on the radio shows, songs, and celebrities who were popular at the time.

For me, this book Soldier Boy was a revelation. When the war began, I was in kindergarten and in 3rd grade when it ended. I knew what was happening from what adults said, from the movie newsreels, and from the newspaper headlines.

Also, every week, Mom gave me our ration books and I bought groceries at the corner store across our grade school. The owner had pinned a large world map pinned to the wall behind the cash register. As I waited for the bus, he’d point out what was happening in both theaters of war. He made the war and the world come alive for me.

Given that background, I’ve read many books about WWII. Most historians, I’ve discovered, research the battles, the strategy, the lay of the land, the troop numbers, troop movement, the death toll, and the names of the men making the decisions. I brought that background to Cynthia’s book.

Here’s why I say her book was a revelation to me. The letters didn’t describe generals or strategy. Nor did Donald Reimer try to explain why the war was happening or why he enlisted. Instead he shared with his family at home what was happening with him in each camp the army sent him to.

 
Thus, this past week, I met one man—an ordinary soldier who became part of the 485th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion. With him, I spent day after day, marching, cleaning guns, eating in the mess hall—and sometimes there wasn’t enough food, learning to recognize all the different planes that might fly over the battlefield, writing home, getting lonely, going on a three-day passes and sitting in the audience at some radio shows, and moving from one camp to another.

Truthfully I never knew there were that many boot camps in the United States. Nor did I know how many months the men trained for war. Nor had I ever thought about the tedium of waiting for the next letter. The next march. The next battle.

These letters introduced me to one anti-aircraft soldier who felt he had a duty to his country. Mostly, it seemed to me while reading, he lived at peace within himself. He was sure of what he had done: enlist. He was sure that he was in the right place at the right time. I believe that his letters reveal him to be a man of peace.

Yet he ended up on the islands of Leyte and Okinawa. In his letters, he doesn’t complain or grouse or say, “Why me?” He simply lives in the present. Longing for it all to end and to eat a Christmas dinner with his family. But not until he’d done his work.

If you decide to read this book—and I do so hope you will—please also leave a comment/review on Amazon for other readers to find. Thank you.


Peace.

Anti-aircraft artillery from Wikipedia

15 comments:

  1. This book sounds truly wonderful. I am a lover of epistolary books and much prefer them to be non-fiction.
    Sadly Amazon.au denies its existence. I will hunt it down later and add it to my must read list (along with your latest work).
    Many thanks to you and to Cynthia.

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    1. Thank you for you interest in my book. Here is a link to the Australian version.
      https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=Cynthia+Reimer&i=digital-text&dc&ref=a9_asc_1

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    2. Thank you. I have been, I have bought.

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  2. What a wonderful passion project for a granddaughter to write! Sounds like she went above and beyond to make the letters come to life and super interesting. I wish her much success.

    I had a similar project in mind until last year with letters to and from Vietnam but decided instead to donate them to a war letters museum. There are several around that want to archive letters like these before they become lost forever.

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    1. Dear Jean, yes, I think most museums would be interested in those letters. Especially since some are from the home front and some from the battle field and some from the boot camps. Peace.

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  3. I haven't read the book, and probably won't. I'm on your heels in the march of time, and lived through it too. Thanks for this review. My grandmother saved my uncle's letters home from France, and the theme holds of a young man doing his job as well as duty.

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    1. Dear Joanne, I had three uncles in the war, but afterward, they never talked about it and I don't recall any letters. Peace.

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  4. I haven't read this but those letters must give a very personal view of war. One of my all-time favorite books describing the everyday experience of being a young soldier at war was "All Quiet on the Western Front. If you have not already read it, I highly recommend it

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    1. Dear Molly, many years ago I read the "All Quiet . . ." and then later saw the movie. I think it's about time to read it again. Thanks for the reminder! Peace.

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  5. This book sounds really interesting. Almost like a Ken Burns account which I always loved when actual letters of the average soldier were focused. Wonderful review.

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    1. Dear Patti, yes, exactly like a Ken Burns PBS series. Peace.

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  6. The experiences of men and women in war were (are) somewhat glamorized in movies and TV. The hard part lives in the heart and minds of these soldiers. What they see and do live with them forever. To read the words of one of these men is difficult but should be shared. This sounds like a wonderful book.

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    1. Dear Arleen, it truly did teach me so much about being a soldier. I wonder how the living in the camps compares today with what Donald Reimer lived. Peace.

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  7. this book sounds valuable and intriguing dear Dee!

    i know that terror and gloom that war brings cannot be presented powerfully until the author has witnessed the trauma himself or have such handwritten stories by someone he is so close

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    1. Dear Baili, it is a valuable book because it has so much to teach us about youth and doing our duty. Peace.

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