by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
Our
library will be closed on Monday, November 11, to observe Veterans Day. This seems a good time to highlight some of
the recent books about American veterans that we have available.
Thank You for Your Service is an account of the impact of war on veterans after they
return home. Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist David Finkel followed some of the soldiers from the unit with which he
was embedded during the Iraq surge. He
describes the struggles and suffering they and their families experience after
they go back to civilian life. Finkel
asks and answers questions about what we ask of the men and women who go to
war, and what we thank them for when they return.
Minnesota
native Lt. Col. Mark Weber wrote a collection of letters to his sons when he
was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Tell My Sons: A Father’s Last Letters is full of Weber’s stories about
courage, words and actions, humility, and humor. Robin Williams wrote the foreword, and
notable people have praised the book, from author Mitch Albom to the Iraqi
Chief of Defense, General Zibari. Weber
died in June.
For
a great World War II survival story, pick up
The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Nazi Lines. Author Cate Lineberry researched a story kept
secret until 1990 when communism ended in Albania and the people involved
finally felt they could safely tell it.
A medical air evacuation flight crash-landed in Nazi-occupied Albania. Most of the thirty surviving Americans walked
over 600 miles, aided by locals, before they were rescued 62 days later. A few who were separated from the group
waited twice as long to get out.
Another
of the books we have on World War II includes the experience of a local
resident, Wanda Nordlie. Wanda,
Lieutenant Thoen at the time, was an army nurse who helped to liberate the
concentration camp at Ebensee, Austria.
The book Inside the Gates by Dr. Richard MacDonald tells the
previously untold story.
The
veterans of World War I were typically ignored once World War II happened. In the book
The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War, we can read about the surviving
WWI veterans that author Richard Rubin found, beginning in 2003. Between the ages of 101 and 113 when he
interviewed them, all are now gone. The
book is a tribute to these veterans, as well as a collection of fascinating
stories. Expect to see more attention
paid to World War I as we approach the 100
th anniversary next
year.
There
is so much to learn about the experiences generations of veterans have had in
war and peacetime. We thank them for
their service to our country.
