Soldiers and Letters

Please read these exerpts from letters written by Bealeton teens who attended the Cards for Troops program.

One card from all the teens:
"We're all from Fauquier County, Virginia. We either live on farms, in apartments, or in town, but we all love Virginia. Hopefully your time overseas won't be much longer, so you can come back to Virginia. Will all the best hopes +…"

Individual cards:
"I hope you are safe back there and you are very careful."
"I hope you are well and I wanted to thank you for everything you have done."
"So, to a soldier I have never met, I apologize, and am giving my thoughts to you."
"I really hope you like this letter and the pictures along with it."
"I want you to know that we're thinking of you and your friends out there."
"I love you - don’t die!"
"Hope you have a safe time."
"Thank you for fighting for us."
"I bet it is really different over there."
"Thank you so much!"

Here are a few books from the Fauquier County Public Library collection. Each publication offers personal and unique letters written by soldiers. Be sure to sample each book for new perspectives.

Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam
by Walter Dean Myers
"A young American soldier waits for his enemy, rifle in hand, finger on the trigger. He is afraid to move and yet afraid not to move. Gunshots crackle in the still air. The soldier fires blindly into the distant trees at an unseen enemy. He crouches and waits -- heart pounding, tense and trembling, biting back tears. When will it all be over?

Walter Dean Myers joined the army on his seventeeth birthday, at the onset of American involvement in Vietnam, but it was the death of his brother in 1968 that forever changed his mind about war.

In a gripping and powerful story-poem, the award-winning author takes readers into the heart and mind of a young soldier in an alien land who comes face-to-face with the enemy. Strikingly illustrated with evocative and emotionally wrenching collages by Caldecott Honor artist Ann Grifalconi, this unforgettable portrait captures one American G.L's haunting experience."


182 Days in Iraq
by Phil Kiver

"Phil Kiver's real life, moment-to-moment journal of his assignment as an Army journalist in Iraq is honest, irreverent-gripping and emotional one moment-a howl the next. Kiver, pictured above, in Iraq, with one of his heroes, Oliver North, doesn't dress for company. His journals are raw reaction, impression, and introspection. This, folks, is what it feels like to be Phil Kiver in this war in Iraq-missing his wife, lounging at one of Sadam's pools, angry with the brass, witnessing the deaths of children and comrades, nighttime explosions too close for comfort, pasta with the Italians, toasting the fallen with the Ukrainians. It's a delirium of experience with this journalist sorting through the rubble and smoke in search of the story that will one day be history."

Will They Ever Trust Us Again?: Letters From the War Zone

by Michael Moore

"The controversial filmmaker shares a collection of letters from active duty soldiers, their family members, and veterans who express their thoughts and feelings about the current war in Iraq."

Behind the Lines: Powerful and Revealing American and Foreign War Letters--and One Man's Search to Find Them
Edited by Andrew Carroll

This "exploration of warfare from the perspectives of soldiers and civilians draws on letters collected by the author during his search for wartime correspondences, featuring the writings of soldiers from every major American conflict."