Messages from home
E-mail fills need, but letters still specialBy Billy Watkinsbwatkins@clarionledger.com
While soldiers today will receive instant Memorial Day greetings via e-mail, older veterans recall a time when letters were their link to home.

Holiday messages: Vicksburg residents Tracye and Nathan Prewitt have a mission this Memorial Day holiday: They want every soldier in Company A, 150th Engineer Battalion of Carthage to receive either a heartfelt e-mail or snail mail."I hate the thought that some of these soldiers might not get letters from home," Tracye Prewitt, whose nephew Jonathan Prewitt serves with the 150th, said in an e-mail to The Clarion-Ledger.She asks that Mississippians e-mail letters to a soldier or soldiers to her at dogsrule@earthlink.net, and she will pass them on to the unit. Or, she said, mail letters of support to soldiers to her at 352 Marian Lane, Vicksburg, MS 39183."I want to send enough letters so that every soldier in Alpha Co. 150 CEB will get a letter at mail call," Prewitt says. "Just write a short note of support, or have your kids draw a picture of thanks. While we are sitting with our loved ones in air-conditioned safety at home, they are battling insurgents, sandstorms, over 100-degree temps, as well as homesickness on a daily basis!"

When Thomas Landrum was shipped overseas to fight in World War II, his mother had recently died in a house fire and his daddy couldn't grip a pen to write. A stroke left him partially paralyzed."Being that far from home and not being able to care for him ... a certain amount of guilt comes along with that," says Landrum, a Jackson resident who was based in England as part of the 8th Air Force. "And while I was pretty busy with the war, I wanted to know how my dad was progressing, if he was getting any better. I needed that peace of mind."Landrum's aunts and cousins constantly wrote him letters, updating him on his dad's slow recovery. He's able to stand now. ... He walked for the first time today. ... Landrum responded to every letter, and relatives read them to his father.
What he would have given, Landrum says 63 years later, to have had the current luxury of e-mail. "It would've made a huge difference for me," he says. "Sometimes reading letters was like reading history. ... By the time you got them, things had changed."E-mail has become the most popular form of communication for soldiers fighting the war in Iraq. Today, many will be able to exchange Memorial Day greetings almost instantaneously with loved ones back home.
And while e-mail is seen as a precious blessing by lonely soldiers and anxious families, historians are among those hoping the traditional communication style of pen-and-ink won't totally dry up."We have found that letters are the most authentic voices we have about war and what was actually going on at the time — at home and abroad," says Andrew Carroll, author of War Letters and his new book Behind the Lines. "E-mail has its place, certainly. But e-mails can be lost with one crash of a computer file. And soldiers don't tend to keep e-mails the way they do letters."I talked with a (World War II) veteran who said there was no sight in the world like those U.S. Army trucks coming down the hills, carrying those big orange florescent mailbags. He said one letter from home was worth more to him than food, water or sleep."
Photo courtesy of Simon & SchusterHistorians hope e-mail won't completely replace letters written by soldiers on the front lines, which sometimes record the most authentic insights on war. Says David Sansing, professor of history emeritus at the University of Mississippi: "Next to a hug, a hand-written note or letter is the best thing you can give somebody. It says 'You are special enough for me to take the time to write my thoughts and feelings out with my own hands and send it to you.' And people tend to speak more from the heart when they're actually writing."A letter is just so much more personal. It's something that was touched and folded by your loved one's hands. The envelope was licked. There's nothing mechanical or electronic about it."
Kenny Windham, general manager of WMSI-102.9 (MISS 103) in Jackson, saw both sides of the issue while serving seven months in Kuwait with the Army Reserve's 3rd Personnel Command. Part of his unit's duties was to provide mail service for the troops."What I observed was, e-mail was a nice way to have instant communication — if you were fortunate enough to have access to a computer," Windham says. "But nothing — nothing — can replace that hands-on letter the soldier receives."We'd have mail call, and when that clerk handed you a letter that was from someone you cared about and you knew their hands had touched it. ... It's a special feeling.
"And you would always see the excitement of soldiers who received mail and the disappointment of those who didn't. It was written all over their faces."U.S. Army Maj. Alvin Spencer, who grew up in Rolling Fork, is in his fifth month of an 18-month tour of duty in Iraq.
"Some people say they prefer written letters because it's tangible and something they can carry around in their pocket," Spencer says in an e-mail interview. "It's a sentimental thing. For soldiers who have very little access to e-mail, letters are their only connection to loved ones."Spencer, however, works in an office and regularly has access to a computer. "I am a 43-year-old divorcee with an 18-year-old child," he writes. "My personal preference is immediate contact. I have been blessed to speak with my child at least once a day (via e-mail). My e-mail says, 'At this very moment, I am safe and sound.' "Cindy and Gene Moore's son, Tony, of Shuqualak spent a tour of duty in Iraq with the Marines' 101st Airborne. He marched through Baghdad on Easter morning 2003. Tony and his parents communicated almost exclusively through e-mail.
"Tony worked in communications, and he had access to a computer almost daily," Cindy Moore says. "With so much turmoil on the news, every time I turned on the TV, being able to hear something from my son by e-mail within 24 hours — and sometimes within one hour — meant so much and offered so much relief."Windham, who received both e-mails and hand-written notes from family and friends, suggests a balance.
"A lot of people prefer e-mail because they're not sure a letter will ever get to the soldier they're writing," he says. "Let me assure you, that's not the case."Our outfit was sort of like the human resources department for the Army. As our troops went into Iraq, we had units go in right behind them, building mail terminals. We created a ZIP code system for all these small cities throughout Iraq. It gave me a new appreciation for our postal service back home."With 140,000 troops on the ground, we had soldiers scattered everywhere. But it was also our job to keep up with where each soldier was and make sure we got that card or letter to that soldier."
Windham encourages people to write notes and cards to soldiers, even if they don't have a relative or close friend in Iraq."My brother lives in San Diego, and every week I would receive mail from members of his church, church bulletins, copies of the sermon, boxes of cookies and candy and razors. These people had never met me.
"I can't tell you how much that meant to me. And that wouldn't have been possible through e-mail."A lot of Sunday School classes and churches around here have programs like that. It's a nice way to touch a person's life who is a long way from home."Adds Carroll: "Just remember, nothing will ever replace the written word. There's just something about a real letter, especially during war."