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'Letters Home' tells war stories in the words of those who served  By: JOHN HUNNEMAN - Staff Writer TEMECULA ---- Bret Thwaites leaned back from his work, paused, turned to no one in particular and asked, "Have you read any of these? They'll tear your heart out." Thwaites was one of a dozen craftsmen racing to finish work on the "Letters Home" Veterans Memorial at Duck Pond Park ahead of a dedication ceremony planned for Thursday, which is Veterans Day. Last week, the Temecula man attached 16 letters written by armed forces members ---- which have been engraved onto ceramic porcelain tiles ---- that date from the American Revolution to the war in Iraq on a granite wall that encircles a bronze statue of a young soldier. The war letters were chosen by artist Christopher Pardell, who designed the memorial, and his assistant Kathy McNeeley, with the help of a New York Times best-selling author and "Dear Abby." The trooper ---- meant to symbolize military men and women from all eras and all services ---- is shown pausing from the battle and taking time to write to his loved ones back home. The sculpture will serve for decades as a reminder of the sacrifice made by ordinary Americans. The letters ---- excerpts of which are printed below ---- tell tales of war and sacrifice in the words of the men and women who were called to duty. June 12, 1779 "... I am, by the care of Providence, in the field in defence of my country. When I reflect on the matter, I feel myself distracted on both hands by this thought, that in my old age, I should be obligated to take the field in defence of my rights and liberties, and that of my children. God only knows that it is not of choice, but of necessity, and from the consideration that I had rather suffer anything than lose my birthright, and that of my children..." ---- Jason Williams, husband and father of eight children. Last year, when the city of Temecula approved money for construction of a veterans memorial, Pardell, a sculptor from Fallbrook, was one of 13 artists to submit a proposal for the project. That list was eventually narrowed to two and in May the City Council ---- with input from an online poll of the city's Web site ---- selected "Letters Home." "My feeling was that this was never meant to be a war memorial, but a service memorial," Pardell said. "This is all about average Americans and what they do when they are called to service." And what better way, he said, than to let the words of those servicemen and women tell that story. "Hopefully, when people come here they will get a sense that these are not heroes," he said. "These are your neighbors, your friends. The ordinary people who have always gone off to defend freedom." Oct. 13, 1918 All these things, the wide-eyed dead man gazing at you with a cold stare, wounded men trying to suppress groans, the smell of sulfur and the sickening stench of blood in the shelter almost made me wish they would close on us and capture what few remained after the rush. ... War is terrible, but with all we're glad we're here to stop it. After all, it is really the wives and mothers etc. of those boys with the glassy eyes who do the real suffering." ---- 1st Lt. Edward Luckert, who survived World War I and returned home in 1919. Andy Carroll didn't come from a military background or family, had no particular interest in history and if his Washington, D.C., house hadn't burned to the ground around Christmas in 1989 probably would have never started his project. "Everything I had was wiped out, including all the letters I'd received from friends both from here and overseas over many years," Carroll said. That loss inspired Carroll, 35, a Columbia University graduate and co-founder of the nonprofit American Poetry and Literacy Project ---- which distributes hundreds of thousand of free books each year to promote literacy ---- to start the Legacy Project, an effort to collect letters written by military personnel from all of our nation's wars. "I was stunned by the military veterans and their families I talked with who were throwing all those letters away," he said. In 1998, Carroll wrote to syndicated columnist "Dear Abby" about the project and asked her help in getting veterans to send him copies of their war-time correspondence. On Veterans Day that year the request was printed in her column. "That opened the floodgates," Carroll recalled. "Three days later I got a call saying my post office box was full. I told them I'd ride my bike down to pick up the mail. They told me I'd better bring a car." That day, several bins stuffed with copies of correspondence from every war were waiting for Carroll. Since then, he has received more than 75,000 letters, some of which were published in his 2001 book "War Letters ---- Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars." The book became a New York Times best-seller. Carroll donates all of his earnings from "War Letters" to charities that work with veterans and their families. Unknown date,1 1917. "What I would like to believe is that God is in this war, not as a spectator, but backing up everything that is good in us. He won't work any miracles for us because that would be helping us to do the work He's given us to do on our own. I don't know whether God goes forth with armies, but I do know that he is in lots of our men or they would not do what they do," ---- Pvt. Walter T. Bromwich, who was shot in the back and head four months after writing this letter to his hometown church. He recovered from his wounds. Pardell and McNeeley, his assistant, spent more than a year culling through about 1,000 letters to pick the ones that are part of the memorial. "We went through book after book of letters," McNeeley said. "A few were sent to us to consider, but most of them we had to find. We tried to select letters that covered a wide range of emotions." The majority of the letters chosen ----- 11 of them ---- are from Carroll's book, borrowed with his blessing and enthusiastic support. "Andy has been a terrific help," McNeeley said. Carroll said as far as he knows, the Temecula memorial is different from anything else in the country. "I think Chris' vision is extraordinary," Carroll said. "I wish more towns would do something like this. It's a great tribute to these men and women because it humanizes them." The other five letters chosen came from a variety of sources including one submitted by a Riverside family who has been invited to Thursday's dedication ceremony. Each of the letters has a story behind it, Carroll said. Enroute Japan, Jan. 18, 1945 Dearest Momie & Dad, I am writing this to you so that you will know exactly what happened and won't be like so many other parents. ... If I could have only been killed in action, it's so useless to die here from disentry with no medicin ... Tell Patty I'm sorry, guess we weren't meant to be happy together. I weigh about 90 pounds now so you can see how we are. I will sign off now darlings and please don't grieve much ... I'm not afraid to go, and I will be waiting for you." ---- Lt. Tommie Kennedy, who was captured at Corregidor in January 1942 and imprisoned on a Japanese "hell ship." After his death, Kennedy's letters and medals were smuggled from one POW to another and finally delivered home after the war. "That letter (from Lt. Kennedy) was found a few years ago by his niece who lives near Los Angeles," Carroll said. That woman was cleaning out her garage and found a bag of what appeared to be trash. "She was about to throw it out, but decided to take one last look to see what was inside," he said." Apparently she had heard about (The Legacy Project) so she saved the letter and sent a copy to me." Carroll urges veterans and their families to send copies of their war letters to: The Legacy Project, Attn: Andrew Carroll, P.O. Box 53250, Washington, D.C., 20009. More information about the project is available online at www.warletters.com. "We're throwing out history every day," he said. "We should do what we can to save it." Feb. 3, 1945, France "I am really ashamed of myself for not writing but it is rather hard to write left handed. ... About 0930, an 88 mm zoomed past me. I looked down and my rt. hand was gone. ... They gave me blood, fixed me up, and sent me back to the evacuation hospital. They operated about 2000 that nite, took the shrapnel out, trimmed my arm up, about a half inch above the waste. So from then on I decided I would be left handed." ---- Pfc. DeWitt "Chick" Gephart was one of more than 40,000 Americans wounded during the Battle of the Bulge. The dedication ceremony for the veterans memorial is planned for 2 p.m. on Thursday. Along with the statue and the letters, those attending will get a first look at the "Path of Honor" leading up to the memorial, which is made of bricks engraved with the names of 765 servicemen and women with local connections. The public is invited. Carroll said he will be unable to attend the dedication, but plans to come to Temecula early next year during a 50-state tour promoting his next book. "I'm really looking forward to seeing it," he said. Sept. 19, 2003 Tomorrow I may see if four years at West Point and $250,000 of taxpayer money has produced an effective leader. I don't know if I will sleep tonight but I will try. The image that keeps appearing in my mind is of you at the end of that aisle as your dad put your hand in mine. All I think about is that ---- and how we have been joined together for life. That is why I must do my best and come home safe to you. Your family entrusted you to me, and I can't take care of you if I don't take care of myself." ---- 2nd Lt. Todd J. Bryant was killed on Oct. 31, 2003, by a homemade bomb while on patrol near Fallujah, Iraq. He was 23 years old. Contact John Hunneman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2603, or hunneman@californian.com.