thedrifter
03-18-07, 09:36 AM
Soldiers' wartime letters collected
Words from overseas shared in publc exhibit
BY JESSICA JOHNSON
The Post and Courier
Birthdays, Halloween and Christmas. Maj. Y. Scott Bell of Moncks Corner missed a year of special occasions while stationed in Iraq from February 2004 to February 2005.
As soldiers did in previous wars, the South Carolina National Guardsman used the written word to offer family advice and love. Sometimes it came by way of a pen, other times in digital bytes.
When Bell's son Preston became a Cub Scout, Bell sent a handwritten letter.
"Daddy is so proud of you, and happy you have decided to pursue this honorable and manly endeavor," Bell wrote in November 2004. "Son, truth and manliness are two qualities that will carry you through this world much better than policy, or tact or expediency, or any other word that was ever devised to conceal or mystify a deviation from a straight line."
The words will be forever memorialized among folders of e-mails, cards and photos from the war on terror within an archival box in the back room of the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.
Years from now historians and scholars will look over the information to determine common themes and elements that are now too early for history to judge, said Sarah Wooton, chief curator of collections and exhibitions.
For now, the letters provide a peek into
the lives of servicemen and women in unfamiliar surroundings far from home. The museum put a call out to them shortly after fighting in Iraq began March 19, 2003. Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war. President Bush ordered the attacks on March 19, but it was March 20 in Iraq because of the time difference.
Museum officials feared the messages sent home would be lost in their digital format and began asking South Carolina troops and families to send them their communications and pictures.
"We're unsure how many people are actually saving their e-mail," Wooton said.
About two dozen South Carolina troops have made donations to the collection since the war began; the printed e-mails and communications shed light on the stories of men and women fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Some communications have become part of a traveling display; a Web site, www.wftf.sc.gov, encourages more donations to the project.
Bell, a historian for the South Carolina National Guard, has contributed heavily to the project. In addition to correspondence, he sent his uniform, boots, a blanket of the Palmetto flag, a gift from his interpreter and his computer.
Rachel Cockrell, the Relic Rooms registrar, sorts through the items with white-gloved hands. The desert fatigues Bell wore in Iraq are the first donation of their kind.
"All we have from the older conflicts are the dress uniforms," Wooton said.
"This has got muddy knees," Cockrell said.
Bell included memos from missions as well as letters to his family. His wife, Meredith, said the donated communications are one-sided because Bell had no way of keeping the items sent to him by his family. The item found at the Columbia museum range from Bell's description of his missions to letters that discussed the activities of his children back home.
In one letter, he told his family that he had met and documented every family in the Iraqi village of Abdurazak. He told them that families lived in homes about the size of their living room and kitchen and that most people slept on rugs on the floor. Bell gave one villager a tent so that he and his wife would have somewhere to live when they got married. "My job is pretty rewarding as I get to help a lot of people here," Bell wrote, "but I can't wait to come home to the most rewarding thing in the world - being mommy's husband + you/ Preston's daddy."
Bell came back to his family in February 2005 but has been called up again for a border security mission in Arizona.
"He is very good at his job and we are proud to have him serve, but he is gone a bit," Meredith said.
Some of the soldiers documented in the archives will never come home.
Capt. Kimberly Hampton of Easley was the first South Carolina woman to die in the fight.
In the weeks before her death, the helicopters in Hampton's unit had been targeted on multiple occasions. On Dec. 17, 2003, Hampton e-mailed Lt. Col. Rick Simmons, "Fallujah is hot as usual. You may have heard - they shot down one of our 58Ds the other day. Crew escaped and was rescued quickly."
Hampton met Simmons while they were both stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in November 2002.
Hampton's parents contacted the Pickens County Veterans Affairs Office, where Simmons worked and asked his assistant to e-mail him and look their daughter up.
Simmons found Hampton easily. Hampton already knew of him because of his work on the war memorial behind the courthouse, Simmons said in an e-mail from Fallujah, were he is currently stationed.
The memorial Simmons worked on now bears Hampton's plaque.
"Being on the same base in Afghanistan, we were only about 3/4 of a mile apart, so about once a week we would visit - I would take her our local papers (Easley Progress and Pickens Sentinel) or she would come by my office to pick them up. In fact, we ate breakfast together on her last day in Afghanistan," Simmons said.
Simmons' and Hampton's correspondence is found among the collection. Hampton's family also included their personal e-mails.
Days before her death she had e-mailed photographs of herself to her father who replied that she looked marvelous. On Dec. 27, 2003 she responded, writing that she would soon send more.
"See, I haven't changed much have I? (I've always been a steely-eyed killa anyway!) I Love you."
It's the last correspondence sent from Hampton found in the collection. On Jan. 2, 2004 Hampton died when her OH-58 kiowa Warrior helicopter was shot down over Fallujah.
Other contributors' stories are just unfolding. Lance Cpl. Mills Bigham of Columbia joined the Marines in September 2004 after Clemson University denied his college application. His father, John, curator of special collections, has begun donating his son's messages. John said he has often studied war letters.
"I never thought I would be writing them," he said.
His son deployed to Iraq for the second time March 8. When asked what his son thinks about a future deployment, John takes a breath, opens his mouth to speak and quickly closes it.
"He sees it as another step toward the end of his enlistment," he said.
The possibility of his son's death often steals John's attention.
"That's the number one thing on your mind; that's the worry," he said.
Perhaps that was the motivation for a December e-mail from father to son.
"My Mills I love you dearly from the first moment of your life from the first time I hear your heartbeat in Margaret Ann's tummy and forever. Forgive me for anything I did wrong by you, I am proud of you."
How to share
If you would like to share some of your letters and images with The Post and Courier for a possible story later this year, write or e-mail us at:
Letters from the Front
The Post and Courier
6296 Rivers Ave. Suite 100
N. Charleston, S.C. 29406
or
sharvin@postandcourier.com
If you would like to know more about the mail project at The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum's Write from the Front project,
go to: www.wftf.sc.gov
To contribute to Write from the Front, send e-mails and images to:
writefromthefront@crr.sc.gov or call Sarah Wooton, chief currator of collections and exhibitions (803) 737-8094
The Write from the Front traveling exhibits will be at the Barnwell County Museum until March 30 and at the Beaufort County Library until April 30. For exhibit schedule, go to:
www.wftf.sc.gov/travelschedule.htm
Excerpts from letters
'Fallujah is hot as usual. You may have heard - they shot down one of our 58Ds the other day. Crew escaped and was rescued quickly.'
Capt. Kimberly Hampton, Dec. 17, 2003
'We kill foreign fighters here every week. I have not spoken to one Iraqi that wants us to leave.
'I realize that, sitting back home in the USA, it is difficult for people to understand this, and furthermore, the concept of who we are at war with is surreal.
'Folks like to send care packages and tie yellow ribbons around their tree, but they do not want their child to go to war nor do they want to pay a war tax.'
Army Lt. Col. Rick Simmons, February 2007
'How I long for you. The kids and our daily routines.'
Maj. Scott Bell, South Carolina National Guard, handwritten note, February 2005
'I need/want a pair of aviator sunglasses. They should be around 12 dollars at Hippwahzee. Gold rims, medium-tinted lens, please.'
Marine Lance Cpl. Mills Bigham, December 2005
'Watching it all on TV like everyone else, except we are constantly in our masks and chemical suits.'
Army Lt. Col. David O'Neal, March 2003
'Looks like I won't be on Hong Kong TV - the lady who interviewed me was just kicked off Camp when she was found out to be a spy for the Chinese government.'
Army Lt. Col. David O'Neal, March 2003
'The American and Coalition forces are organized by sections or workgroups. We have a program available so that a workgroup or section can adopt a village to take under their wings and provide humanitarian assistance. My section, civil affairs, has selected the village of Charachi. The village has a population of approximately 500 villagers.'
Army Sgt. Wayne Mingo, date unknown, from his personal Web site.
Reach Jessica Johnson at 745-5860 or jjohnson@postandcourier.com.
Ellie
Words from overseas shared in publc exhibit
BY JESSICA JOHNSON
The Post and Courier
Birthdays, Halloween and Christmas. Maj. Y. Scott Bell of Moncks Corner missed a year of special occasions while stationed in Iraq from February 2004 to February 2005.
As soldiers did in previous wars, the South Carolina National Guardsman used the written word to offer family advice and love. Sometimes it came by way of a pen, other times in digital bytes.
When Bell's son Preston became a Cub Scout, Bell sent a handwritten letter.
"Daddy is so proud of you, and happy you have decided to pursue this honorable and manly endeavor," Bell wrote in November 2004. "Son, truth and manliness are two qualities that will carry you through this world much better than policy, or tact or expediency, or any other word that was ever devised to conceal or mystify a deviation from a straight line."
The words will be forever memorialized among folders of e-mails, cards and photos from the war on terror within an archival box in the back room of the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.
Years from now historians and scholars will look over the information to determine common themes and elements that are now too early for history to judge, said Sarah Wooton, chief curator of collections and exhibitions.
For now, the letters provide a peek into
the lives of servicemen and women in unfamiliar surroundings far from home. The museum put a call out to them shortly after fighting in Iraq began March 19, 2003. Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war. President Bush ordered the attacks on March 19, but it was March 20 in Iraq because of the time difference.
Museum officials feared the messages sent home would be lost in their digital format and began asking South Carolina troops and families to send them their communications and pictures.
"We're unsure how many people are actually saving their e-mail," Wooton said.
About two dozen South Carolina troops have made donations to the collection since the war began; the printed e-mails and communications shed light on the stories of men and women fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Some communications have become part of a traveling display; a Web site, www.wftf.sc.gov, encourages more donations to the project.
Bell, a historian for the South Carolina National Guard, has contributed heavily to the project. In addition to correspondence, he sent his uniform, boots, a blanket of the Palmetto flag, a gift from his interpreter and his computer.
Rachel Cockrell, the Relic Rooms registrar, sorts through the items with white-gloved hands. The desert fatigues Bell wore in Iraq are the first donation of their kind.
"All we have from the older conflicts are the dress uniforms," Wooton said.
"This has got muddy knees," Cockrell said.
Bell included memos from missions as well as letters to his family. His wife, Meredith, said the donated communications are one-sided because Bell had no way of keeping the items sent to him by his family. The item found at the Columbia museum range from Bell's description of his missions to letters that discussed the activities of his children back home.
In one letter, he told his family that he had met and documented every family in the Iraqi village of Abdurazak. He told them that families lived in homes about the size of their living room and kitchen and that most people slept on rugs on the floor. Bell gave one villager a tent so that he and his wife would have somewhere to live when they got married. "My job is pretty rewarding as I get to help a lot of people here," Bell wrote, "but I can't wait to come home to the most rewarding thing in the world - being mommy's husband + you/ Preston's daddy."
Bell came back to his family in February 2005 but has been called up again for a border security mission in Arizona.
"He is very good at his job and we are proud to have him serve, but he is gone a bit," Meredith said.
Some of the soldiers documented in the archives will never come home.
Capt. Kimberly Hampton of Easley was the first South Carolina woman to die in the fight.
In the weeks before her death, the helicopters in Hampton's unit had been targeted on multiple occasions. On Dec. 17, 2003, Hampton e-mailed Lt. Col. Rick Simmons, "Fallujah is hot as usual. You may have heard - they shot down one of our 58Ds the other day. Crew escaped and was rescued quickly."
Hampton met Simmons while they were both stationed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan in November 2002.
Hampton's parents contacted the Pickens County Veterans Affairs Office, where Simmons worked and asked his assistant to e-mail him and look their daughter up.
Simmons found Hampton easily. Hampton already knew of him because of his work on the war memorial behind the courthouse, Simmons said in an e-mail from Fallujah, were he is currently stationed.
The memorial Simmons worked on now bears Hampton's plaque.
"Being on the same base in Afghanistan, we were only about 3/4 of a mile apart, so about once a week we would visit - I would take her our local papers (Easley Progress and Pickens Sentinel) or she would come by my office to pick them up. In fact, we ate breakfast together on her last day in Afghanistan," Simmons said.
Simmons' and Hampton's correspondence is found among the collection. Hampton's family also included their personal e-mails.
Days before her death she had e-mailed photographs of herself to her father who replied that she looked marvelous. On Dec. 27, 2003 she responded, writing that she would soon send more.
"See, I haven't changed much have I? (I've always been a steely-eyed killa anyway!) I Love you."
It's the last correspondence sent from Hampton found in the collection. On Jan. 2, 2004 Hampton died when her OH-58 kiowa Warrior helicopter was shot down over Fallujah.
Other contributors' stories are just unfolding. Lance Cpl. Mills Bigham of Columbia joined the Marines in September 2004 after Clemson University denied his college application. His father, John, curator of special collections, has begun donating his son's messages. John said he has often studied war letters.
"I never thought I would be writing them," he said.
His son deployed to Iraq for the second time March 8. When asked what his son thinks about a future deployment, John takes a breath, opens his mouth to speak and quickly closes it.
"He sees it as another step toward the end of his enlistment," he said.
The possibility of his son's death often steals John's attention.
"That's the number one thing on your mind; that's the worry," he said.
Perhaps that was the motivation for a December e-mail from father to son.
"My Mills I love you dearly from the first moment of your life from the first time I hear your heartbeat in Margaret Ann's tummy and forever. Forgive me for anything I did wrong by you, I am proud of you."
How to share
If you would like to share some of your letters and images with The Post and Courier for a possible story later this year, write or e-mail us at:
Letters from the Front
The Post and Courier
6296 Rivers Ave. Suite 100
N. Charleston, S.C. 29406
or
sharvin@postandcourier.com
If you would like to know more about the mail project at The South Carolina Confederate Relic Room & Military Museum's Write from the Front project,
go to: www.wftf.sc.gov
To contribute to Write from the Front, send e-mails and images to:
writefromthefront@crr.sc.gov or call Sarah Wooton, chief currator of collections and exhibitions (803) 737-8094
The Write from the Front traveling exhibits will be at the Barnwell County Museum until March 30 and at the Beaufort County Library until April 30. For exhibit schedule, go to:
www.wftf.sc.gov/travelschedule.htm
Excerpts from letters
'Fallujah is hot as usual. You may have heard - they shot down one of our 58Ds the other day. Crew escaped and was rescued quickly.'
Capt. Kimberly Hampton, Dec. 17, 2003
'We kill foreign fighters here every week. I have not spoken to one Iraqi that wants us to leave.
'I realize that, sitting back home in the USA, it is difficult for people to understand this, and furthermore, the concept of who we are at war with is surreal.
'Folks like to send care packages and tie yellow ribbons around their tree, but they do not want their child to go to war nor do they want to pay a war tax.'
Army Lt. Col. Rick Simmons, February 2007
'How I long for you. The kids and our daily routines.'
Maj. Scott Bell, South Carolina National Guard, handwritten note, February 2005
'I need/want a pair of aviator sunglasses. They should be around 12 dollars at Hippwahzee. Gold rims, medium-tinted lens, please.'
Marine Lance Cpl. Mills Bigham, December 2005
'Watching it all on TV like everyone else, except we are constantly in our masks and chemical suits.'
Army Lt. Col. David O'Neal, March 2003
'Looks like I won't be on Hong Kong TV - the lady who interviewed me was just kicked off Camp when she was found out to be a spy for the Chinese government.'
Army Lt. Col. David O'Neal, March 2003
'The American and Coalition forces are organized by sections or workgroups. We have a program available so that a workgroup or section can adopt a village to take under their wings and provide humanitarian assistance. My section, civil affairs, has selected the village of Charachi. The village has a population of approximately 500 villagers.'
Army Sgt. Wayne Mingo, date unknown, from his personal Web site.
Reach Jessica Johnson at 745-5860 or jjohnson@postandcourier.com.
Ellie