Letters from the Front

As boys they had been orphaned or abandoned by their parent, from homes too destitute to feed them, some in trouble with the law, others abused and neglected instead of loved and nurtured. Then they found refuge in Boys Town from their troubles. Now they were men, in uniform, and facing deadly peril. Aboard the doomed USS Arizona at Pearl harbour. In the prisoner of war camp at the end of the Bataan death march. On the frozen mountain passes above the Chosin Reservoir. Behind enemy lines in the jungles of North Vietnam. Dug into sweltering foxholes on the Arabian desert. In the quiet moments before battle, when they put pen to paper to reach out to home and friends, these men addressed their letters to ‘Boys Town’. They and thousands of other residents of Father Flanagan’s famed ‘City of Little Men’ went on from Boys Town to serve with distinction in their country’s armed forces. These are their stories of simple duty, sacrifice and tragedy, courage, and ultimate triumph.