Hi, my name is Marion. My mom was previously married to a wonderful man who fought in Europe during WWII. Unfortunately, he died at the age of 29 in 1952 from bronchial pneumonia, leaving my mom and 3 little girls (my half-sisters). My sisters are all now in their 60s. Their father's name was Boyd Nixon Hartman. While on leave in July 1941, Boyd met my mother. He was stationed at Ft. Dix at the time. Since the time of their meeting, up until the end of the war when he was talking about coming home, Boyd wrote letters to my mother consistently. We have a collection of over 300 letters that my mother saved. About 2 years ago I took all of the original letters from one of my sisters and scanned each one and put them on my Photobucket site so that the rest of the family may read them. Boyd also had taken many pictures while overseas (Germany, France, Holland, etc.) that he brought back. My mother saved all of them as well. The letters were a wonderful way for my sisters to learn about their father. He even proposed to my mother in his letters. He bared his heart and soul to her, writing sometimes from fox holes with pencils so worn down that some of them were hard to read. Some are quite romantic, others funny (.."I'm sending you this pair of German boots - the previous owner no longer has any use for them.") After all these years the original letters are disintegrating, and I lovingly inserted each page into an acid-free document holder and put them in a large binder in chronological order. It practically reads like a novel. My mother also saved his honorable discharges from the Army and National Guard, and his separation papers. At this point in time I'm trying to get a real sense of where he was, and when. I do have dates to go by, but I want to find out more about the company he served with, and perhaps by doing more research and perusing this forum I can find out more about the areas in which he served. He was with the 157th, 228th and 959th Field Artillery, C Battalion (I hope I have that correct, I don't have the info in front of me at the moment). Anyway, I'm hoping to learn more and to glean any information I can from reading your forum. Looking forward to hearing from you all! Thanks, Marion
Welcome Marion, It seems that you hold those momentos in the same high regard that most of the members here would. It is good that you have taken such good care of the letters. My grandparents exchanged letters while my grandfather was overseas. They were married and had two daughters at the time. Unfortunately, my grandmother burned them all a few years before she died and I would give almost anything to have them. Anyway, welcome to the forum, please feel free to post anything you wish, we'd enjoy seeing it.
Hi Marion and welcome to this fine forum. Jeff is correct. Your decision to save and preserve those items is something that many of us envy. My mother still has the letters she and my father exchanged while he was overseas. She has told me that I can have them when she passes away. Hang on and I'm sure others will be along to help in your quest to trace the history of your mom's husband.
Thank you so much for the warm welcome! JW, I'm sorry to learn that your grandmother burned all your grandfather's letters. I'm sure it would have helped you to learn more about him. I do treasure those letters of my mom's first husband. My own dad also served overseas during the war, but I know practically nothing about his service in the Army at all. I think he was in Germany, but I'm not sure. All he would tell me was that he peeled a lot of potatoes! He passed away years ago, but I'm still planning on trying to find out if I can obtain a copy of his records. That's also a work in progress. Lou, have you been able to read any of your dad's letters at all?
After my grandmother died (I was 19), several years later I recorded 6 hours of video tape of my grandfather, where he talked about his entire life, from his earliest memories up to that point in the 1990s. It was a wonderful talk we had and he told me so much. We ended the time where he talked about his aunts and uncles, people who were born in the 1860s.
No. She has never shared what is in them either with me or my brother or sister. Unfortunately, she lives in California and I don't see her enough to press her on it, so I'm reduced to waiting.
From Stanton: Order of Battle U.S. Army World War II 157th Field Artillery Battalion (155mm Howitzer -tractor drawn) 20 Feb '45 Camp Claibborne, La (2nd Bn., 157th FA)/12 Nov '45 Camp Chaffee, Ark. Boston P/E: 5 Sept '44 - France ETO: 15 Sept '44 Canpaigns: Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, Rhineland, Central Europe. New York PE: 20 July '45 (p. 401) 228th Field Artillery Battalion (155mm Howitzer -tractor drawn) 8 Feb '43 Ft. Bragg NC (1st Bn., 228th FA)/ 27 Oct '45 Camp Miles Standish, Mass. New York PE: 14 Feb '44 - England: 23 Feb '44 France ETO: 28 June '44 Campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Central Europe. Boston PE: 26 Oct '45. (p. 404) 959th Field Artillery Battalion (4.5 inch gun tractor drawn) 8 Feb '43 Camp Roberts, CA (2nd Bn., 191st FA) / 5 Mar '46 Camp Kilmer, NJ New York PE: 18 April '44. England: 26 April '44. France ETO: 24 June '44. Campaigns: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Central Europe. New York PE: 4 Mar '46. (p. 423) These were the big guns, and I am guessing these units would have been assigned to corps or Army. I bit of further research will determine which corps or Army. I hope this helps. Greg C.
Thank you so much, Greg, I sincerely appreciate that! I know he wrote to my mom from almost all of those places. This has been a big help!
