Guys, listen. I recently received an email that just blew me away and made all the work I've been doing on this project worth it. I'm crying right now. I did not expect this to happen as soon as did. Heck, I wasn't sure if it would happen at all.
A gentleman by the name of Ed Janota sent me this wonderful email:
"Hello Auntie Jen,
"This is amazing that you have a copy of the year book from my 1960 basic training, I was on 4 Battalion, 3rd Reg, Co B.
"I am listed as E. Janota, Jr. I was 17 yrs old and fresh out of high school then headed to MP school at Ft Gordon. Eventually wound up in Vietnam in 1966.
"I lost my year book around 1978 after moving to Texas. I have also lost almost all of my old service buddies. I would dearly love to have pdf pics of anything you have from my year book. I am going to your donation site and do what I can.
You are a Godsend, Bless You. "
This is why I did this. From the first moment that I saw the yearbooks in the antique store, I decided to purchase those books & put them online. For Free! I knew there had to be graduates that had lost their yearbooks or never received them. And there had to be families of these servicemen who had never seen these yearbooks. My dad never discussed his service in Vietnam unless prompted, and even then sometimes he wouldn't talk about it.
So receiving this email has just reassured me that I am doing the right thing. It has lit a fire under me to try to track down more yearbooks. I already got two more recently. One I found online and the other was donated by Lynn Wagner from the Franklin County Historical Society. We are going to grow this collection as large as we can. And keep this collection for free.
I need your help, guys. Talk to friends and family. Look at yard sales. Search antique stores. Help me track down as many yearbooks as we can. If you are ever curious if I have a particular yearbook or not, just check my website. Keep it bookmarked. Now is the time to be looking for these. Servicemen from this time period are passing away and their belongings are being donated. Let's save these yearbooks. Together. I don't even need to have the book in hand. If you can photograph or scan the yearbooks, that will be just as good.
If you are unable to find yearbooks but want to help, you can send me donations that go directly toward purchasing yearbooks. Here is the link specifically for this: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/AuntieJens?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US
Together we can connect servicemen and their families to these yearbooks.
No comments:
Post a Comment