Consider Donating Your War Letters for Memorial Day

letter to Dad in Vietnam

As Memorial Day approaches, our thoughts naturally turn to those who have served in the military over the years and generations. Memorial Day is, of course, about remembering their sacrifices, but there's something else you can do no matter what the date, and that's donate war letters. As anyone who's sent or received one of these will attest, they are some of the most moving letters ever written, but sadly, many of them are being tossed or otherwise lost. Fortunately, one man has made it a mission to do something about that.

author Andrew Carroll shows special letters from the collection

Andrew Carroll, best-selling author of War Letters (and most recently, Here Is Where), has spent years gathering, sharing, and writing about letters from every conflict the U.S. has participated in. Watch this video to see some of the most intriguing and powerful ones.

Recently, Carroll donated the entire collection of more than 100,000 letters to Chapman University in Orange, California for safekeeping and to ensure access going forward, but he and the university welcome fresh contributions. If you have any war letters in your possession, please consider donating them to The Center for American War Letters so that future generations will be able to read about your own family's experiences. It would be the most fitting of tributes.

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