EDITING TLC

CONNECTIONS: These are the articles that I write for the MWSA monthly e-newsletter, Dispatches. Check out MWSA at www.militarywriters.com 



CONNECTIONS: JANUARY 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all MWSA members! Here’s hoping that 2012 will bring us together to support each other in our writing endeavors. I hope that you will have a year full of learning which will take you further on your writing journey.

Before the MWSA Conference 2011, I made mention that I would be at the conference and would love to connect with folks. Well, Author Nancy Rial wins the A+ award because she is the only one that approached me about being interviewed for a CONNECTIONS article. We had an opportunity to go to the hospitality room, and Nancy shared her book, Alan’s Letters. It was awesome to have a page-by-page tour of the book, presented by the author.

As a teacher, I was interested to hear about the inspiration for Alan’s Letters. Nancy’s high school son was assigned an American history project in which he was to interview a soldier. In not being able to find someone to interview, his grandmother shared the stack of letters that had been sent from France, from her brother, Alan, during the time he served in WWII. Alan was one of the soldiers that gave his life serving in that war. The history teacher gave Nancy’s son approval to use this source of information for his project. What really surprised Nancy was just how much interest her son’s peers showed in the letters. Seeing this response from the high schoolers, Nancy was motivated to begin researching to put together a book for young people and adults.

Due to personal family circumstances, the young soldier, Alan, was not a high school graduate when he enlisted. Therefore, he actually was about the age of Nancy’s son and his classmates. The fact that these letters were sharing the story from a person their age, increased the interest, and made learning about WWII that much more real to them.

Nancy’s endeavor to put together this book about her uncle, has been a long and intense research project that has certainly exceeded that of her son’s high school project. Nancy has spent years researching for this book, both here in the States as well as in France. The letters stirred up many questions that she wanted to discover answers for, and it led her to meet a number of WWII veterans that have shared memories with her. She refers to them as “great old gents.” She has spent time with members of 5^th Division, E Company. It took her 2½ years to receive Alan’s U.S. military records. She spent much time at the National Archives reading daily records from the time her uncle spent in the Army. Nancy’s research is ongoing even after publication. In the summer of 2010, she walked the French farmland where Alan was KIA and she will be visiting the WWII R&R area near Bosimont, France, this February.

Nancy Rial is currently a library media specialist with the Cambridge Public Schools, with a background in the fine arts and library science. With this knowledge and background, she knew that to make the book one which students would appreciate, it should be a visual tour as well as text. She has done an outstanding job in presenting a work of history that will capture both young people and adults alike. Please take the time to go to the Alan’s Letters website to learn more about the book. It is an excellent read for anyone interested in learning not only Alan’s story, but “soldiers’ stories from WWII.” You won’t be disappointed. (http://www.alansletters.com) Just click on the image of the book cover to go to the site.

  Book Synopsis: This is a personal chronicle of a teen soldier in WWII from basic training to his adventures across northern France on the front lines as a member of the Fifth Division, part of Patton’s Third Army. Using all primary sources from the historical period, the book is attractively designed in beautiful color. The letters from Alan to his family represent all the young soldiers’ voices when he expresses a yearning for a normal life again and appreciation of all that he has had as a youth growing up in America.

CONNECTIONS: FEBRUARY 2012

Thanks to MWSA, I’ve “met” many terrific people…most of whom are authors. According to Dictionary.com an author is defined as: a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, editor, translator, or copyist. I see myself as the “editor,” be that as it may, a “copy-editor,” for those of you who like to make that distinction.  I’m supposing that I can also call myself an author even though I have not written a book (as of yet), because I have written several poems, a number of short stories, and I write this column for Dispatches.

We have many members of MWSA, and many are “out there” enjoying what that membership brings to them. Now with the new website, there is much more for all of us to take advantage of to enjoy, to learn, to share, to appreciate, etc. Not all of us are published authors, but we are writers, nonetheless. I am thankful to those members who are supportive of those of us along the spectrum of writing who have accomplished publication, no matter what the venue. Here’s to a very productive year for all MWSA writers.

This month I’d like to introduce you to Gerald “Jerry” Wright, who contacted me to copy edit a short story, which he submitted to a contest. It was about a mission he flew when he was a helicopter gunship pilot in Vietnam. We’ve had a good time working on several projects.

Jerry is an Army veteran who finished his career at the rank of colonel. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross–twice, the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star Medal, thirty-six Air Medals, and later the Legion of Merit.

Some of the events that led to the awards for valor included being hit a dozen or more times by ground fire and after counting a hundred bullet holes in his aircraft—he quit counting. He also had three forced landings due to hostile fire. The fuel cell on his gunship was hit on two separate occasions—fortunately, the bullets were not tracer rounds that could have caused an explosion and blown the aircraft out of the sky. Shrapnel from an eight-inch howitzer round ripped a hole in the middle of the windshield. Jerry had to jettison rocket pods due to a tracer round starting a fire in one of the solid fuel rocket motors, and he took several rounds through the windshield and cockpit during an attack to suppress fire from machine guns hidden in bunkers. Upon returning to “the real world” he was a test pilot at Aberdeen Proving Grounds; he was the first pilot to fire a mini-gun on the OH 6A.

Jerry started and managed three businesses. One was successful, one moderately so, and he states he had one that flopped. He returned to the Army and served in various assignments to include being a senior staff officer for a three star general; he was selected for, completed (to include many writing assignments), and graduated from the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 

Jerry is now at a point where he wants to spend time each day on his writing. I am honored to work with this veteran—he is a hero, in my book. I’ve enjoyed communicating with him via phone and email. Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll have the pleasure of getting to meet him in person. Hey, just maybe on my trip to Ohio for the next MWSA conference!

We’d like to share one of his poems. If you’d like to give Jerry some feedback, you can reach him via his email: wrightgl@centurytel.net  (Please go to my REFERENCES page, and click on Jerry's photo, which will take you to the article, but with the poem attached. Thank you! OR just click on Jerry's photo above!)