Wish a WWII Vet Happy Birthday!

Today is my birthday. I live in the Midwest of the US and have sworn to myself that someday I’m going to be somewhere warm for my birthday! Right now it is 30 degrees so I know it could be worse. But I’m definitely thinking ‘beach’ is in a future birthday!

Anyway, I have nothing to complain about for my Big Day! God has blessed me with a loving family, great health, fun job and lots of writing opportunities. My latest mission of interviewing World War II vets has led me to meet loads of interesting people who served our country in 1941-1946!

I began interviewing them a few years ago and found each one fascinating! I put 28 of their stories into this book:

World War II Legacies: Stories of Northeast Indiana Veterans. It covers Allen, Adams, Wells, Whitley, Huntington counties. You can purchase it using the Buy Now button on this site’s home page with Paypal.

I’ve made it a practice to send birthday cards to the vets from the book and others I’ve met. Now I’d like to extend birthday wishes to as many of them as possible via cards. Even though I may never get to meet vets outside of my immediate area, I’d love to let them know that someone cares about them enough to send a birthday card. I have stacks of cards waiting to be sent!

If you know of a World War II vet who could use a birthday card sent with well wishes, please email me their address. You could also send it via private message on Facebook (same name) or Twitter (@kjreusser). I check both accounts regularly.

I’m also planning to honor the vets whose photos I’ve taken during interviews on my blog on their birthdays. I may miss them by a day or two, but I’ll try to keep up!

Here is a vet whose birthday was yesterday—Emery Gates. He enlisted in the Navy in early 1945 and served on a Destroyer until mid-1946. Thanks for your service, Mr. Gates! If you leave a comment for Mr. Gates, he’ll read it here.

Thanks for your help in sending me addresses of World War II vets who could use birthday cards! This is my mission until the last World War II vet is gone. Let’s treasure our nation’s oldest vets while we can!