Love Letters From A War Zone

In 2009, I stumbled across an estate sale in Salt Lake City where hundreds of letters, journals and photo albums of two young lovers from the 1940’s were being offered for sale. What fascinated me was the completeness of the collection itself. Beginning on January the 1st of 1942 in a small mining town and ending in Japan on March the 6th of 1946, this is an intriguing story of love held true during the tumultuous times of WWII. Rather than try to fictionalize their lives, I let their own words capture the full emotion by assembling a chronological dated testament of the materials themselves. The only other entries I've added are bracketed and highlighted notes from historical sources to accent the work and identify their relationship to era events of relevance.

What captured me was the innocence of two young lovers struggling to find happiness during the savagery of war. Take the trip and follow their lives as they first come to know each other through diary and journal entries, then date, then decide to marry before Wayne Wilcox and Rhea Lou Olson marry in the small town of Copperton, Utah. Wayne not only survives the war, but is a very detailed writer as he describes the sights and sounds of jungle fighting along the Philippines then into occupation duty with the 33rd Infantry Division. None of the brutality of war, nor love between them is missed in this epic tale of sacrifice for God, country and one another.