Holy Trinity Lutheran Church of North Easton, Massachusetts (formerly Swedish Lebanon Lutheran Church) is pleased to introduce the reader to the letters written to our Military Service Members in World War II by The Churches Honor Roll Committee.
In 2009 a few members of the church were asked to clean out and organize a closet located in the church.Placed up high on one of the shelves in a brown envelope were many old yellowed papers. Upon further inspection of the papers we realized that they were copies of letters sent from the church members to the soldiers serving in WW II and many letters from soldiers. We also discovered in a locked file cabinet which contained an old notebook filled with letters, committee notes and news paper clippings.
The soldiers that were serving in WW II were listed as ‘The Honor Roll.’ In 1943 the Church formed an Honor Roll Committee. The intent of this Committee was to write one letter a month to the members of the church that were sent to war. Per the committee notes the letters were to consist of bringing the ‘hometown news’ to our ‘boys’ and girls’ of the Congregation. In total, thirty-four letters were sent to various places around the world.
The Honor Roll Committee knew the importance of the information that they were passing on to the soldiers and had copies made of each letter before they were sent. Throughout the years it seems that only two letters were not written, starting in the month of February 1943 the month of October 1944 was one. One can only imagine that this letter was not written because they were in preparation for the Memorial Service of PFC. Robert Everett Haglund who was killed in action on September 30th in France. Out of 68 church members sent to fight the war PFC Haglund was the only one not to return. November 1st.letter 21 was sent also a Thanksgiving Day letter 22. Also missing is the month of November 1945.The last letter, number thirty-four was written by Pastor A.J. Hilmer and dated December 1st 1945. With the war coming to an end many service men and women were on their way home and the Church began preparing for a large celebration.
The title and book cover‘So We’ll Meet Again’ came from a postcard that was sent home September 30th1943 from PFC. C.E. Nyquist to a Miss Doris Carlson which was one of the first Honor Roll Committee members. Many of the letters that were sent home from the soldiers to the Committee Members wrote how thankful they were to receive these letters from home. As of the time this book was put together there is only one living member of all the soldiers that were deployed. Ethel Anderson resides in West Bridgewater and is 100 years young.
Our mission in putting this book together is to preserve the rich history found written in these letters.As you read the letters we think you will experience the same compassion,concern, sorrow, joy, and faith of a small town and its commitment to the war effort and to the service men and women.
As you begin reading please note that these are the original letters and nothing has been altered. Names may have been missed spelled at the time of origination.
This book is published in conjunction of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church 125 Anniversary quite by accident or was it?
Committee: Elaine Anderson Sears
