Production Grades: Cover A-; design and topography A; editing A; marketing copy A.
For the Carleton and Watts families, every letter received during World War II revealed the status of a husband, father, uncle, or brother. In his intimate memoir, Watts shares his family history through the words of his father and uncles, weaving a moving narrative of familial bonds, heritage, and legacy. While stationed around the world, brothers Harold, Wilbur, and Ray Carleton and their nephews, Wayland Jr. and Carroll Watts, send regular updates on their whereabouts, daily lives, and training. Their letters offer solace to their families, who often wonder whether their loved ones are safe, and in their return correspondence, their families provide a welcome reprieve from military life.
Each letter contains youthful excitement for the world coupled with homesickness, as the men find themselves scattered around the globe, from Texas to Tokyo. “Strange thing is that what the boys miss most is ordinary beans,” Ray reports. “Coffee here is so poor that I now drink tea entirely.” As the narrative unfolds through their letters, readers experience their anticipation and displacement—as well as mundane daily frustrations with mosquitoes, requests for specific items from home, and, in Harold’s case, longing for “candy and cold American beer.” When the family learns Harold has died, the loss feels abrupt: “losing Harold was my family’s greatest sacrifice during World War II,” Watts writes.
Watts takes great care to preserve the accuracy of each letter, presenting them as they were written to their recipients. As he breaks down his family tree, provides insights into each man’s location, and reveals where they were in life during each year represented in the correspondence, readers will be moved by the emotional toll war takes on both the soldiers and the people they love at home. The endearing faith and hope that resonate in each letter highlight the bonds of family and showcase how love and connection can endure in desolate times, particularly Watts’ assertion that the war “never truly ended for the men and women who served in the military.”
Takeaway: Touching letters reveal soldiers’ and families’ experiences of World War II.
Great for fans of: Andrew Carroll’s War Letters, Rod Gragg’s From Foxholes and Flight Decks.
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
July 16, 2026