`McFerren's Memoirs' were compiled, edited, and written by Bill Boas in 1995-96. This promotional copy is followed by the book's introduction. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Overview: The manuscript is an American family's wartime experience during 1941- 1946 as depicted in narrative, personal letters, news and magazine articles, illustrations, and photographs. This carefully preserved collection of original private correspondence and papers is a compelling and engaging `snapshot' of a young couple's determination to reinforce and sustain their love while separated by the vicissitudes of war. Scions of distinguished colonial American families, William and Betty McFerren met, courted, and were married while their country was at war. Their love and infatuation was at flood stage when they were separated by combat necessity. The letters they wrote during that separation poignantly portray their admiration, love, and passion, as well as their views on the mores, politics, economics, philosophy, and the events of their time. Their private correspondence comprises hundreds of handwritten and typed letters, each a candid expression of two aware, educated, literate, people in love. Their correspondence was interrupted when Lt. McFerren, a 28-year- old navigator flying on a B-24 heavy bomber from Australia, was shot down on a mission in the Celebes Islands and captured by the Japanese. Tortured and threatened with death by firing squad, McFerren survived internment in three Japanese prison camps and was repatriated in September 1945 to his country, his wife, and two- year-old son who was born while he was overseas. The correspondence of his wife Betty, collateral family members, and friends during his missing-in-action and prisoner-of-war periods, is a cogent example of the faith, hope, support, and will of a people immersed in total war. The memoirs will include a first-person narrative of McFerren's wartime experiences and recollections taken from recorded interviews being made in the spring and summer of 1995. This, plus the unabridged personal letters, illustrations of telegrams, letters, photographs, original contemporary documents, and news accounts about them, promise to make The McFerren Memoirs a moving and passionate account of the growing love of two people, as well as a prime source for cultural, military, and political historians of the period. The prose of the letters is candid, lively, and reflects a delightfully-archaic style of American family letter- writing inherited from the 19th Century, that will amuse and captivate both the generation who participated in the war and their children. Educated at Connecticut's Hotchkiss School and Yale University '37, McFerren's maternal family included: Thomas Welles, colonial governor of Connecticut (1655-56); Gideon Welles, Navy Secretary under President Lincoln; and Sumner Welles, Under-Secretary of State under President Franklin Roosevelt. Mrs. McFerren's family extends back to 1637 Plymouth Colony. For his war service, McFerren received the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, a Purple Heart and two Presidential Group Citations. ----------------------------------------------------------------- McFerren's Memoirs Introduction Much has been said and written about the recent half-century anniversary of the end of World War II. Commentators spoke and wrote about the great battles and victories in Europe and the Pacific and the campaigns, ships, airplanes, generals and admirals, heros, and the extraordinary efforts of soldiers, sailors, and airmen. What was missing from all the hoopla, was an account of the emotional battles that families waged on the home front. I think this omission is simply a lack of having an extensive published record of what those of us and our families who experienced the war said, thought, and did during that tragic time. In 1941 when the war started for the United States, there weren't fax machines or computer e-mail, and people only used long distance telephone service for brief, important, and timely messages because it was relatively expensive. People spanned the distance between them by writing letters to each other. There is something visceral about a letter. You receive it, and you can hold the expression of another person, a loved one, in your hand. It can be savored and re-read as often as you like. People made an effort to communicate thoughtfully with each other. Today's electronic communication seems sterile by comparison. After a telephone call, all you have is a memory of a voice, and most of the details and nuance of the the conversation are lost. A letter reveals the hand that wrote it. It leaves a permanent and detailed record, if saved. Letter writing seems a lost art in the world today. We are too distracted to cultivate it. However, for those of us who lived and fought the war, letters were the lifeblood of our morale, and a reassurance of the love of our families, wives, and sweethearts. I was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps serving as a navigator with a B-24 heavy bomber group based in the Southwest Pacific during the war. When I arrived in Australia's northern territory in May 1943, I had been married just five months, after a courtship of only four months. This was not unique to me as thousands of others going off to war experienced the same whirlwind romances and marriages before they left. My wife, along with many others discovered they were pregnant after we left for war, and our sons and daughters were born while we were away. Many of us didn't see or know our children until we returned one, two, three, or more years later. From a child's point of view, it could not have been the best introduction to life to have one parent missing during those early formative months and years. My own experience was especially tragic for both me and my family. During one mission in October 1943, my plane was shot down, and I was captured by the Japanese and interred as a prisoner of war for the duration. It was a full year before word reached my wife and family that I was captured, alive, and in reasonably good health. My son was just one month old when I was captured and I did not see him until the war ended in September 1945, when he was two years old. A story similar to that experienced by countless others. Betty, who is still my wife after 52 years, saved all the letters we wrote to each other during the war. After I was shipped overseas we tried to write each other every day, and except for times when I or she couldn't, we kept up a determined schedule of "every day" letters to each other. Those letters are the substance of this volume. We were young, our love was at flood stage, and through our letters we revealed sides of our character and thoughts that we didn't have time or opportunity to express adequately during our courtship. Our letters to each other were a kind of "post-courtship" that held a poignancy for each of us that kept both our spirits up, and confirmed and reinforced the sentiments that convinced us that we had indeed found the person with whom we were destined to share our lives. During May of 1943 I wrote Betty a letter saying I wanted to write a book about our lives and love. The book didn't get written then, or in the intervening years, but in the Spring of 1995, when Betty reminded me about our letters carefully preserved in our basement, and I started to re-read them, I realized we had already written our "book". Not only had we written our personal story, but our letters and those of others seemed to portray a larger sociological story of the mood of the time. While I was a prisoner-of-war, Betty had to tough it out alone, but fortunately people in similar circumstances established a support network. Betty wrote and received a flood of letters from both our respective families, friends, and strangers who dedicated their time to writing the next-of-kin of prisoners of war. Total war generated total support on the home front. A book of letters without setting the context, and a few notes about people, places, and events described within them would leave questions with the reader. So along with the letters I have tried to fill in the gaps, set the stage, explain the obscure, and offer some reflections along with the recollections of both the battle and home fronts. It wasn't all tragedy, of course. There were humorous episodes both overseas and at home as both our letters and my narrative will show. I am now 80 years old, and I hope our letters will strike a nostalgic chord with the many people still living who experienced the war as we did. I hope, too, that the our generation's children will have a better understanding about what impact, for better or worse, that period and war had for our lives. Each war family has its own memories. In part, what follows is ours. Wm. McFerren (Bill Boas). Golden, Colorado 1996 Note: Bill McFerren died in 1997. The unpublished manuscript remains a part of his estate.