Tears and smiles mingled recently when a soldier’s letters sent from New Guinea during World War II to Corona were handed over to members of the soldier’s family.
The exchange took place April 27 at the Starr Library in Rhinebeck, N.Y., a convenient location to meet for the family members from downstate and the upstate man who had the letters.
As first reported in The Tablet last July, James Breig, author of Searching for Sgt. Bailey: Saluting an Ordinary Soldier of World War II, came across the letters while researching his nonfiction book. In The Tablet last July, he shared some of the contents of the letters, which were written by Pvt. John La Barbera and mailed from the South Pacific to a friend in their neighborhood of Our Lady of Sorrows parish. He signed the letters “Jackie.”
At the conclusion of his article, Breig invited readers to fill in what he didn’t know, such as whether Jackie returned from the war and married Gail, the girlfriend often mentioned in his mail. Almost immediately, the family of the soldier – including his sister and two sons – contacted Breig with the answers: Jackie had made it home and wed Gail. (That information was relayed to readers in a second article about Jackie that appeared in August. Both stories can be read at www.thetablet.org.)
One son told Breig that the family knew very little about Jackie’s years in the service, years that took him from Corona to Hawaii and through the South Pacific islands to New Guinea. When the family, who now lives on Long Island, asked if they could get copies of the letters to learn more about him, the author said they deserved to have the originals.
Originally, the handover of the letters was planned for Nov. 11, Veterans Day, but Hurricane Sandy had other ideas. Various members of the La Barbera families were impacted by the storm. Then Christmas and winter further delayed the get-together.
At the library get-together, family members called Gail “quite a character” and said Jackie was very religious. Evidence of that appeared in his mail; he often mentions praying and going to Mass. “He was a saint,” said his sons, who pointed out that their father, a policeman after the war, was a parish usher and extraordinary minister of Holy Communion.
When the letters were finally passed to the eight family members, including representatives of the third generation, they eagerly began perusing the missives. “You’ve got to read this one” and “Listen to what he says here” were some of the utterances heard as they passed around the keepsakes from 70 years ago and picked out their favorite portions.
One son noted that while his dad said very little about his time overseas, he did reveal that, as he sailed home after the war, “the smell of sausages” came wafting across the water to him.
“That’s his Italian heritage,” joked another relative.
The day of emotion included laughter about Jackie and Gail’s on-again, off-again relationship during the war; amazement over the chain of events that brought the letters to them; and joy over seeing Jackie’s handwriting and realizing that he had held the letters while on an island half-a-world away.
Being able to touch the letters made them even more meaningful, said one of Jackie’s sons, because they were a connection across time and distance.
Plans were made to share that feeling by quickly getting the letters to Gail, who is in a nursing home. Jackie died in 1996, just before their golden wedding anniversary.
