A Hometown Doughboy

By Dan Garitta

This is a book about a local New Haven Connecticut young man drafted into the US Army in 1917 and sent off to those very dreadful, bloody and deadly trenches of France in WW-1.But it is more than that. The book is a reminder to us some 100 years later, of the support this soldier - Private Ernest Stevens - received from his New Haven Home Front: The Knights of Columbus, Yale, The Red Cross, The Salvation Army, The YMCA, the New Haven public library system, Winchester, Mossberg and other arms manufactures that FDR later labeled as the "Arsenal of Democracy" during World War II. The core of the book is a copy of the unit book written by 302nd Field Artillary officers/historians in 1919 to capture the history of the unit and its part in the war. We have inserted selected letters from Earnest Stevens, at key points of his service, as well as surrounding the unit book with the context of the times. Earnest Stevens was just an ordinary young man - not old enough to drink, but old enough to die in the trenches - drafted into war like so many others. His letters reflect his ordinariness - no hero him, just someone doing his duty and hoping to get home. The book is about taking young Private Stevens, his Army unit, and his "home front" support, out of a shoebox tucked away in a dark closet, and bringing that young man and his world and culture into the light of today's times - and hopefully introduce and reintroduce today's citizens to a rich legacy of those who serve and those who support. Thanks

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1080629106
• ISBN13: 9781080629107
• Release Date: August 2019
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"