Veterans Day theme will be letters

Ask Marine Corps veteran Clark Budweg about “mail call” and he’ll give you a quick smile.“That’s what we waited for,” he said, “and I don’t know if anyone can really understand how important those letters from home were. In the Gulf War, in every war, those letters meant everything to us.”It’s why New Hampton’s American Legion post will focus on those letters — both those sent to service personnel overseas and those sent home — during a unique Veterans Day program next month.“We wanted to do something different because those letters — both the ones veterans received and the ones that they sent — were such a big part of veterans’ lives,” said Brian Quirk, the commander of the local Legion post. “It’s been really fascinating to read them and to know that for a lot of guys, that’s what kept them going.”— For more on this story, see the Oct. 23 New Hampton Tribune.