Page 17 - History of War - Issue 05-14

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KOREAN WAR VETERAN

REUNITED WITH LOVE LETTER
AFTER 63 YEARS
Letter mailed from US base in Japan to be returned to its author

ere’s another story to warm the
cockles of your heart. While
stationed in Japan’s Camp
Drake in November, 1951, US
H Army Private Gilles LeBlanc
poured his feelings out in a letter to
his girlfriend, Carole Petch, who was
based in Toronto, Canada.
He wrote: “Honey you can’t realise
how much I love you and think and
dream about being with you. It’s
hurting me all over.” He then writes
about their wedding preparations.
Sixty-three years later, Sandi
Blood of Murrells Inlet, South
Carolina bought a second-hand
paperback in a book shop in the
nearby town of Garden City. When
she opened it, a red, white and
blue air mail envelope, with an
Army/Air Force Postal Service
postmark and 6¢ stamp, fell
out. Inside was the three-page,
yellowed letter, written on vellum. Thinkstock
Blood was captivated by the
letter, saying, “I’m a hopeless
romantic, as most of my friends will tell
you and my husband, too.” Determined to Their daughter, Paula
reunite the letter with its owner, Blood turned Gillies, explained that they used to go on
to social media for help and a Facebook friend holiday to Garden City and her mother must
helped her find Gilles LeBlanc, aged 84, who have accidentally left the letter in a book she’d
was living in Detroit, Michigan. exchanged there.
He married his love within two weeks of LeBlanc is delighted that Blood will hand-
returning home from his tour of duty and they deliver his letter, saying: “That’s as sweet as
had six children. They were together for 22 hell. I feel wonderful about it. I think the lady
years but divorced in the 1970s. in South Carolina is just wonderful.”

WAR HORSE FARM OPENS
ITS DOORS AS A MUSEUM

ans of the book War Horse by
Michael Morpurgo will be pleased
Fto hear that the Devon farm on
which the author based part of the novel
has opened up as a museum.
Mr and Mrs Ward, the owners of
Parsonage Farm, have created an
exhibition in the 400-year-old cob
barn to show off their collection of
photographs, artefacts, documents and
pictures relating to the story, the local
area of Iddesleigh during WWI and the
horses’ lives in the trenches.
The original story of the deep bond
between a boy called Albert and his
childhood companion – a horse called
Joey – so captured the imagination of its
readers that it was turned into an award-
winning stage production in London’s West
End and, later, a Steven Spielberg film.
And to add to the attractions at the farm,
there’s a real-life Joey to meet!
The farm was also once home to the
Reverend John “Jack” Russell, the first
breeder of the eponymous terriers. War
Horse Valley Country Farm Park is open
Saturdays and Sundays from 2pm to 6pm.
Visit www.warhorsevalley.co.uk. HISTORY WAR 17
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