On Writing Your Forgotten Sons by Anne Montgomery

In 2019, I traveled to Baltimore at the request of a dear friend. She was facing a delicate, possibly life-changing surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and asked that I stand in as her healthcare power of attorney.

The night before the operation, Gina handed me a ziplock bag. Inside I found a packet of yellowed letters. We’d spoken of her mother’s handsome, rakish brother on occasion over the years, and of the odd circumstances surrounding his death near the end of World War II. “No matter what happens to me, I want you to tell Bud’s story,” she said.

And so I did. 

My World War II historical fiction novel Your Forgotten Sons is the story of Sergeant Joseph “Bud” Richardville and the soldiers with whom he served. Bud was not very different from the millions of other young men who fought in the U.S. military in World War II. He came from rural Indiana, where his family lived in poverty, a hangover from the Great Depression. He knew little about the world outside of Vincennes, but as the inevitability of the coming conflict became clear, Bud moved to Michigan to work in the paper mills, an industry that was essential to the war effort and which kept him stateside until he was drafted in 1943.

When Bud boarded the train for Camp Warren, Wyoming that summer, he was 29 and found himself riding with other soon-to-be soldiers, many still in their teens. Once at bootcamp, Bud was assigned to the Graves Registration Service. Family stories indicate that when Bud was young he’d periodically been called upon to help remove the corpses of those who’d fallen from the trains that trundled through his neighborhood, travelers who’d jumped aboard, hoping for a free ride, but who’d slipped and fallen to their deaths. Perhaps he’d mentioned this fact during his induction at Camp Warren and that familiarity with the dead colored the decision to place him in a GRS. Bud would serve in the 606 Graves Registration Company where he and his brethren had a very specific and horrifying task: locate, identify, and bury the dead.

Think about that for a moment. Now consider that the gathering of the dead is an undertaking that seems to have been erased from military history. Consider all the war movies where soldiers are mortally wounded on foreign battlefields, some blown to pieces, but once their deaths are confirmed the camera moves on, ignoring the carnage. That is where the soldiers of the GRS stepped in. No matter where servicemen and women fell, they needed to be identified then buried in hallowed ground. We can see the evidence of their work today in the 26 permanent American cemeteries and 31 federal memorials, markers, and monuments scattered worldwide.

The big problem came when I tried to track Bud’s trail through the carnage of World War II. My first thought was to locate Bud’s military records, but I soon discovered that in 1973 a massive fire raged through the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, destroying approximately 17 million official military personnel files, Bud’s among them

I decided then to follow Bud’s path by utilizing the postmarks on his letters home, stamps that gave me dates and locations. Those postmarks led me to believe that Bud was stationed in England just before D-Day, was part of the invasion at Normandy, was at the Battle of the Bulge, and was in Czechoslovakia when General George Patton’s Third Army liberated that country from the Nazis. It was only when the book was going to press that I received a copy of Bud’s obituary which read, “He landed in France on D-Day and was with Hodge’s First Army as a member of the 606 Graves Registration Company. Action took him from France to Luxembourg, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Germany.” So there it was. Proof that the postmarks had confirmed where and when Bud served.

Like many soldiers Bud was beaten down by the war. The evidence was in his letters, especially the last one he wrote to his mother.

Gosh Mom, isn’t God going to let me keep anything for myself? First, he took my son, and now he has taken my wife. And I don’t get to come home for a long time yet. This sitting around here and doing nothing is getting on my nerves. I wish that they would work me till I couldn’t stand up. There is too much time that I have to think about what has happened, and that bothers me too much. 

I know that you will start to worry about me, Mom. But please don’t. I’ll be alright. Tell all I said hello, will you. 

Goodbye for now. 

Your Forgotten Son 

Bud

After reading Bud’s letters, the change in him was obvious. He was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, which is not surprising under the circumstances. But these invisible injuries were ignored back then, as they are today. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs says an average of 20 veterans die by suicide daily. It’s estimated that 60 to 70% of military personnel who experience mental health issues don’t seek help, fearing the admission will put their careers in jeopardy. The number of servicemen and women who come home with deep invisible wounds is unknown, but isn’t it time the military did a better job of helping those who are suffering in silence?

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Anne Butler Montgomery has worked as a television sportscaster, newspaper and magazine writer, teacher, and amateur sports official. She most notably anchored the Emmy and ACE award‐winning SportsCenter. Her novels include The Castle, The Scent of Rain, A Light in the Desert, and Wild Horses on the Salt and the upcoming Your Forgotten Sons. 

Connect with Montgomery at annemontgomerywriter.com, and on Instagram and on Twitter/X. 

YOUR FORGOTTEN SONS

Bud Richardville is inducted into the Army as the United States prepares to enter World War II in 1943.

A chance comment has Bud assigned to the Graves Registration Service, where his unit is tasked with locating, identifying, and burying the dead. Bud ships out, leaving behind his new wife, Lorraine: a mysterious woman who has stolen his heart but whose shadowy past leaves many unanswered questions.

When Bud and his men hit the beach at Normandy, they are immediately thrust into the horrors of what working in a graves unit entails. Bud is beaten down by the gruesome demands of his job and losses in his personal life, but then he meets Eva, an optimistic soul who despite the war can see a positive future. Will Eva’s love be enough to save him?

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Category: On Writing