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World War II book focuses on firsthand accounts of the heroes of southern Delaware
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World War II Heroes of Southern Delaware
As a young boy growing up in southern Delaware, James Diehl remembers countless times sitting around the living room and listening to his grandfather tell stories about World War II and about the sacrifices he and thousands other American men during his era.
These stories were fun to listen to but they never carried any meaning to young James. As he got older, it was then he began to realize just how historic the sacrifices made by these heroic young Americans of the 40s really were.
It wasn’t until a longtime family friend and newspaper man in his hometown of Seaford, Delaware asked him about honoring these special men in a year-long newspaper series did everything come together for him.
“The series began in the fall of 2007 and over the course of the next fifty weeks,” James says, “I dug into stories about Iwo Jima, Pearl Harbor, D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.
“I also profiled veterans who remained stateside during the war and even featured a couple of women who did their part to support the war effort. Through it all, I made a concreted effort to tell these stories with emotion, accuracy and with pride and dignity they deserved.”
Eventually James became emotionally attached to these stories and to the men and women who told them. “These are first-hand accounts of a troubling time in American history,” he says, “a time when the country’s very existence was at stake.”
Many times during the interviews, emotions took over and breaks were needed. A number of veterans turned him down and he was disappointed many times over but he understood. James continued to tell what stories he could. He knew if he stopped, they would be lost forever.
Nearly two years and one prestigious award later, he is finally able to release these stories in book form and will be published on Veteran’s Day 2009.
World War II Heroes of Southern Delaware is filled with stories of men and women who served the United States of America with pride during one of the country’s most tumultuous times – they were indeed members of the “Greatest Generation,” as Tom Brokaw so eloquently stated in 1998.
“I’ve done my best to do their stories justice,” he says. “It’s now up to readers to judge whether or not I’ve accomplished that goal.”
James Diehl will be on a virtual book tour throughout the months of November and December. If you would like to visit his official tour page, click here.
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