Greg Metcalf

Letters Home Greg Metcalf

Rex and Kate, just married, part when Rex ships out as a member of the inaugural crew of the USS Shangrila, bomber pilot for the U. S. Navy, fighting in the Pacific theater against the Japanese during WWII. They make a lovers' pact to write each other every day. This romantic gesture, these letters home, become more and more vital as the distance between them widens, as the months slowly pass. As he waits out the big three: the war's end, word of his wife's delivery of their first child, and his coming home, his letters reveal a man struggling to boost his wife's morale by assuring her of his safe return while shielding her from the bitter effects of his experience of war. And on July 23, 1945, the SBC2 dive bomber Rex pilots is hit by anti-aircraft fire during an attack at Kure, forcing him to crash land in the Pacific. He misses writing one day and then returns to telling his story in letters home.