Stories often wind up in the trash.
But this one begins there, with letters I found in a Tempe alley two years ago. They were dumped among heaps of books, files and envelopes stuffed with bills and receipts. The discards were too dated to be those of a college roomie who'd just left town. There were Time magazines from the 1940s, and old family scrapbooks, photo albums and manila folders filled with commendations and awards. They chronicled nearly three years that carried James Creasman away from his wife, small daughter, family and friends in Arizona to boot camp and other Army assignments in Texas, Maryland, Oklahoma and, finally, Europe.