The Marietta journal and courier., 1918-02-15
A Soldiers Letter
To His Mother

Marine Barracks, Port-Au-Prince,
January 25th, 1918.
Editor of The Marietta Journal,
Marietta, Ga.
Dear Sir:
| have letter that | would like
very much to have published in your
paper if you will give me enough
space.
A Soldiers Letter to His Mother.
The spirit of '76 and the spirit of
81, the spirit of courageous selt-sac-
rifice in the service of an idle, lives
today in the breasts of thousands OF
young Americans. 1t is excellently ex-
pressed in this tenderly final letter
written by a boy who is now on duty
somewhere in the United States Ma
val service.
"Dear Mother and Father: Your
letters came to me yesterday and now
| wish had said nothing about ava
ton until nearer the end of my am
bulance service. The whole argu-
ment amounts to this: | am of mill
tary age and must take up some SER
vice, now that we are at war; l am
physically fit for aviation but there
are millions over and under age avail
able for ambulanciers and camion
drivers. The air is a bit more dan
gerous but death comes from little
bullet and is quick and clean. You
are not blown into infinity by high
explosives that leave unbelievable
holes in your body. You fight man
to man in the air..
81 must do some military duty, af-
ter all, if | am not to survive this
war, what difference does it make
how | go about it? No one wants
to come home more than | do. No
one is more fed up on this war than
am, but my wishes and your wishes
are almost nothing. Our sorrow is
like sunshine when you think of sor-
row caused by the death of the seven
million men who have died since Au-
gust, 1914. One learns to feel that
death is easy after watching these
Frenchmen die.
And are you my mother and father,
going to refuse to sacrifice one son
when millions of others have done far
more? Could you have followed me
through some of the places | have
been through the last week you woud
have infinite confidence in my luck.
Something more than the power of
piece of gold is guiding me through
these bursting shells. ! is going
into aviation, and his mother has no
dear little sister to take his place.
Perhaps | am wrong to urge you to
let me go on but have already start
ed on my journey. In America we
are taught that a Mans Country
comes first, and am l now to throw
over the legacy of the Revolution?
In France an aviator is considered
worth more than one thousand men.
Can you imagine my being worth
more than one thousand men? How
ever, this is no time for joking. Only
thinl; of millions who have lost more
than l can ever be, of the mothers
who have lost several sons, as we'll as
their husbands and Their daughters,
of husbands fighting, never knowing
the fate of their sons, wives and
daughter. God is watching me, and
if any thing should go wrong sorrow
a little and thank God that you could
sacrifice one so dear to you in the
cause of right. Mothers of dear Old
Cobb county can you give a son for
this war?
Editor will you kindly print this in
yoGr paper, the first paper after you
receive it.
These are the thoughts that are
travelling my mind tonight. With
love and best wishes to all the moth
ers of Old Cobb County who have
sons in this war. For am from Cobb
County myself until l return
Aurevoih.
FRANK SULLIVAN,
Corporal United States Marines,
Corps.