World War I Veteran Dwight Fee Offers Some Fatherly Advice to His Son, William, “Off on the Great Adventure”

Over twenty years of American isolationism had evaporated in an instant. Recruitment centers throughout the country overflowed with young men hellbent on avenging the attack at Pearl Harbor. “I’m going all the way to Tokyo to kill that Jap emperor myself!” boasted one eager recruit to a reporter. William Fee, a high school student from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, went to the Selective Service office the day he turned eighteen, and, less than three months later, he was heading off to basic training. His father, Dwight, had served in World War I and fought in the brutal Meuse-Argonne offensive that finally defeated Germany in 1918. Throughout William’s childhood, Dwight had instilled in him the values he held dear—duty, honor, and integrity. Flooded with memories of his own wartime departure, Dwight wrote the following letter to his teenage son.

Dear Will:

Well, I figure you’re off on the Great Adventure. There will be many disagreeable experiences; soul-shaking experiences; tragic experiences; uplifting experiences. You will see examples of selfishness and selflessness that will stir you tremendously. I have no doubt that you will develop the same respect that I have for the Infantry, the Gol-Darned Infantry, and the same awesome regard for the Medics.

I have no fears for you; you will do well. You have the finest spirit of any one I know of. I wish I could go FOR you, or at least WITH you, but this is your war. Mother and I will pray that God will give you courage for any danger you will have to face; that you will be given steadfastness, and patience, and resolution. We believe that God lays on nobody more than he is able to bear; that through all trials God will provide the qualities needed to meet them. I believe David: The Lord upholdeth all that fall; The cast-down raiseth up again.

Just be your own self: and there are not many people to whom I could say that.

You are serving in a great cause. Because of you and those like you millions of fathers and mothers and children again will be able to think and speak freely without fear; to live their lives without oppression. And we here at home will be spared what most certainly would have been the fate of those people if all of you had not gone out to prevent the domination of the world by Japan and Germany (and Italy)—and don’t think for a minute that they wouldn’t have dominated it. And they’ll try again in another generation if they can. Goodnight, son. Have at em!

As always, Pop.  Keep busy.

Keep bucking.

William Fee would eventually be sent into the European Theater where he saw combat, as a private first class with the Eleventh Armored Division, in the Battle of the Bulge. Fee was seriously wounded in the Rhineland, but recuperated fully and returned home after the war to proud and very relieved parents.