CityView Magazine

Harry Shaw is Bill Shaw’s younger brother. He still lives in Fayetteville, as does his sister, Gillie Shaw Revelle. Harry Shaw is 82. He says his brother’s death affects him more today than it did years ago. Perhaps, he said, it is because of all that “might have been.” Another Fayetteville-born soldier, Ben Lacy Rose, a chaplain who served with the 31st Infantry Division and the 113th Cavalry Regiment during World War II, has a presence in the state archives. One of his most memorable letters was written to a woman whom he had never met. Her name was Mrs. Abe C. Webb, and she lived in Canton. Her husband had died in a vehicle accident May 8, 1945, the day the Germans surrendered and the war in Europe ended. She was distraught and facing a crisis of faith, she wrote to Rose, and she was wondering why God would take her husband on the final day of the war. Rose’s typed response covers two and a half pages. He reassured her that she “is not the first Christian to doubt God’s goodness because of a great sorrow.” “So you see God has not answered “I … do love to hear from home. The last letter I received from you it came to me in the front line and it (certainly) did make me fight. We go to church every Sunday and I am a much better boy then I use to be.” The ‘dying to come’ During World War II, soldiers had several means of communicating with loved ones: airmail, telegraph and Victory Mail, known as V-mail. V-mail was unique to the time. V-mail letters were composed on a single sheet of paper that folded into its own envelope. These letters were sent to a processing station, where they were photographed onto film reels, one letter per square of film. The reels were then shipped to the United States where the letters were printed on thin sheets of paper, in a larger size, and mailed on to their intended recipients. The process saved shipping space for vital war materials. Some of the V-mail and traditional letters of Pvt. 1st Class William Shaw Jr. of Fayetteville are preserved in the state archives. Shaw, a son of the city’s 40|February/March • 2009 postmaster from 1934-1952, William Shaw Sr., and his wife, Helen, fought in France with the 10th Infantry, 5th Division. Eight days after D Day, when the Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, Shaw wrote of his frustration at remaining in “these islands” of Great Britain: June 14, 1944 “This news is really taps now, and I hope it will be only a matter of time before we hike through Berlin! There is still much fighting and dying to come, and the Jerry is very formidable, but I believe we have his number and so can lick him every time. Am still sweating out ‘my’ invasion but must impatiently wait till the command to move. Seems like we will never get in it, but I’m sure there will be lots of action for all before it’s through. Devotedly, Bill.” Pvt. 1st Class Shaw eventually saw his action. He died in France on Sept. 12, 1944, and is buried in the American cemetery in St. Avold. A memorial marker was placed in the family plot at Cross Creek Cemetery. your prayers exactly as you asked, but He has given you something even better. You asked for Abe’s life and God gave him everlasting life. You asked for Abe’s safety and God folded him in His arms of Love and carried him to eternal safety. You asked for peace and God gave Abe Heavenly peace. Has God not answered your prayers?” After the war, Rose came home to North Carolina, and in the ensuing years served as pastor of several Presbyterian churches before becoming a professor at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia. He died Nov. 13, 2006. One of the most patriotic war letters that Harrington said he has ever read was written by Pvt. 1st Class Hiram “Butch” Strickland. Strickland, of Graham, N.C., wrote to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Donald A. Strickland. It was discovered in his personal effects after he was killed in Vietnam on Feb. 1, 1966. It begins: “Dear folks, I’m writing this letter as my last one. You’ve probably already received word that I’m dead and that the government wishes to express its

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