In August 1943, Franklin & Marshall College President Theodore “Prexy” Distler created a simple, two-page newsletter for all F&M service members engaged in the war effort.

A month earlier, F&M had received 600 naval and Marine cadets as part of the U.S. Navy’s new V-12 officer training program. Combined with the 120 aviation cadets already on campus, the then all-male college had quickly transformed itself into a small, military training camp.

The bimonthly newsletter, which Distler would faithfully edit and distribute for the next three years, grew to 20 pages and was mailed to more than 2,500 active military personnel. Designed to keep enlisted service members informed of the many changes on campus, the newsletters also shared welcome updates from classmates around the globe as World War II continued. Many issues contained excerpts from service members who had written back to Distler and other faculty, or described visits back to campus while on furlough.

Several themes often emerged in the service members’ letters back to campus: a longing to return to F&M, a desire to finish the degrees they placed on hold for the war, gratitude for the information they were receiving, concern for their fellow classmates at war, fascination with seeing new places, and the unexpected variety of both military and foreign cuisine.

One service member described the nostalgic power of the newsletters: “Seems as if you can just smell the campus autumn air as you read through the letter. It’s just what we need to keep that old spirit alive.”

Another expressed gratitude for receiving the newsletters: “It was the first time in several days that I undertook the risk of getting away from my cave and going down to the foot of the hill to get my mail.”

Another expressed a dislike for English cuisine: “A few of us are living with an English family. We are eating their food (including loads of tea) and it really makes us appreciate Army food more!”

Still another letter, addressed to Distler on June 6, 1944 — D-Day, or the day when Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France — showed the compassion and concern students had for their fellow classmates and soldiers: “Word just came that the invasion of Europe has begun. May God bless our boys.”

Arguably, F&M’s greatest WWII story is captured in Stephen Ambrose’s book, “Band of Brothers,” and the 2001 HBO series of the same name, which chronicles the war efforts of Maj. Richard D. Winters, Class of 1941. Within the F&M archives are thousands of “Dear Prexy” letters relaying stories and experiences similar to those depicted in “Band of Brothers.” The letters often come in fits and starts, and chronicle the variety of daily challenges faced by F&M service members fighting abroad. Some letters are brief updates, while others are lengthier and reflective, sometimes even poetic, giving insights into the thoughts and personalities of the service members writing home.

Richard “Dick” Luxner '48 was a member of the College’s volunteer Cadet Corps. Luxner’s Army reserve unit entered the war in February 1943 after receiving a sudden call to service. Luxner wrote a series of letters and postcards back to Franklin & Marshall College President Theodore “Prexy” Distler, discussing his “increasingly secretive” weather forecasting assignment.

One particularly interesting set of correspondence is that of Richard “Dick” Luxner.

Luxner matriculated to F&M in fall 1941 from West Orange, N.J. The content of his letters and postcards during the war were enhanced by his experience as a writer for the F&M Student Weekly newspaper. A member of the College’s volunteer Cadet Corps, Luxner’s Army reserve unit entered the war in February 1943 after receiving a sudden call to service.

Luxner and his enlisted classmates were escorted to the Lancaster train station by a unit of fellow F&M aviation cadets and given a grand, patriotic send-off by the citizens of Lancaster. After completing basic training and then attending Weather Instrument Technical School at Fort Monmouth, N.J., Luxner was deployed to England in the spring of 1944 with the U.S. Army’s 18th Weather Squadron. From there, Luxner wrote a series of letters and postcards back to Distler, discussing his “increasingly secretive” weather forecasting assignment.

As D-Day approached, Luxner’s letters became further redacted by the Army. What Luxner wasn’t allowed to describe in detail was the critical role his unit played in forecasting the precise weather and timing for Operation Overlord, the code name for the Normandy invasion. Originally planned for the morning of June 5, D-Day was delayed a critical 24 hours to allow for more optimal weather.

In a spring 1945 letter to Distler, Luxner described an opportunity to tag along on a practice flight with an F&M pilot while still stationed in England. The conversations must have reminded him of all his F&M friends, because within the same letter, he requested that Distler please tell members of his fraternity to write as well.

A year after the invasion of Europe, Luxner was stationed on the continent at Orly Field outside Paris and, a few months before heading back to the United States, at a former Luftwaffe airfield in Wiesbaden, Germany. While at Wiesbaden, a city that ultimately succumbed to the pressures of war, Luxner’s unit lived in barracks once occupied by the German Waffen-SS, the armed wing of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party. Luxner described his thoughts while viewing a ruined city firsthand, writing, “There was none of this destruction in Paris, and London was mild in comparison.”

After the war ended, Luxner returned to F&M for the 1946-47 academic year, eventually graduating in 1948 with a degree in English.

Luxner’s story of courage and sacrifice is typical of so many young service members who secured victory in Europe. When the war ended in August 1945, 107 F&M servicemen did not make the return journey home to Lancaster.

As we look back on the correspondence of those who served, let us pay tribute to all of the men and women who served our country during WWII, on the homefront and abroad, and draw strength from their courage, their leadership, their shared purpose, their collective example and their legacies.