WW2 Era Statue Of Liberty Tour Booklet From My Friend Sam Carlile, WW2 Veteran.

[Heartfeltzero]

I’ve been wanting to make this post for awhile and I meant to for Veterans Day but have had a hectic week and had it slip my mind. But even though it’s a few days late, I still wanted to post it.

Out of the hundreds of WW2 Era Letters, and other items I have in my collection that I’ve been posting for years, this is my favorite and most meaningful item.

This belonged to Henry S “Sam” Carlile. I had the Honor of meeting Sam back in 2019 and right away i was blown away by all of his stories. He enlisted on June 16th 1942 and was sent to Ft. Monmouth, NJ for training as a Radio Operator. He would ship out overseas on June 1st 1943. Sam would go on to serve with the 327th Signal Co. Wing within the 8th Air Force. As a Radio Operator, he would handle Combat Orders, Intelligence Reports, Weather, Personnel Transfers, supplies, and Red Cross Assistance. He would handle a variety of messages with different levels of classifications (classified/Top Secret, Urgent, etc). He would keep very busy, On June 6th 1944, during the Normandy Invasion, Sam worked more than 32 hours straight due to the chaotic nature of that operation.

I got this item from Sam back in 2020. It is a Statue Of Liberty Tour Booklet that he had back when he was visiting various locations in New York. He would visit New York from Ft. Monmouth, NJ.

Sam also sent me a personally signed Photo of himself from 1943 while he was in England.

Everyday we are losing more and more Veterans from the Second World War. There will soon be a point where none of them will be left. That’s why it’s important to gather as many of their stories as we can so the history is never lost.

As I said, I have hundreds of WW2 Era letters from various Servicemen. Never met any of them, and most have long since passed. But having an historical item such as and actually being able to speak to the Hero that it belonged to is what makes this my favorite item. I appreciate Sam not only for his Service to this Country, but also for this piece of history and for contributing to my collection, but also my goal of sharing these small but interesting and important parts of history for others to see and often learn from.

To this day, Sam & I still keep in touch via Email. He will turn 100 years old this upcoming January, 2024.