A Generation Remembered

At Shepherd State Teachers College, now Shepherd University, a bronze memorial preserves the names of men who lost their lives during World War II. Its inscription pays tribute to those “from our midst” who gave their country “the last full measure of devotion.” Beneath those words, individual names and military ranks give a personal identity to a loss that might otherwise be understood only through the enormous numbers associated with the war.

These men belonged to the generation of my father, Roger. He attended college for what I believe may have been one or two semesters. He also left college during this period, although I do not know that the war was the reason he left. By 1942, he was in the Army, beginning a chapter of his life that I have come to know through the letters sent to him.

Reading this memorial brought that generation into sharper focus. The men named here were close to my father’s age, with their own families, friendships and plans. I cannot say whether he knew any of them, but they belonged to the same world of young adulthood—a time when education, work and relationships unfolded alongside the growing demands of military service.

The letters my father received preserve the concerns of people waiting at home: requests for news, encouragement, practical questions and uncertainty about where he would be sent next. This memorial carries the other side of that waiting. For the families of the men named here, the hoped-for homecoming never came.

My father returned from the war. These men did not. Encountering their names at a college he briefly attended connected his story to the wider experience of his generation, while reminding me that each name on the plaque represents a life and a family whose future was changed.