Love and war

Mary Whatley could not get the picture of Gus the dog out of her mind.

Gus belonged to her father, and the image of the two of them can be seen in a World War II photo that Whatley treasures. 

It is that image that graces the front cover of the Vestavia resident’s new book titled Daddy’s War: Letters from the Commander of the 425th Dump Truck Company, World War II, Italy. The book is composed of letters between Whatley’s mother and father during the pre-war and war years of World War II. She began writing the book in April 2008, and copies were officially printed this past May.

Whatley found the letters in a cedar chest and said she almost couldn’t read them at first because she was too sad. She went through each of the letters with a magnifying glass, which had been written on special paper and then transferred to microfilm. 

“One amazing thing is that my father wrote to my mother every day, sometimes two or three times a day,” she said. 

Whatley almost titled the book, “Why didn’t we ask?” She encourages everyone to sit down with their grandparents and learn about them while they are still alive to tell their stories. 

“I wanted to preserve what I could for my son and daughter,” Whatley said. “If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.”

Her son, Walter, wrote the book’s forward. 

“Some authors write to educate or entertain the intended audience. I don’t think that is the case with this book,” he wrote. “Whether she states it explicitly or not, my mother wrote this book for therapy, her own therapy.”

When she set out to turn the letters into her book, Whatley told herself she would simply let her father’s letters tell the story. Her father had a sense of humor and many wise lines such as, “Kindness and affection is one of the things the Army has not been able to dehydrate.” Through reading the letters, Whatley is quite certain of one thing.

“My father loved that dog and he loved my mother,” she said.

Whatley describes a moment during the process that brought her to tears. When searching on the Internet for people who could have known her father, she located the supply sergeant for the 425th Engineer Dump Truck Company, 91- year-old Gilliam Smith, in Chicago. 

“Our first telephone conversation was in September 2011, and we had incredible, informative, heartwarming conversations over a period of several months,” Whatley said. “Then in June 2013 I receive a note from his daughter saying that he had died in May after a short illness. He was willing to tell me things about Daddy and the 425th that I could never have known otherwise.”

Whatley and her husband have a son and daughter and three grandchildren and enjoy spending time at their Lake Martin home. Whatley retired from reaching at the collegiate level after 29 years. After retirement, she worked for a travel agency and then a law firm.

Whatley hopes the book gives readers a greater appreciation of veterans and their families. 

“No history book can make you feel a war,” Whatley writes. “I was most fortunate that my father wrote letters that survived the years and now I have a treasure.”

Email Whatley at mmpwau65@gmail.com.