With phone and internet technology, it's easy to look back at the recent years of our lives in great detail. The more distant past is harder. There may be fragments-a photo, a news clipping, a family story-but rarely is there enough to recapture what it really felt like in that other time.
Unless, like a young Jim Hubbard, you mailed a letter home every week or two, from the time you left your Michigan home for college in 1961 until you returned from the Vietnam War in late 1968, and your parents and wife saved them all, and your daughter chanced upon them in a bag half a century later.
The result is a treasure, an honest and often humorous time capsule of study and play at three Michigan colleges; of family, love, and marriage; and of the political and cultural touchstones that shaped the '60s-especially the Vietnam War during a year that changed everything for Captain Hubbard and his country. For military and social history buffs, for veterans and their families, and for readers of a certain age, Jim's letters open a window to a bygone era.
Author Biography:
James B. Hubbard, Jr. (Capt., U.S. Army, Ret.) is a Michigan native who was awarded the Silver Star for his service in Vietnam, where he led a truck platoon and was aide-de-camp to the general who served as Assistant Division Commander of the Army's Ninth Infantry Division. After his Army career, Jim worked for 23 years as a senior director with the American Legion in Washington, DC, advocating for veterans before Congress on a range of issues including the defense budget, transition to civilian life, job training and home ownership, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. He and his wife, the former Judy Davis, have two daughters and live in Frederick, Maryland. In retirement, Jim is learning to play bluegrass banjo, volunteers at Monocacy National (Civil War) Battlefield, and tries to inject a bit of humor on social media by posting internet memes and cartoons. Deborah Nylec is Jim and Judy's daughter. Raised in Maryland along with her sister, Valerie, Deb graduated from the University of Delaware and married her high school sweetheart and life-long love, Mark Nylec. Deb and Mark have two children, Tommy and Becca, who can do no wrong in Jim and Judy's eyes. Deb is a career teacher, a professional photographer, a gifted writer, and a loving daughter (despite all the teen drama in high school). She lives in Adamstown, Maryland. John M. Faust was a commercial litigator for over 20 years at a large international law firm and in his own practice. Recovering from his legal career, John went on to teach middle school English as part of the AmeriCorps program and to tutor English language and GED students at a charter school serving at-risk young adults. He lives with his family in Bethesda, Maryland, where he spends his time writing, volunteering, and playing and coaching tennis.
