Operation Homecoming

Writing the Wartime Experience

Hazel Jane Raines, Read By Diane Cooper-Gould (WWII)

Hazel Jane Raines perfected her piloting skills as a barnstormer in Georgia air shows during World War Two. Raines first served the Allied cause as an Air Transport Auxiliary pilot for the RAF in England. When the U.S. military finally accepted women pilots. Raines returned to the states and joined the Wasps, pulling targets for …

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Hugh Alexander Leslie, Read By Edward Gero (WWI)

Throughout history, the sailors life has always involved risk and peril. In World War one. A terrible new danger was introduced. The submarine attack. In the following letter, a young Navy sailor from Texas, Hugh Alexandra Leslie, tells his family about the sinking of the USS President Lincoln. Actor Edward Giraud reads a selection from …

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Dana Gioia, writing the wartime experience

War and military service have been major literary subjects as long as there has been literature. The earliest masterpiece of the Western tradition. Homer’s Iliad, portrays the heroism and human cost of the Trojan War, while its companion poem, The Odyssey recounts one veteran’s long and difficult homecoming. The great national epics, from the Aeneid …

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Welcome

The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to present Operation Homecoming, writing the wartime experience. This unique literary program is aimed at preserving the stories and reflections of American troops who have served our nation, both on the frontlines in Afghanistan and Iraq, and stateside, defending the homeland. The Arts Endowment is sponsoring a …

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