It may be called "snail mail", but in this case it's not the Postal Service's fault. A World War II soldier's letter written 64 years ago has finally been delivered to the friend it was intended for.
Bill Sellars grew up with Albert "Frankie" Smith at an orphanage in Columbia, from the time both were 4 years old until they graduated from high school. "It's just like a brother," Sellars says. "You...lived with him, slept in the same room and everything. It's just like being a member of the family. And it's losing a member of the family."
Losing a member of the family because "Frankie" became Sgt. Albert Smith of the 101st Airborne, and he was killed on September 20, 1944 in the Netherlands. Less than a month before his death, he had mailed a letter to his friend Bill. He sent it to Sellars at the University of South Carolina, but Sellars had not arrived yet because he was in the Navy and was going through training. By the time he did get to USC, the letter had been returned to Smith in Europe.
"It was in his possessions at the time he was killed, and that came back to Woody (Albert's brother) and, from what I understand, Woody just didn't want to open up the package. I mean, it was an emotional situation with him and he just stored it away some place," Sellars says. Now in his 80s, Woody Smith finally went through his brother's belongings, found the letter addressed to Sellars and took it to him.
"Well I was flabbergasted. I guess that's the way to explain it, because I had no idea that it ever existed," Sellars says.
He says the contents of the letter are exactly what he would have expected from his friend. Some of it is Smith asking about mutual friends in Columbia. But he also wrote, "As you probably know I have been in combat. I was one of the first to jump in France. I landed seven hours before D-day. I'm telling you we really caught hell."
Smith is buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery near Margraten.
Sellars says what's important about this long-lost letter is not the fact that he received it after so many years. What's important is who wrote it. "The fact that he gave his life for his country...overwhelms everything else. It's more important to everybody than anything else he did," Sellars says.
The letter ends with Smith writing, "Write soon. A pal forever, Frankie."
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