He had never known a feeling like this before, joy and terror all rolled into one. Her picture tacked to the inside of his footlocker, he wrote her a letter every day there was time between the incoming mail from the German eighty-eights. Some days, if the action was light, he would write her two or three short notes just to clear his mind. When Jerry came charging he fought for her, not for God or country, his only thought was to get back to her...the depth of her eyes and the warmth of her smile. Today victory had been claimed for the Allies at the Falaise Gap and tomorrow he was going home.The covert nature of this particular action would mean that army censors would see to it that few, if any of those letters would ever reach her and in what state, but he knew how powerful just a few words could be as he reflected upon her parting words at the train station one year less a day ago, "Keep calm and breathe...".
When his tour of duty was over, along with one more letter from his Captain and his personal effects she received a bundle with three hundred and sixty-five letters and a folded flag.
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