Daily Podcasts Video Research

How to celebrate Memorial Day? Read ‘Letters Home’

JL;DR SUMMARY In this poignant reflection on Memorial Day, Rob Eshman delves into the personal history of U.S. Army Lt. Gilbert Sapiro, who was killed during World War II. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

World War IiCultural HistoryMilitary ServiceJewish American SoldiersMemorial DayPersonal SacrificeGilbert SapiroSoldier's LettersCombat ExperienceWar Remembrance

Places mentioned

Jackson Heights, New York, United States
"Many, like Sapiro, the son of a middle-class Jewish family from Jackson Heights, enlisted."
San Antonio, Texas, United States
"a 72-hour train ride from New York to San Antonio, Tex., where he entered aviation cadet training."
Los Angeles, California, United States
"Gilberts surviving brother, Mel, who is 94 and lives in Los Angeles, turned them into a self-published book"
Germany
"Sapiro died on March 23, 1944, when his B-17 Flying Fortress was hit by German anti-aircraft fire and crashed into the north German countryside."
United Kingdom
"They were handwritten from troop trains, flight schools and barracks, datelined Somewhere in England."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 83331
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2026-05-26 05:30:38 UTC
Curated 2026-05-26 08:31:04 UTC