Virginia Brackett seeks the truth about patriotism and loss as embodied by her father, WWII and Korean Conflict veteran Captain Edmund C. Roberts, from many historic sources - journalism, history texts, and military communique, as well as personal documents. Her memoir details her journey to come to know a father lost to an ideal of service.
Over ten years of research, she learns about her family's slave-owning history and attempts to escape personal tragedy by moving from Kentucky to Missouri and into Illinois, of her parents' romance through aging scrapbooks, discovers a letter written by her father among a rare documents collection, and hears her mother's words read on a national broadcast. However, she discovers the real truth exists in the personal stories of those on the front, including her father, their lives permanently changed through service. Their voices educate her about Captain Roberts, an inspiration to troops, a war prisoner and an escapee, a decorated hero who met with General Patton, a ferocious infantryman. Killed by a sniper in the Korean Conflict, he would come to symbolize the shared values of his military community that became lifelong bonds for those who survived.
As Brackett will learn, memories of her father run deep, and the extraordinary loyalty and devotion of those who remember Captain Roberts move her beyond feelings of betrayal that haunted her for decades. The crucial truth she discovers is that we must keep alive those lost by telling their stories. That is because their stories belong to everyone.
