Man starts letter campaign to Guard

? A World War II veteran is encouraging Pittsburg-area residents to write to Kansas Army National Guard soldiers stationed in Iraq.

Earnest Coffman, of Pittsburg, said he organized the effort because he knows how important it is for soldiers who are overseas to receive letters from home. The campaign is aimed at members of Company A of the Kansas Army National Guard’s 891st Engineer Battalion.

The battalion has been in Iraq since mid-January. Company A is based in Pittsburg.

“When mail call sounded there was usually a pretty mad rush for it,” Coffman said, remembering his time in World War II. “It’s very important, not just for the city of Pittsburg or the surrounding area; it’s important for the whole nation to stand behind them because they are over there putting their lives on the line for us.”

Coffman has placed ads in the local newspaper and written letters to the editor to encourage others to join his effort.

“A lot of them are thank-you notes and things like that,” said Sgt. Robert Potts of the Pittsburg armory, who is helping Coffman.

Potts takes the letters, puts them in a box and mails them in bulk to the major who gives them to soldiers. He sent the first large batch about a week ago and is certain the letters will be well received.

“It just uplifts their spirits; it’s great,” Potts said. “A couple guys were home on leave and said every time they get a letter from their family or somebody back home they really appreciate it.”

Potts said many people bring letters to the armory each week. Most are elderly people or members of groups that have organized letter-writing campaigns, he said.

Coffman said he liked to write about what was happening in the Pittsburg area, such as what buildings were being built or torn down.

He also asks Guard members to write him back. When he was serving in World War II, writing letters eased his mind, he said.

“Every letter that I got, I tried to answer it. It wasn’t easy sometimes,” he said. “For me it was just as important for me to write letters back home, to answer those letters, as it was to receive them, because in each instance that gets your mind – the soldier’s mind – off of what is going on around him.”