Mail Call: A Combat Soldier's Lifeline

In Mail Call, David W. Newcomer IV takes readers on a journey of discovery through over 60 letters written by his father, Lt. (j.g.) David W. Newcomer during WWII to his wife, Pamela Harrison Kinney. After years of transcribing and research, Newcomer IV navigates us through his father's experiences in the Pacific Theater while he served with a Top Secret Navy Unit, Argus 11. Along with Kansas City's juicy gossip, readers will experience the perils of one landlubber's journey as he adjusts to shipboard life, receives his King Neptune polliwog initiation for crossing the Equator, and navigates intense jungle battles. Entertaining accounts of programs, films, radio, and a visit from Eleanor Roosevelt are outshined by a father's desire to return home. His words expound on dreams for the future for his newborn son and his beloved wife connected through their lifeline of almost daily letters. Each day of war brought a heavy weight, but anticipating news from home lifted a combat soldier's spirits with two life-saving words: "Mail Call!"

Mail was no easy thing in 1943. Letter writing and delivery were extremely difficult in wartime across vast distances. Paper letters were heavy and easily damaged. A procedure called "V" mail turned handwritten letters into microfilm negatives. They were developed onto specialized paper and delivered. During this process, censored information was literally cut out with actual scissors. David IV fills in the historical blanks behind his father's 1943 letters. Through his research of declassified documents, he shares what truly went on behind the scenes and includes over one hundred images of handwritten letters, maps, documents, and photographs of both the war and the Newcomer family: a fourth-generation business from the founding era of Kansas City.

Newcomer IV shares how the little-remembered Argus groups turned the tide for the US in its war against Japan, alongside the story of his all-American family legacy and how his father's life influenced his own journey. He wants to inspire future generations to remember how our words shape relationships and who we become as people, as families, and as a nation.