In the mid-1960s, while America was deeply involved in the Vietnam War, Barbara Madro was a student at Morton East High School in Cicero, Illinois.

Like many Americans, she wanted to support the men and women serving overseas. She began writing letters to servicemen she had never met, simply to let them know someone back home was thinking about them.

What began as a few handwritten letters quickly turned into years of correspondence. Soldiers wrote back from bases throughout Vietnam, sharing stories about daily life, friendships, hopes, fears, and the realities of serving far from home.

Barbara carefully saved every letter, photograph, envelope, and keepsake she received. For nearly sixty years, she protected this collection before donating it to the Chicagoland Veterans Campus so future generations could experience these firsthand accounts of history.