Seventy-eight years ago today

On November 9, 1942, Mr. and Mrs. Bernard (Ben) Nelson of Brooten received a hand-written letter from their deceased son, Arnold, who was killed in action that fall in World War II at the age of 29.

The Nelsons received word via telegram that their son was killed two days earlier, on Saturday, November 7. The message stated that Private Arnold Nelson was killed in action in the Southwest Pacific area on Monday, October 26. Pvt. Nelson's letter to his parents was written a few weeks earlier on October 18.

Can you imagine? How awful. Private Nelson was a high school graduate (high school unknown, but it was not Brooten) and at the time he was inducted into the Army, he was a poultry plant worker in Sauk Centre.

Adding to this tragic loss of life for Brooten was the unknown whereabouts of two young soldiers from the Brooten area who were missing in action in the Philippines as of that time.

You can read more about Pvt. Nelson and this tragedy in the November 12 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

Veterans Day is on Wednesday this week. A "fair amount" of newspaper resources have been devoted to Veterans Day coverage and coverage relating to past wars fought by the U.S., and this has limited my time devoted to sports coverage. To best use my time, I am focusing on World War II coverage this week.