World War II Love Letters Help a Daughter Find Her Missing Father二战情书传音　父亲尸骨还乡

Sharon Estill Taylor has no firsthand memories of her father. The World War II fighter pilot was shot down over Germany in April 1945， when Taylor was just three weeks old.

莎伦·埃斯蒂尔·泰勒对父亲没有一丁点儿直接记忆。1945年4月，作为二战战斗机飞行员的父亲在德国上空被击落时，泰勒刚刚出生3个星期。

The war in Europe ended less than a month later， but there was little closure for the Estills back in Cedar Rapids， Iowa. There was no body to bury or clarity on whether 1st Lt. Shannon Estill had bailed out before enemy anti-aircraft fire destroyed his P-38J Lightning.

不到一个月后，欧洲的战事结束，但这并未让艾奥瓦州锡达拉皮兹市的埃斯蒂尔一家感到安慰。香农·埃斯蒂尔中尉生不见人，死不见尸——无法确定他是否在敌军防空火炮摧毁他的P-38J“闪电”战斗机之前已经跳伞逃生。

The letters the 22-year-old pilot had exchanged with his wife Mary since they were high school sweethearts stopped coming. Taylor’s father was deemed unaccounted for and eventually listed as killed in action， despite his body not being recovered.

这位22岁的飞行员自此断了音讯——自高中相爱以来，他与妻子玛丽一直保持通信。泰勒的父亲被列为失踪军人，尽管尸体并未找到，最终还是被认定为阵亡。

One day when Taylor was seven years old， she sipped a chocolate malt at a soda counter as her paternal grandmother shared stories about their fallen1 hero， her eyes welling up as she remembered her late son. “Nana， it’s OK，” Taylor assured her. “I’m going to find him and bring him home.”

七岁那年的某一天，泰勒在汽水柜台旁一边小口喝着巧克力麦芽饮料，一边听奶奶泪眼朦胧地回忆牺牲的儿子，讲述他的英雄事迹。“奶奶，没事的。”泰勒保证道，“我一定会找到爸爸，带他回家。”

It was a promise Taylor， now an author and retired professor， would keep. In 2006， propelled by clues she pieced together2 from her parents’ wartime letters—along with help from military historians， eyewitnesses， and an excavation team—Taylor concluded a multi-decade mission to recover her father’s remains and bring him home.

如今身为作家、退休教授的泰勒早已兑现自己的诺言。她从父母的战时信件中拼凑出线索，又在军事历史学家、目击者和挖掘队的帮助下，终于完成了跨越几十年的任务——2006年，她找到了父亲的尸骨，并将父亲接回家乡。

In 2022， through an immersive sound and light show premiering at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on Veterans Day3， she brought her parents’ experience， and a larger story of war casualties and their families， to new generations.

2022年退伍军人节那天，通过一场在新奥尔良市美国国家二战博物馆首演的沉浸式声光秀，泰勒向新世代的人们讲述了她父母的经历，以及众多战争伤亡者及其家人的故事。

Growing up with a missing father

少小父失踪

“I was raised by a grieving mother， with grieving grandparents a few doors down，” says Taylor. She’d tell the trash collector that her daddy died in the war. Even after her mother remarried， Taylor insisted on leaving an extra table setting for her missing father.

“我从小看着妈妈悲伤哀悼，仅有几户之隔的爷爷奶奶也总是伤心落泪。”泰勒说。她会跟清洁工说爸爸打仗牺牲了。即使妈妈再婚后，泰勒也坚持要给失踪的爸爸多摆一套餐具。

Nana Estill eventually gave Taylor a silver box containing some 450 letters—handwritten correspondences from her parents， spanning from their high school courtship to Estill’s pilot training to his deployment in the fall of 1944. Also included were six months’ worth of unopened letters Taylor’s mother continued writing after her husband went missing.

后来，奶奶给了泰勒一个银盒子，里面装着大约450封信。这些都是泰勒父母的手写信，始于两人高中谈恋爱时，贯穿父亲接受飞行员训练的全程，再到1944年秋天父亲被派上战场。其中还有未开封的信件，都是泰勒母亲在丈夫失踪后的6个月里写的。

In the 1990s， with her own children grown， Taylor spent a summer transcribing the letters， getting to know her father through the resulting 3，000 typed pages. He cracked jokes， sketched pictures， and expressed how much he adored his wife. “I just love to get your letters， sweets， they are so like you， so dear. You are always in my heart， but they seem to bring you even nearer，” he wrote in March 1944.

到了20世纪90年代，泰勒自己的孩子都已长大成人，于是她花一整个夏天用打字机誊录父母的信件，借助打印出来的3000页纸来了解自己的父亲。他讲笑话、画图、对妻子表达深深的爱意。他在1944年3月写道：“我好喜欢收到你的信，亲爱的。这些信就像你一样，是那么地珍贵。你始终在我心头，可是这些信似乎把你拉得离我更近了。”

Occasionally he’d reference the harshness and importance of the war： “I’m so thankful that you’re in the States and not over here somewhere. Everything except danger is scarce” and “I know that what I’m fighting for is right and decent.”

他偶尔还会提起战争的残酷和重要性，比如“我很庆幸你在美国，而不是在这里的某个地方。一切都很稀缺，唯独危险例外”，还有“我知道自己为之奋斗的是正义之事，是体面之事”。

Concerned that his wife would soon give birth without him there， Estill told her that he’d gone to the military doctor for some reassurance. In a letter dated March 2， 1945， he diagrammed different methods for changing cloth diapers. “Every man in the 428th is worrying about the baby’s arrival，” he wrote.

埃斯蒂尔担心妻子很快就要生产，自己却不能守在身旁，他告诉妻子自己找军医问了问，总算稍有心安。在一封日期为1945年3月2日的信中，他画了好几种换尿布的方法。“第428战斗机中队的每个人都很关心孩子的到来。”他写道。

When Taylor was born a few weeks later， Estill addressed his letter to his “Angel Girls.” He had just one more mission to fly before he could go home on leave. He attached a baby bootie to his flight helmet for good luck.

几周后，泰勒出生，埃斯蒂尔给他的“天使姑娘们”写了一封信。他只需再出一次飞行任务，就可以回家休假。他给自己的飞行头盔拴上一只婴儿鞋，以求好运。

Was he really dead？ What happened？

他真的牺牲了吗？究竟发生了什么事？

Beyond treasuring her father’s words for their wisdom， perspective， and poetry， Taylor also used them to piece together the mystery of what had happened on that final mission. Her research took her to the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

除了珍视父亲话语中的智慧、远见和诗情画意，泰勒还用信中内容拼凑出了父亲的最后一次任务，解开了其中谜团。为深入研究，她去了美国国会图书馆和国家档案馆。