I recently purchased a K-31 that came with the soldier's name tag. I looked the name up in the Swiss directory and found 5 listings in different cantons of Switzerland. Most of the online listings were missing the street addresses, but had the employer instead. I anxioulsy and carefully wrote out 5 letters in both French and German, including a picture of the name tag and the rifle. Then I proceeded to airmail a "hail marry" to Switzerland, knowing that three of my letters were missing street addresses, and that if the soldier were still alive, he'd be 83.
In my excited state of playing with this magical rifle, I spent the night searching the internet for a Swiss site that could help me out. I then came across the Swiss Army website and hit the contact link. Hey what the heck. In a poorly translated message, I described that I was trying to contact said ex-soldier and provided all the info on the guy I had, and just asked for the street address. Then I forgot about it.
Today, I checked my mail, and got an email from an archivist in the military. He explained to me that the soldier had died 25 years ago, but is survived by a wife and son. Then, get this, not only did he give me both the wife and sons' addresses and phone numbers, he highly encouraged me to send them a postcard and a picture of their father's old rifle.
Now here's the rub, if you were pushing into your 80's, would receiving a letter, albiet a very nicely written one, from an American about his possesion of your late husband's rifle be bitersweet? Should I hold off on sending a letter, or is 25 years good enough grace period?
In my excited state of playing with this magical rifle, I spent the night searching the internet for a Swiss site that could help me out. I then came across the Swiss Army website and hit the contact link. Hey what the heck. In a poorly translated message, I described that I was trying to contact said ex-soldier and provided all the info on the guy I had, and just asked for the street address. Then I forgot about it.
Today, I checked my mail, and got an email from an archivist in the military. He explained to me that the soldier had died 25 years ago, but is survived by a wife and son. Then, get this, not only did he give me both the wife and sons' addresses and phone numbers, he highly encouraged me to send them a postcard and a picture of their father's old rifle.
Now here's the rub, if you were pushing into your 80's, would receiving a letter, albiet a very nicely written one, from an American about his possesion of your late husband's rifle be bitersweet? Should I hold off on sending a letter, or is 25 years good enough grace period?
