Guest Author Frank Nappi

There are some things in our great country that are timeless: the Grand Canyon and Red Rocks of Sedona; Mount Rushmore and the white sands of Siesta Key Beach; the Golden Gate Bridge at night, and the rows of Cherry Blossoms that stand before the Washington Monument; there are the waterfalls of Yosemite and the hot springs of Yellowstone; and of course, who could forget the Empire State Building and Lady Liberty in New York City?

There are so many wonderful things about The United States of America, all of which remain that way because of a belief that is also timeless — patriotism and our desire to love and defend the constitution, something that enables us to continue to enjoy this spectacular land of ours.

Some people would question whether or not patriotism still has a place in our country today. The answer is simple. If you love this country, and all it has to offer, then you understand the importance of patriotism and accepting the responsibility for maintaining the freedoms we all enjoy.

These responsibilities include reading about issues that affect our nation, exercising our right to vote, and defending our borders in times of war. If all of us contribute to the preservation of our freedom, then we will remain strong and resilient.

It also remains our right and certainly our duty to espouse the importance of reading in order to ensure that we as a society continue to develop in ways that facilitate intellectual growth and knowledge of the inner working of our great country’s leadership. We all have heard and understand the adage “those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.”

It was in this spirit that I wrote my first novel, Echoes From the Infantry, published in 2005 by St. Martin’s Press and re-released this past June in ebook format by Amazon.

Echoes came to be after I befriended two very special World War II veterans in my community. As I heard their reminiscences I became absorbed in their stories of simple heroism–and of trying to recapture what they’d left behind when they returned home. They are the stories of men who never asked for recognition or adulation, only a place in the free and prosperous society they’d built with their own blood, sweat and tears–men who could never entirely leave behind the horrors of the battlefield, or explain them to their own children.

Shortly after, I synthesized those reminiscences and crafted them into a heartwarming and at times harrowing
novel. It is the fictionalized tale of one Long Island veteran, the misery of combat, and the powerful emotional bond that connected him to his fiancée back home and that allowed him to survive the war with his soul battered but intact.

It is about a father and a son, and their ultimately redeeming struggle to understand the worlds that shaped each one–one a world at war, the other a world shaped by its veterans.

As we celebrate our patriotism and all of the freedom’s that we enjoy, we need to be mindful of our rich history, of our veterans and service men and women presently overseas, and of the role that reading plays in allowing us to honor them.