Baton Rouge, LA (NBC 33/Fox 44)
Sherie Zahn’s father had recently passed away. When she began going through his things, she found a treasure trove of memories.
What she found was an old foot locker, from his Army days. Tony Zahn had served in the Pacific Theatre during the war and had written letters to his parents from the time he left home. There were 256 letters in all and many included drawings he’d done while he was away, beginning at boot camp. All of that, Sherie compiled into a book entitled “Tony’s War”.
“His first two years of military service were stateside and he seemed to view that sort or as a boyscout camp.” She said of those early letters that he’d written, “I’m sleeping in tents. It’s cold outside. It’s raining.”
But then, came his deployment…
“His letters changed. They became darker and darker and more cynical.”
Sherie says the war changed more than her father’s letters. They changed him. Tony Zahn was college educated, a classically trained pianist, and artist. But when he came home, all that stopped.
“I never saw him play the piano, never saw him draw of paint” Sherie says of the father she knew. “He just stopped.”
Sherie believes her father Tony suffered from survivor’s guilt, and fears many more of our service men and women suffer the same fate.
She’s hoping “Tony’s War” will help shed some light on what our veterans face in life when they return home and possibly help those who need it. She’s donating all profits from “Tony’s War” to veterans groups to help make that happen. For more information on “Tony’s War” and details on how you can get your copy, just follow this link.