Silver Dollar Soldier

About the Book

Jean came into the world during the Roaring Twenties in an era of flappers, illegal booze, parties and good times, until the prosperity ended suddenly with the Crash on October 29, 1929, and not just the US, but the whole globe entered the Great Depression. Growing up dirt poor, the youngest in a family of ten children, he managed to have a happy childhood. Entering World War II in 1943, just after high school, Jean eventually came to realize in the 50’s, as a single father of three girls, that life might hold worse things in store for him than almost dying in the war. Fighting life’s battles with the backdrop of his war experiences behind him, Jean learns that forgiveness and doing the right thing bring redemption and peace.

About the Author

Mother of two daughters and grandmother to 5 grandchildren, I am the first born child of Jean Etzel. A former English teacher with a minor in journalism and history, I always watched war movies with my dad and discussed them with him. He used to talk in generalities about his own experiences. So I began questioning him more specifically. He always told me, “Susie, you don’t want to know.” To employ another tactic, I started to ask him things like what did you hate most about the war? One thing he did tell me was that he never got enough to eat and he never got enough sleep. I told him I was going to start writing down his answers and he gradually began to open up even more. In 2008 after his death, I found the old notes I had taken and decided to fulfill my promise to him to write a book about what he told me.