Dear Calvin Project

Stories. Sitting around campfires from the beginning of time warriors have shared their stories with one another. Young men talk about their dreams and weathered veterans offer wisdom to temper the youthful exuberance. Through the ages, this has been a constant for the warfighter. War stories. Stories of life back home. Stories of the good. Stories of the bad.It is around that fire that young boys learn what it is to be a man and a warrior. These stories become part of us. They are things we pass on to our sons and daughters. Lessons of life, and struggle for the next generation. Not all sons and daughters know of their fathers or mothers heroism, of their greatness. It is left unsaid, and unwritten.The Dear Calvin Project is fixing that. The men and the women that served alongside the heroes that gave the last full measure of devotion are carrying the stories of the fallen to their children. Through interviews, through letters, the stories of the men and women who gave their lives are being delivered to the Gold Star families.

This act of love started with Charles Jones when his mentor and fellow Marine, Staff Sergeant John Davis was killed in action. John and his wife Helena had a young son, one who would not know his father's story, his legacy, what kind of man he was. His name was Calvin, who at the time of his father's death was only four years old. At four years old Calvin didn't have the opportunity to learn and know his father. But due to Helena's wisdom and foresight, she asked the men who knew John best to tell their son about his father through a letter.It was difficult to write at first. How do you tell the story of such a man to his son? Charles eventually ended up putting four pages worth of thoughts down. He held nothing back, he told of John's heroism, his virtue, his failures, his successes. As he read over the letter, Charles decided that it needed more. The letter would not do Staff Sergeant John Davis justice, it wouldn't do Calvin justice either...he decided to record himself reading the letter...

The Dear Calvin Project had just begun.