PINE GROVE, Pa. — In 1943, 18-year-old Irvin Schwartz from Pine Grove left his position as a sports columnist for the West Schuylkill Press and Pine Grove Herald. He traded his pen and paper in for Army greens.
But Irvin continued to write. He wrote letters from wherever his unit, the Army's famed 1st Division, was sent. Sgt. Schwartz then mailed those letters, 50 of them, home to Schuylkill County.
All were published in the newspaper to give people a first-hand account of World War II from the front lines.
Jake Wynn lives in Washington D.C., but he grew up in Dauphin County and writes a blog about Pennsylvania's history. He was going through old newspapers as research for another story when he came across Irvin's letters.
"My idea was to take these letters, learn a little bit more about Irvin Schwartz and his life and his experiences, and share the letters and add in some context and photographs and things that I found through my research. And I had some idea that there was family members still out there, but I didn't know them personally," Wynn said.
Irvin's son, Tim, says a friend of his stumbled upon Jake's blog, "Wynning History," and reached out.
"You're just reading those letters and thinking, you know, this is my father as a 19-year-old kid, you know, and just talking about those experiences and clearly, you know, no fear, just pride in doing what he was doing, and then the confidence that you know that we were gonna win the war and you know, always, always going to be well in the end," Schwartz said.
Jake and Tim agree that this has been an emotional journey but are thrilled to have Irvin's words given new life.
"It was great to see him getting some recognition for these letters. I think it had been suggested before that we make a book out of the letters or do something like that. So it was good to see them go out there for people to read and benefit from," Tim said.
Irvin Schwartz passed away in 1993 but is still recognized as a Hometown Hero in Pine Grove, and now there's an opportunity for more people to get to know him as a soldier and writer.