Ten million letters were exchanged by America’s doughboys and their families and sweethearts during World War I, providing a crucial connection between battlefront and home. Among the correspondents was Army artillery sergeant George Wigert, whose missives to his “Dearest Mother” Anna in Lincoln, Nebraska, revealed the dreams, bravado, yearnings, growing skepticism, and barely disguised fears of a young man turning 21 in a virtual valley of death.
 
In a discussion of his new book, Dearest Mother: Letters from a Lonesome Sammy, 1915-1919, Kansas City marketing icon, local historian, and author Pat O’Neill — Wigert’s grandson — brings to life the soldier’s intimate and often humorous accounts of his experiences. Wigert, who served on front lines of France, settled years after the war in Kansas City, and died in 1976.