The Ohio Department of Natural Resources opened its new Letters to Home Trail at Mohican Memorial State Forest southeast of Mansfield on Friday.
Along the trail, visitors will see displays featuring letters written over the years by Ohio service members to their loved ones back home.
Among them is a letter that Edgar Rarick, of the U.S. Army Air Corps, sent from New Guinea to his wife Doris back in Columbus during World War II.
"Well honey, it has been a long while since I've written, but I have been thinking about you all the time and wishing I could at least see you," the letter begins. "I am several thousand miles from you, but you still are just as close to me as ever."
"They were just a very, very loving couple. And just had a great life together. And so this letter is very touching and just says he can't wait to see her," said Linda Young, a retired Reynoldsburg High School librarian and daughter of the Raricks.
The letter is one of five that are on the trail, which leads to the Mohican Memorial Shrine that honors nearly 20,000 Ohioans who died in military conflicts from World War II to the present.
Young, 76, believes people seeing the letters will think about their own family histories. Young submitted her father's letter for the trail.
"Can you imagine how many thousands and thousands of letters have been written over the years, to your loved one at home. And I just hope that this is an example that will touch people's hearts because so many will have a letter like that," Young said.
Young said her father grew up in New Lexington in Perry County and moved to Columbus before the war because he wanted a better opportunity and didn't want to work in the coal mines like his family members.
He ended up taking a job with A&P grocery stores.
He started out as a bagger in Linden, where Young's mother lived.
"My grandma saw him at the grocery store and she said, she told my mom, she said, 'Doris, why don't you get dressed up, we're going to the grocery store. And my mom was like, 'What? Why would we get dressed up to go to the grocery store?'" Young said.
"My dad saw her and he must have been smitten right away," Young said.
During World War II, Young said her father wanted to be a pilot, but when that didn't happen he wanted to be a bombardier, but he and his best friend were told that they were too tall.
"I have a feeling that saved his life probably," Young said.
Young said her father then was in charge of air transport between New Guinea and Hawaii.
Young also said her father had a great love for his country and wanted to serve.
