{"id":3035,"date":"2012-11-21T08:24:06","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T08:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/drp\/?p=3035"},"modified":"2016-12-02T13:12:16","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T19:12:16","slug":"a-soldiers-last-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/2012\/11\/21\/a-soldiers-last-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"A soldier&#8217;s last Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3036\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3036\" style=\"width: 594px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/digital.lib.uiowa.edu\/cdm\/ref\/collection\/kinnick\/id\/3554\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3036\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/files\/2012\/11\/kinnick.jpg\" alt=\"Nile Kinnick, 1942\" width=\"594\" height=\"513\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/files\/2012\/11\/kinnick.jpg 594w, https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/files\/2012\/11\/kinnick-300x259.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3036\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nile Kinnick, 1942<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An avid letter writer who was very close to his family, Nile Kinnick left a detailed record of the eventful period in his life when he left home to attend the University of Iowa, became a football star and Heisman trophy winner, and enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II. In a 1942 letter to his parents, \u00a0featured in the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/digital.lib.uiowa.edu\/kinnick\" target=\"_blank\">Nile Kinnick digital collection<\/a>\u00a0and transcribed by our volunteers at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/diyhistory.lib.uiowa.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">DIY History<\/a>,\u00a0he runs through the specifics of his day, beginning with a new method of shaving &#8220;explained in a recent issue of Newsweek,&#8221; breakfast, pilot training, athletics (&#8220;Whether we play touch football or struggle through the obstacle race depends upon who is in charge. The former is a lot of fun for most of us, and the latter is a pain in the neck to all&#8221;), and so on.<\/p>\n<p>He wraps up the letter\u00a0with a mention of his lackluster Thanksgiving at the Navy base and a wish to celebrate the holiday with his family again. Sadly that wish went unfulfilled; Kinnick\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/digital.lib.uiowa.edu\/cdm\/ref\/collection\/kinnick\/id\/5015\" target=\"_blank\">died on a training mission<\/a> the following spring.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\">&#8220;&#8230;Thanksgiving was just like any other day around here except for a little better meal in the evening. A year ago we were all at grandma&#8217;s eating turkey with all the trimmings. Speed the day when we can all gather there again. Everything considered, this year&#8217;s Thanksgiving had a real significance. The U.S. had its most bountiful crop in history, and we and our allies were on the offensive on all fronts. The victory lies at the end of a road still rocky and rough, but things look better, much better!&#8221;\u00a0<span style=\"text-align: right\"><br \/>\n<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/diyhistory.lib.uiowa.edu\/transcribe\/scripto\/transcribe\/73\/2680\" target=\"_blank\">&#8212; Nile Kinnick correspondence to his parents, Nov. 28, 1942<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An avid letter writer who was very close to his family, Nile Kinnick left a detailed record of the eventful period in his life when he left home to attend the University of Iowa, became a football star and Heisman trophy winner, and enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II. In a<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/2012\/11\/21\/a-soldiers-last-thanksgiving\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;A soldier&#8217;s last Thanksgiving&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"syndication":[30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4867,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions\/4867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/studio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}