Diary of a Marine Corsair Pilot in the Solomon Islands
The wartime diary of Lieutenant Charles C. Winnia, USMC was found behind a drill press in the garage of his former division leader, Captain Alonzo B. “Brew” Treffer. Brew's son David passed the dairy along to Carl Richardson, a former Marine aviator himself, who transcribed and posted the entire diary on the Web as The Diary of a Marine Corsair Pilot in the Solomon Islands. Lieutenant Winnia was killed in action and never returned from the Solomons. Through an unlikley series of coincidences involving Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia, the diary came to the attention of his girlfriend, Jane “V.J.” Watkins, whom he had met in graduate school at Vanderbilt University. The story has also been covered on NPR's Morning Edition; on their site you can hear V.J. read Lt. Winnia's last letter to her. This is teeny slice of history that personalizes World War II and helps make it real now that we are now so far removed from it.
Rays of Light
The wartime diary of Lieutenant Charles C. Winnia, USMC was found behind a drill press in the garage of his former division leader, Captain Alonzo B. “Brew” Treffer. Brew's son David passed the dairy along to Carl Richardson, a former Marine aviator himself, who transcribed and posted the entire diary on the Web as 
