And what do they have to do with my novel. Well the wings are the item that inspired my story. I won a pair of 8th AF sweetheart wings on Ebay. I’m a bit of a WWII buff and a collector of 8th AF memorabilia. Of course I was also assigned to the 8th AF at Westover AFB in Massachusetts when I served in the Air Force in the early sixties. When this pair of wings came up on auction I jumped at the chance to win them and did. (see below)
After holding them in my hand I tried to imagine the story behind them. Since no history of the wings was available, the story started to unfold in my mind. I enhanced the wings in my mind. Hence Battered Wings was born.
There are lots of sweetheart jewelry items out there in auction land. Some of it we are lucky enough to know the history, but all too many pieces are found in someone’s jewelry box with no note as to how the piece was acquired.
I have seen charm bracelets, necklaces, etc. from the Army, Navy, Marines as well as the Army Air Corp. In fact, military units of other countries also used sweetheart jewelry to boost morale. It’s great when you can get the history of the people who owned the item but when you can’t, just remember that someone loved someone enough to give or wear that precious piece.
Cheers,

