Spirit of MartinezWhat a Family Kept
Wartime objects from a footlocker

The Book

Fifteen chapters

Read in order, or open any chapter the way a family opens a box — wherever the hand lands.

  1. 01The Weight of Small MachinesMartinez, California — 1938–1941
  2. 02The Strip by the TracksMartinez waterfront — 1939 to February 1943
  3. 03The Locked DoorHoughton, Michigan — winter–spring 1943
  4. 04Nine Hundred Miles SouthMaxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama & a Florida primary school — spring–summer 1943
  5. 05The SpecialistHendricks Field, Sebring, Florida — summer 1944
  6. 06Nine StrangersTampa & Avon Park, Florida — August–September 1944
  7. 07Station 119Horham, Suffolk — January 1945
  8. 08Eight Empty PlacesHorham, Suffolk — February 3, 1945
  9. 09Mission OneChemnitz, Germany — February 14, 1945
  10. 10Ninety-Four HoursFebruary–March 1945
  11. 11Borrowed AircraftMarch–April 1945
  12. 12UtrechtMay 1945
  13. 13What Came BackJune 1945 and after
  14. 14The NumberWhat the paperwork says, and what it cannot settle
  15. 15Uncle SamMartinez, California — 1954–1959