A sixth-grader's thank you kept this serviceman going - and now they've met

During the Vietnam War, John Metzler was a 23-year-old helicopter gunner. He knew that the US was divided on our involvement in the war, and that each day might be his last. 

On Christmas Day 1970, Metzler got a card from a sixth-grader he didn't know. In part, it read, "Dear Serviceman, I want to give my sincere thanks for going over to war to fight for us. The class hopes you will be able to come home." It was signed "DonnaCaye." 

Even though the card wasn't addressed directly to him, Metzler took the girl's thanks personally. Knowing that someone had thanked him for what he was doing made a huge difference in his ability to cope with the stresses of his tour. He kept the note through his tour of duty and brought it home with him. 

For over 40 years, the young girl's words have lived behind a photo of Metzler as a young soldier. Recently, he asked family members to try to find DonnaCaye. They told him they tried, but were not successful.

In truth, they did find her. They flew her from Florida to meet the serviceman at a veteran's event near his Idaho home. You can watch their touching interaction as captured by CBS News. 

The power of defiance and solidarity

His moral stance could easily have gotten him killed, and a thousand other US soldiers with him.

Reverend Chris Edmonds knew his late father, US Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds, had been captured by Wehrmacht soldiers at the Battle of the Bulge. He'd been taken to a German POW camp and held there for 100 days. Sure, there were a couple diaries his father had kept during his time in the camp, but they held few details. His father, who died in 1985, spoke little of it.

As chance would have it, some years later Rev. Edmonds read an article online which mentioned his father. In it, a prominent New York attorney credited Sgt. Edmonds with saving his life and that of about 200 other Jewish American POWs. Rev. Edmonds dug deeper, and what he learned amazed him.

U.S. soldiers knew that Jewish soldiers among them would be in danger if captured by the Nazis. Many had already destroyed their dog tags so they would not be singled out as Jewish. So when the POW camp commander ordered Jewish American soldiers to identify themselves, Edmonds and everyone else knew what was at stake.

As the ranking officer, Edmonds told the other POWs, "We are not doing that, we are all falling out." The other men complied. So Edmonds and 1000 other American POWs stood in front of their barracks to face the commander.

"They cannot all be Jews," the commander said to Edmonds, to which he replied: "We are all Jews here." The officer held a pistol to Edmonds' head and repeated his demands. Edmonds refused to give anything but his name, rank and serial number. The officer backed down. The camp was liberated several weeks later. 

Yad Vashem has added US Army Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds to its list of Righteous Among the Nations for his role in protecting over 200 Jewish soldiers that day. His fellow POWs who turned out in defiance of the Nazis and solidarity with their comrades remain anonymous.