LANSING, Mich. — Lansing resident Jana Nicol’s mother handed her a gift that had been tucked away for decades.
“After my dad passed away in 1996 my mom gave me two big Rubbermaid containers full of books, uniforms and helmets and said this is your dad’s stuff from the war. His name was Dwayne nickel, and he was a quartermaster in the Navy, and he served on an LST, which is a landing ship tank."
For years, the boxes sat unopened. Jana always meant to go through them—she just never found the time. Then came the pandemic, and with it, an unexpected opportunity.
That’s when she discovered over 300 letters, written by her father to his mother, each one a piece of history, each one a window into his world.
“He would date them and write them all in cursive. And some of them were damaged, some of them were censored, so I had to kind of decipher them. And he would use lingo from the 40 that we don't use now slang. And he also kept a journal.”
As she sifted through the letters, Jana realized her father’s story deserved more than to be stored away. She’s working to turn his letters into a book, preserving not only his words but a snapshot of his youth.
“This was a letter that got caught in a plane crash.”
And while the war was filled with hardship, Jana’s father still found moments of mischief.
“One of his shipmates stole a farmer's wagon and horse and drove it right up onto the ship, because LSTs have these huge doors that open on the front of The ship. They're flat bottom so they can beach right up on the go, right up on the beach. And so he stole a farmer's wagon and drove it right onto the ship with a farmer chasing him with a pitchfork.”
Piece by piece, Jana has gotten to know her father in a way she never could when he was alive. It’s a journey she feels he’d be proud of.
“I got to know him when he was 18, and it’s really kind of cool to see what he was like.”
Jana hopes to finish her book by April first of next year, which would have been her father’s 100th birthday. She also plans to donate her father’s letters and artifacts to a museum, so her father’s legacy—and the legacy of countless others—will live on for generations to come.
This week, we honor all veterans, our Good Neighbors, whose stories remind us of the courage and sacrifice that helped to shape our country.
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