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By Melissa Lauber

Meandering among the carved stones and fountains along Washington, D.C.?s tidal basin, the spirit of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, his wife Eleanor and the men and women of 'The Greatest Generation' reach out through history.

Poverty, war, hope, freedom and faith - some of the finest themes of the human endeavor - unfold at the FDR Memorial. At night, the silence, tempered only by the sounds of falling water, calls forth a sense of holiness.

Nation and church blend in human suffering and triumph.

On one stone wall, the words Roosevelt spoke in a 1941 speech to Congress are carved deep:
Freedom of Speech,
Freedom to Worship,
Freedom from Want,
Freedom from Fear.

People trace these words with their fingers. Many can?t reach the top and find their fingers resting in the furrows of the carved 'freedom' or 'fear,' and they just stand there a moment.

It feels right to me that 'An American Family in World War II,' a book by the Rev. Ralph L. Minker from the Baltimore-Washington Conference, is sold at the National Park?s gift shop at the FDR Memorial.

The book contains a selection of 800 letters between Minker and his father, the Rev. Ralph L. Minker Sr., his mother and two sisters, as well as a commentary that places Minker?s pilot training and 37 combat missions over Nazi Germany into historical perspective.

However, most readers don?t realize the irony they hold in their hands.

The book was published in 2005 and has won several awards. However, Alzheimer?s Disease and a stroke have robbed its author of his ability to use language or comprehend his achievement.

So, as Writer?s Digest Magazine praises Minker for his words, he is unable to write.

Living at a long-term care facility in Reston, Va., Minker is cared for by his wife Sandra O?Connell, who co-edited the book along with historian Harry Butowsky.

O?Connell doesn?t pretend their situation is easy. 'But we carry on,' she said. 'Ask me how we are, and I?ll tell you it depends upon what hour it is.'

In the midst of this struggle, O?Connell celebrates and promotes Minker?s book, which she sees as her husband?s legacy. 'It is a story not of war, but of a family who loved peace,' she said.

The letters are filled with incredible detail, telling the story of a young man who left college to learn to fly B-17 airplanes as part of the 447th Bomber Group.

Minker flew on 37 combat missions over Germany in his plane, The Blue Hen Chick. In early May of 1945 he flew in 'Operation Chow Hound,' which dropped food to the starving people of Holland.

Completing 35 missions before he was 20 years old, Minker was inducted into the 'Lucky Bastard?s Club' and was eligible to return home. But he opted for another tour of duty because he felt there was 'unfinished business.'

Readers become witnesses as they read the selected letters.

In one, Minker described to his father what a mission was like in a sentence that rambles with poetry.

'The actual mission is one continuous surge between tense eager expectancy and weary monotony - the thrill as power surges to lift the great silver bird in flight, the jockeying to form in squadron - group - wind - division and airforce formation by 1,200 planes, England - a cloud covered hearsay - a gilt of sunlit fields and towns - a symphony in early morning shades of blue, the cold grey channel, Germany, cold, a stick of Wrigley Spearmint Gum, oxygen, fascinating flak, escorting Mustang and Thunderbolt fighters, unidentified contrails, more flack - close and black - the plane staggers from the concussion, peaceful smoking target, prop wash rocking the formation, #1 prop surging and running away, I?m tired, the channel and England gain, low altitude, off oxygen at last, wolf down a Hershey bar.'

In a letter written just before he deployed to England, Minker?s mother wrote, 'I am proud of you.' She said, 'I know you will be conscious of a Presence and Strength other than your own in these coming days and whatever comes you will be able to meet. You are always in my mind and on my heart, and so I can hardly say that I shall be thinking of you more.'

This faith followed Minker home, where he completed college, studied theology at Boston University and, on May 18, 1952, was ordained into the Methodist Church.

He served on the former Baltimore Conference staff, as an extension minister for several ministries, and he served as a pastor at Eldbrooke, Mount Vernon Place, Mount Rainier and Corkran Memorial United Methodist churches.

He retired from the ministry in 1989 and was diagnosed with Alzheimer?s in 1995, nearly 50 years after his last letter home.

In an epilogue to the book, Minker, in 1991, told his fellow aviators who gathered at a reunion, 'My friends, we were in England in both the hell and the hope of wartime.' He noted that many died in the war and many more who fought have died since then. 'However,' he said, 'we still have the solemn responsibility to give witness to who we are and have been and to say to each other and those who have passed away: ?Still standing for peace with justice, still faithful to a common cause.?'

As a soldier and as a pastor, Minker understood FDR?s four freedoms. His legacy is in the letters he wrote home from the war, his 45 years of active ministry and also in the words inscribed at the memorial: 'The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.'

For more about the book 'An American Family in World War II,' contact Sandra O?Connell Minker at