The words are there, in black and white, in well-crafted cursive, right where they've been since the day more than 65 years ago that they were first put to paper. The picture is there, in black and white, looking out past the photographer with perfectly combed hair and the slightest hint of a smile, there on the bottom of page 65, right where he's been since the book was published more than 70 years ago.

It's the image that's in full color. It's the image of the boy on page 65 as he sat down to write the letter that is haunting.

"Dear Mac," he wrote to his younger brother, who was also in Europe, he in France, the brother in Italy.

And with that introduction, he is visible again.

Tired. Dirty. Unshaven. His eyes bloodshot; his uniform in disrepair.

The war all around him, and yet now a break, on this picture-perfect end of summer day, in this quaint little French countryside town. And now that he has a moment, he looks for a pencil, any scrap of paper, to put together a short letter to his brother one country over, an ambulance driver because he was too young to fight.

Can't you see him? Part war movie, part impressionist painting, the mind's eye is saying.

And with that, he begins to write.

He says a lot in his short note. Next to "Dear Mac" he has written "Somewhere in Southern France."

He talks about how proud he is of the French resistance. He predicts a Feb. 26 end to the war in Europe; he will be off by a little more than two months.

He talks about how much of the country he's seen, how beautiful it all is. He apologizes for not having proper stationery with which to write.

And then he's done, and so he says goodbye.

"So long," he writes. And then he signs it simply: "Ty."

Above where he has written "Somewhere in Southern France," he has written the date, in military style: "18 Sept. 1944."

Presumably he addressed an envelope and sent his letter away to the brother.

Three days later, Ty – Captain Tyler Campbell, Princeton Class of 1943, a member of the U.S. Lacrosse Hall of Fame – was killed, according to one report by German machine gun fire and according to another by a single bullet from a German sniper.

"It is with deep regret that I must verify the wire that you received concerning your son, Tyler," Major General John O'Daniel wrote to Campbell's parents. "You have my deepest sympathy in your bereavement. I can sympathize thoroughly as my only son, John W. Jr., was killed in action on September 20th, one day before your boy was."

At the time of his death, Tyler Campbell was 22.

"I'm 88 years old," says A. Samuel Cook, also of the Gilman Class of 1939 and the Princeton Class of 1943, "and I've never known a finer person than Ty Campbell."

Shortly after Campbell's death, a corporal named Burton Roberts wrote a letter to Campbell's mother.

"The men in his company were crazy about him," Roberts wrote. "They thought he was the best company commander in the Army. He was that and more. I never head him utter a harsh word to anyone. He led his men; he didn't have to drive them ... He did much for his country, and his characteristics, goodness, kindness, tolerance will live on in the actions of the men who were proud to call him their friend. When informed of your son's death, the Battalion Commander turned his back to everyone and for the rest of the day remained mute. There were many men who cried."

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2010-03-12