Yardbird is how Ed Johansen referred to himself in some of the letters he sent home to the family from boot camp in 1942. At the time the definition fit him: yardbird. n. Slang. An untrained military recruit. This is a book of letters and photos that Ed sent home to his family and fiance. As I read them, I was enchanted with the world that my dad described. a world at war, his hopes of making it as an officer in the Army, his description of the training he went through: "...a section of land we have to crawl over with land mines exploding all around us and machine guns firing over us.", his worries about his younger brother who is serving in the Air Force and his life in the 755th Railway Battalion. Illustrated with his own photographs of the country and the men he served with in war-torn Europe, I think you will find this collection of letters and photos as fascinating as I did.