Publication Date: May 29, 2024
Bud Richardville is inducted into the Army as the United States prepares for the invasion of Europe in 1943. A chance comment has Bud assigned to the Graves Registration Service where his unit is tasked with locating, identifying, and burying the dead. Bud ships out, leaving behind his new wife, Lorraine, a mysterious woman who has stolen his heart but whose secretive nature and shadowy past leave many unanswered questions. When Bud and his men hit the beach at Normandy, they are immediately thrust into the horrors of what working in a graves unit entails. Bud is beaten down by the gruesome demands of his job and losses in his personal life, but then he meets Eva, an optimistic soul who despite the war can see a positive future. Will Eva’s love be enough to save him?
More than seven decades after his mysterious death at the end of World War II, it’s time for Bud Richardville to come home.
Based on a true story, Your Forgotten Sons traces Bud’s life, including his career as a river pig and paper mill foreman, before being drafted in World War II at age 29.
Author Anne Montgomery uses letters between Bud and family members to illustrate the challenges he faces overseas. The letters provide a needed escape from his role in the graves registration unit.
The extra twist is Bud’s sudden marriage to a store clerk he met just days before having to report to training. Bud falls madly in love, never dreaming that his happily ever after might not be real. The concept of an “Allotment Annie” was informative, yet incredibly painful in its deception.
Bud’s story comes to light through the determination of his niece. As she and her best friend use the fragile letters for clues about Bud’s wartime activities, they stumble upon what really happened in France.
Your Forgotten Sons provides a vivid account of a young man’s wartime experience from the perspective of someone charged with burying the fallen.
Anne Butler Montgomery has worked as a television sportscaster, newspaper and magazine
writer, teacher, author, and amateur sports official. Her first TV job came at WRBL-TV in
Columbus, Georgia, and led to positions at WROC-TV in Rochester, New York, KTSP-TV in
Phoenix, Arizona, and ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut, where she anchored the Emmy and ACE
award-winning SportsCenter. She finished her on-camera broadcasting career with a two-year stint as the studio host for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Montgomery was a freelance and/or staff reporter for six publications, writing sports, features, movie reviews, and archeological pieces.
Her novels include The Castle, A Light in the Desert, Wild Horses on the Salt, The Scent of Rain, and Wolf Catcher. Montgomery taught sports reporting at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and taught high school journalism for 20 years. She was an amateur sports official for four decades, a time during which she called baseball, ice hockey, soccer, and basketball games and served as a high school football referee and crew chief. Montgomery is a foster mom to three sons and a daughter. When she can, she indulges in her passions: rock collecting, scuba diving, theater, and playing her guitar.
Thank you so much, Amy, for taking the time to read and review Your Forgotten Sons and for your kind words.