On Saturday, March 19, at 1 p.m., the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Foundation will host a lecture by Patricia Farawell Enyedy, author of A Redcatcher's Letters from Nam: Reflections of Family and Friends at the Vietnam Era Educational Center in Holmdel.

      The author's brother, PFC George T. Farawell, was an average 19-year-old from a middle class family in Linden, New Jersey when he was drafted into the U.S. Army and shipped to Vietnam in 1969.  The Army gave him an M16 and he was assigned to Delta Company, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade, known as the Redcatchers.  He had served only eight weeks of his tour of duty when he fell victim to a land mine.

      Patricia Farawell Enyedy, originally of Linden, N.J., writes, “My brother wrote 25 wonderful letters to my mom, dad, husband and myself.  I was reading George's letters recently and thought no one else has ever read these wonderful pieces of his heart written during the last days of his life.  I wanted to share them with family and his friends.”  Their reminiscences add to this poignant and brave profile of a soldier.

      As a portrait of Farawell emerges from his sister's pages, we realize he is the boy next door, the sweetheart that will never come home, the brother and son that can never be replaced.   Today the author lives in Carolina Shores, N.C.