Iowa Victims’ Kin Get Letters, Money
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NORFOLK, Va. — In an emotional outpouring of support, hundreds of letters and donations are streaming into a private fund set up for the families of the 47 sailors who were killed in the April 19 explosion aboard the battleship Iowa.
The cards and letters come primarily from the southeastern Virginia area, near the Norfolk Naval Base, the Iowa’s home port. However, letters have come from as far away as New York, Michigan and California.
The often-poignant letters range from a message sent by a high-ranking Pentagon official to handwritten cards from elementary schoolchildren.
“USS Iowa--America remembers,” reads a colorful card by a first-grader from Lakes Elementary School in Hartland, Mich. The card includes the drawing of a ship.
The USS Iowa Fund was set up less than 24 hours after the Navy had announced that the sailors had been killed in a fiery explosion in the battleship’s No. 2 gun turret.
As of last Friday, the fund had received more than $42,500.
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