After marching in the War Chest Parade, the Jefferson High School Lassos proudly watched the rising figures on the War Chest thermometer at the United States Postal Office.

The theme of the 1945 Monticello yearbook was “The Jefferson At War” edition. Current students exchanged letters with former active-duty students to get a glimpse of what a soldier’s life was like overseas. At time of publication, they had no idea the war would be over in a matter of months, though they wrote of “complete victory certain and, perhaps, very near.”

Soldier Bob wrote to his former high school from Luzon Island in the Philippines.