I Promise You I'll Be Home

“Decades before I knew him, Al Martinez—my friend, my colleague—lived another life in another hemisphere: as a combat Marine in Korea. In this collection of letters from the young Al, so adroitly and sensitively edited by Sara S. Hodson, I get to meet the embryo Al, the fledgling writer I came to know and work alongside: curious, passionate, courageous, humorous, bemused, and above all, humane.”—Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times columnist, Emmy-winning broadcaster, best-selling author
“Literary curator Sara S. Hodson manages to find a silver lining, even in warfare, as she shares Martinez’s letters from the battleground, letters that bare a soldier's heart and soul as he confronts loneliness, brotherhood, his own mortality—and his own morality.”—Paddy, Calistro, founding co-publisher, Angel City Press
“Sara S. Hodson’s excellent editing of Al Martinez’s letters provides three fascinating stories in one: the civilian becomes a marine, the marine becomes a combat veteran, and the student becomes a confident newspaper man, with all three connected by a great love story. I Promise You I’ll Be Home is a remarkable work and an important document of the American experience in the Korean War.”—William M. Donnelly, author of Under Army Orders: The Army National Guard during the Korean War
“Al Martinez was a master story teller. He could make walking across the street an adventure. In this collection of letters to his wife Joanne, he has brought this rare talent to describing his years as a combat Marine in the Korean War, a bloody series of battles now slipping away from American memories. By telling of his Marine buddies, their dangerous experiences and, always, his love for Joanne, he reminds us of that war and the sacrifices made by those who fought it. After the war, as a Los Angeles Times columnist, he wrote about the city streets and their characters as he had with the war. He was the greatest. And this is an invaluable   addition to the literature of war.”—Bill Boyarsky, former columnist and city editor of the Los Angeles Times, co-editor of the weekly podcast Inside Golden State Politics.