Aboard the USS Argentina, bound for Naples, Italy, on December 11, 1944, the 86th Regiment of the US Army 10th Mountain Division sailed out of Hampton Roads, Virginia. A few weeks later, the remaining mountain regiments were also bound for Naples on the enormous USS West Point or on the smaller USS General Meigs.

Their mission was to take Mount Belvedere in the 870 miles long Italian Apennine Range, but first the 86th regiment would have to take the strategic Nazi-held Riva Ridge, said to be impregnable because of its shear steep cliffs and its visibility to the enemy camped on the summit of the Ridge.

On the Argentina, Lt Pete Lafitte had with him a package of letters and photos from Merry Joliat. That -- somewhere in Le Grand Derangement of French Acadian history -- there was a shared history had emerged in their letters. Such connections were difficult to trace. Pete himself was caught between the stories of his Father, a country doctor on the Canadian-Vermont border, and his Grandfather, a riverboat gambler. According to his Father, the first Lafitte came from the Champagne region of France to the New World in the retinue of Jean de Poutrincourt.

Grand-Pere Lafitte said they were descended from a pirate who defended New Orleans in the War of 1812.

In her last letter, Merry warned that the new foreman on the farm was rumored to be intercepting letters between Land Girls and their sweethearts. Meanwhile, aboard the Argentina, the men were informed that from now on their mail would be censored.

At that time, Pete did not know that before the assault on Belvedere, he would have to remove his letters and personal belongings from his backpack and throw them in a pile in a remote Italian Valley.