An Injured Soldier's Letter to His Mother (1972)

“Letter Home,” Open Sights (Washington, DC), June 1972, p. 5. A soldier asks his mother if a badly injured buddy can stay at home with them. She replies, “Tell your friend I’m sorry but we have no room for a cripple.” The buddy is the soldier himself, which the parents discover when his body is shipped home after his death. “When they opened the casket, they stared at the disfigured body that lay there. It was their son.” Snopes discusses this legend.