About a year ago, a man in Mesa, Ariz. emailed The Washington Post saying he had hundreds of letters written by a single family during World War II. When reporter Dan Lamothe began reading them, he couldn’t put the letters down.

Meet the Eydes, four brothers from Rockford, Ill., living through the Great Depression. Even with two away at basic training, and Adolf Hitler’s conquest of Europe well underway, war still seemed a remote possibility. Until the unthinkable.

With the country at war, the Eyde brothers await their fates. Frank and Ralph inch closer to action, as they anxiously try to keep younger brother John away from the front lines.

The actors in this podcast are all veterans themselves. They join Dan to discuss their experiences reading the letters, and what is universal about the story of the Eyde family.

Frank has seen his first combat, as Ralph and John prepare for their own deployments. Facing war has the brothers engaged in intense battles -- both physical and mental.