“After being swept away to battle, on opposite sides of the planet, for the next 2 1/2 years the Pilot and the Nurse did not see each other - nor so much as hear the other’s voice. All they had were the letters …”

After two decades of discovery, research, writing and editing - Revelations - and the multi-volume, non-fiction Love and War Series is finally emerging into the public spotlight! The two main characters met exactly nine months before the US entered WWII; fell in love, and served together in the huge Ft. Custer army hospital for a year before being split apart - different assignments; different bases.

Despite the separation, in the summer of 1942 - on the shores of Lake Superior they became engaged. Over the next 12 months, they were able to spend time together on only a handful of occasions; and so began the letters - the primary artery to fan the flames and keep their passions alive.

NOTE: Revelations is scheduled to be available on Amazon the week of 2/23/26; and should be available at Barnes & Noble stores shortly as well.

Pardon our dust … this site is under construction & a state of constant “remodeling.” Coming soon: chatroom; reader & critic reviews; links to facebook & other social media; platforms; our .org philanthropic site; etc. Meanwhile, feel free to contact us at: loveandwarseries.com@gmail.com.

To our sponsors, donors & subscribers - a sincere thank you for your financial support as we proceed along the serendipitous, and financially challenging Love & War Odyssey! As of latter February, 2026 a Kickstarter fund raising campaign is under way to raise capital for a host of expenses in self-publishing, promoting Revelations and the overarching Love & War Series. We welcome your support along that line!

Note: a portion of the net profits from book sales to be donated on annual basis to one or more non-profit veteran’s organizations.

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The Main Characters

When they met “sparks flew” and the love story began … their wedding plans were derailed when they each received orders and were separated. Shortly after, the letters began, and during the final three years of the War over 4,000 pages were exchanged from opposite sides of the planet . . . “letters of love and longing; poignancy and passion; laughter and tears; and life and death.”

After the war, the letters were boxed up along with hundreds of pages of private diaries, combat field notes, top secret theater maps, combat flight logs and a trove of other wartime archives. Relegated to silent darkness for some six decades, several years after the Nurse and Pilot took their final breaths, the true story of their Love and War came back into the light of day and began to unfold.

Martin Molnar, AAC - 1944

Martin Molnar in the cockpit of his C-47 “Millie O’” in Burma, 1944. During his 15-months of combat duty, he flew an astonishing 250 combat missions. When he returned Stateside in April of 1945, he was humbly laden with 6 Air Medals and 4 Distinguished Flying Crosses (DFC’s). As the recipient of the Air Medals, and especially the four DFC’s, he (posthumously) remains one of the most highly decorated pilots of WWII (99.9 percentile.)

On August 9th, 1945, at 3:47 a.m. Bock’s Car lifted off from the largest airfield in the world. On board the B-29 Superfortress was a one-of-a-kind, refrigerator-sized, 10,000-pound cylinder. Contained within its armored steel, ballistic casing was America’s ultimate fury.

Seven and one-quarter hours after takeoff from Tinian Island, 30,000 feet above Nagasaki, “Fat Man” was released from the fore bomb bay. With a force of 22 kilotons of TNT, at 11:02 a.m. it exploded 1,650 feet above the steep slopes of the city.

Five days later, Emperor Hirohito informed his Japanese subjects that the war was over. As cheers went up around the world, First Lieutenant Mildred O’Connell took pen in hand and expressed her elation to a man she had not seen, or talked to, in nearly two and one-half years

August 15, 1945, Mantova, Italy - Martin Dear!

So- this is V.J. Day! The war is over – it’s really over! This is the day we’ve been waiting for Martin! This is it! We’ve always had to say – you and I – we’ve always had to plan – first by saying – “after the war.” We’ve waited so long Martin, we’ve been separated so very long – but honey – this is it! The war – the time – the separation – nothing has succeeded in parting us! Now we can have our chance for happiness – Gosh it’s almost 4 ½ years since we’ve met, fallen in love & all the while we’ve had to wait – and say – and hope – for “after the war” – I went to church last night to thank God for keeping you safe for me, for not having spoiled our life, our dreams & our hopes – as so many people have had theirs spoiled – perhaps, just because they didn’t trust – and have faith!

All the months – these years – haven’t changed me Martin Dear. I loved you long ago – my love has changed only in that it’s now deeper and more understanding than it was four years ago. I’ve loved you every minute my dearest, I’ve never had any doubts of my love for you – it was just something that’s been there all this time – sturdy and true & it’s carried me through everything. God knows Martin dear, that I’ve never been untrue to you in thought, word and deed. I couldn’t be, because I knew you were mine – I’d be your wife and the mother of your children someday!

I hope that day is soon my dearest. . . . Soon I’ll be home my darling – I’ll be with you for always – All my love in my heart to my future husband. Your Milly

In a fleeting “shower of sparks,” Mildred O’Connell first set eyes on her man at Michigan’s Fort Custer the day she was sworn into the army - exactly nine months before Pearl Harbor. They soon began dating, however, and before long, the tendrils of love became deeply intertwined. They wanted to stay together; be together. But a year after they met, they were split apart. New assignments. Hundreds of miles apart. Thus began the letters - letters of love and longing; and hopes that they would soon be together again.

During their first year of separation they were able to spend time together on a fleeting handful of occasions. Just enough to keep the flames burning hot.

But then, with the arrival of secret, sealed orders the winds of war suddenly whisked the 26-year-old nurse away to battle. Some 5,000 miles across the Atlantic to the scorching sands of the northern Sahara Desert. Smoke was still rising there from the blackened shells of Allied and Axis tanks alike - in the wake of Montgomery and Patton’s seven-month assault against the Italians, and the formidable German Panzer Corps of the notorious “desert Fox.”

In early June of 1943, while her fledgling pilot was being pinned with gleaming new silver wings in Texas, she penned her first letter from a desolate hillside in Algeria. A spartan field camp for newly arrived nurses. Craggy, windswept “dysentery hill” was overrun with goats; food was scarce; and softball-sized rocks were unforgiving lumps in her earthen mattress.

During the ensuing six-month stint in North Africa, while broiling inside 130-degree heavy canvas triage centers and makeshift field hospitals - she treated countless casualties pouring in from battles raging in Italy, 400 miles to the Northeast. While sawing off the tattered remains of arms and legs; stitching gaping wounds; and shooting morphine to stifle screams of agony - she silently wept, prayed, and gently held the hands of dying men as they gasped their last ragged breaths.

Meanwhile, after graduating from flight school, her Martin eagerly consumed every censored word she sent from Africa; responding to every letter, tit for tat. Then, after four months of advanced flight training, with fresh orders tucked inside his breast pocket, and flight plans neatly mapped out on the navigator’s tiny desk, with a rush of adrenaline he and his crew roared down the runway at Florida’s Morrison Field and lifted off in their spanking new C-47. Over the next 12 days, they flew a crisp, 12-leg, 12,000- mile route halfway around the planet. Their ultimate destination was the deadly skies of the CBI* - where Merrill’s Marauders were gearing up for their epic 700-mile march through the steamy, and bloody jungles of northern Burma - tasked with routing the deeply imbedded Japanese.

Shortly after he touched down in Karachi, she sailed across the Mediterranean to Naples. There, as Mt. Vesuvius spewed fiery plumes of magma, she promptly found herself on the receiving end of soldiers being slaughtered just a few miles north and west. Casualties of the interminable bloodbaths playing out at Anzio and Cassino.

While separated during the final two and one-half years of the war, they scribbled a few hundred pages in journals and diaries, and sent scores of notes to family and friends.

* CBI: China-Burma-India Theater.

Mildred O’Connell, RN, ANC - 1944

In her 2 ½ year overseas tour of duty she was on the receiving end of casualties from some of WWII’s most bloody and prolonged battles, including Anzio and Cassino in central Italy in 1943/44. She finally returned Stateside in November, 1945 – one of the most combat-tested and battle-hardened nurses of the War. With the rank of 1st Lt., she was “formally discharged” in November, 1945. She stubbornly & defiantly refused the discharge, however, remaining on active duty status and fighting the Army bureaucracy until the spring of 1946 when she was finally awarded her well deserved & long overdue rank of Captain, U.S. ANC.

Revelations - Book 1 of the multi-volume, non-fiction Love and War Series - takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of their odyssey, from the day they first met - exactly nine months before Pearl Harbor; to their domestic separation a year later; then across the Atlantic and Pacific where they were each engaged in some of the War’s most bloody and prolonged battles.

Introduction

Ken Molnar, author of Revelations and the Love and War Series. His 20-year odyssey of discovery, research, writing, editing and publishing began in 2006, when his 16 year old daughter, Victoria, penned a high school English paper - Grandma’s Story. The essay spotlighted the young Army nurse, enduring combat triage for months on end in the winter and spring of 1944 - as a steady stream of casualties poured into her makeshift hospital in Naples, Italy from the nearby, epic bloodbaths at Anzio and Cassino.

In his professional writing career, Molnar has authored hundreds of news and feature articles on agriculture, science, technology and a range of other industrial, business and financial topics.

A native of Midland County, MI, his primary creative studio lies deep within a pristine northern “mitten” valley - host to his favorite, icy, crystal clear, blue ribbon trout stream.

He is an alumnus of Michigan State University (B.S. communications); and Northwestern University’s Medill School (M.S. advertising/marketing communications).

Victoria Ashley Molnar ( “sunshine”) sparked the beginning of the Love and War Series when she wrote a high school theme paper based on her grandmother’s exploits in WWII.

A pivotal character, she is prominently featured in early chapters of Revelations, and has been a steadfast and valued resource from the beginning of the Series, assisting with editing, refinement and pre-press activities.

An accomplished world traveler, and full time practicing Registered Nurse since 2012, she resides in Chicago. She holds a B.S. in nursing from Loyola University, Chicago.

In August of 1944, her grandmother, Mildred O’Connell (main character) and a small contingent of her fellow nurses who were stationed in Naples, took a brief leave to visit Rome and the Vatican. After mass at St. Peter’s basicilla (she was a devout Catholic) the nurses had a private audience with Pope Pius XII, when he blessed her engagement ring. In honor of her grandmother, in August of 2024, exactly 80 years later, Victoria wore the engagement ring on her wedding day. [photo of hand/ring]

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