By Craig McKee
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PHOENIX (KNXV) — A disabled Marine Corps veteran who spent more than a decade preserving a rare collection of over 1,000 World War II letters says he now has no choice but to sell it.
Joseph “Joe” Alosi, 100% service-connected disabled, says mounting medical bills, the loss of his home, and family crises have left him no other option than to part with the archive he once vowed to keep intact forever.
The collection — letters written by four brothers from the Eydes family of Rockford, Illinois, between 1941 and 1944 — has already drawn interest from The Washington Post, major museums, and Hollywood producers tied to Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard. Now, Alosi is searching for a buyer willing to meet one condition: keep the archive whole.
Alosi, a Marine infantry veteran who served from 1980 to 1984, found the letters years ago while bidding on abandoned storage units — a hobby he picked up after his diamond and jewelry career slowed down. Inside a nearly empty unit, most bidders passed. Alosi noticed a flash of red, white and blue on an old overseas envelope and kept bidding. He won the lot for a couple thousand dollars.
Inside were six Tupperware containers, each labeled by year — 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 — packed tightly with hundreds of preserved letters.
“I lifted the top off one of them and saw rows and rows of letters, just absolutely crunched together and packed in there,” Alosi said.
The letters belonged to Frank, Ralph, John and Sanford Eydes. Three served in uniform; the fourth worked stateside in the war industry. Writing almost daily, the brothers documented battles, troop movements, and the emotional whiplash of wartime life — talk of home-cooked meals one day and enemy attacks the next.
Alosi was especially drawn to Frank’s letters from the brutal Pacific campaigns at Tulagi and Kolombangara. One passage described a firefight so intense that, by morning, “nothing above two feet was standing” on the island — an account Alosi says reflects what was then called combat fatigue and is now recognized as PTSD.
“They didn’t know how it was going to turn out when they were writing,” Alosi said. “Today we know the history. They were living it.”
With no surviving heirs to return the letters to, Alosi contacted Washington Post Pentagon correspondent Dan Lamothe. After reviewing a single letter from a major battle, Lamothe called back within the hour asking to send a film crew.
That coverage set off a wave of attention from museums, historians, and film studios. Companies representing Spielberg and Howard reached out about potential documentaries or feature films. Alosi signed early documentary rights to one company before his attorney advised against a later, less favorable film deal.
Military reviewers have since examined portions of the archive, telling Alosi some material remains censored — including possible references to CIA involvement tied to one brother’s postwar service in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Behind the historic discovery is a family in crisis. Alosi’s records confirm exposure to toxic materials during service, and he has undergone repeated surgeries for multiple related illnesses. The family lost their longtime home in Cave Creek, Arizona. In 2023, Alosi’s son was murdered. His daughter is now battling a serious blood or bone marrow cancer and cycling in and out of the hospital. Alosi’s wife of 43 years serves as his full-time caregiver while the couple also raises their late son’s daughter and two additional grandchildren.
“It’s been a very difficult time,” Alosi said. “I used to have a great income. I can’t work anymore.”
Unpaid VA copays and billing errors have added further strain.
“Community care at the VA is great, but they do make mistakes,” he said. “The copays we shouldn’t have to pay have kind of buried us.”
Alosi says he isn’t looking to profit — he’s looking for a buyer who will preserve the collection responsibly. He wants a museum, institution, production company, or serious private collector who will keep the archive intact, properly catalog it, and help tell the Eydes brothers’ full story rather than sell individual letters piecemeal.
“I’ve kept these together for years,” Alosi said. “I won’t just let them go to somebody who wants to sell a letter here and there on eBay. Their story is worthy of being told.”
Officials in Rockford, Illinois — the brothers’ hometown — once offered to build a facility to house and display the letters, but Alosi’s declining health prevented him from pursuing it.
“I’m down to where I can’t really move around too much,” he said. “I’d just like to be able to take care of my family — and make sure these men’s story is safe.”
Serious buyers interested in acquiring the archive — with a firm commitment to preserving it intact — can contact Alosi’s legal representative:
Law Offices of Stephen Wade Nebgen, PLLC azentertainmentlaw.com 3370 North Hayden Road, Suite 123-565, Scottsdale, Arizona, 85251 480-215-6305
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