General description of the collection: The James E. Thompson papers consist of correspondence; veteran association papers; clippings about veterans of the 7th Armored Division; a biographical sketch, 1921-1985; and 251 pages of annotated letters with interspersed clippings arranged in a scrapbook manner entitled, DEAREST FOLKS. This contains Thompson's letters home to his parents in Columbiana, Alabama, during his service overseas in Germany; and a memoir entitle, PAPA T'S ARMY DAYS IN WWII -- EUROPE, relating his military service from induction in 1944 to separation in 1946. He describes basic training at Camp Wheeler, ship and train travel to reach Belgium to join the 7th Armored Division, rations, physical conditions, the Battle of the Bulge, leave in Switzerland, capturing Germans, liberating prisoners of war (POWs) and concentration camp inmates, entering Russian-controlled territory, work as a tailor and barber during the Occupation, and civilan conditions in the Occupation.