American Airlines retirees’ poignant letters to court on their benefits post-merger

As the federal bankruptcy judge signed off Wednesday on the $11 billion merger of American Airlines and US Airways, a few things are still unclear: what will happen to the $20 million severance package for outgoing American CEO Tom Horton, and more importantly, what will happen to AA’s nearly 47,000 retirees, if  they’ll have to pay for their medical coverage as part of the AA-US merger cost-cutting.

Filed with the bankruptcy court were 10 letters from American Airlines retirees, each with their own heartbreaking stories and a window into how the retiree benefits are the first to get sacrificed in increasingly consolidated airline industry worried about cutting costs at all costs.

We’ve gathered these 10 letters in this gallery below, and we suggest you read them in full-screen mode or in the “Display All images” mode, above.