WRAPPING IT UP, PART 2

With all this detailitis, we’re probably all thinking this will take forever, so I shall speed things up. Garry was extremely ill and in the hospital for 14 days, and it is probably just as well that I wasn’t told until afterward that he could have died. He got it again later that summer and was hospitalized for ten days…thankfully, that is the last we have ever seen of malaria.

A real Catch 22 here was that he could not be paid until he reported to his company, which he could not do because he was just down the road in the post hospital. The Army, of course, would not simply go to him to verify this, and we will be forever grateful to the Red Cross for providing us an emergency military loan. Every cent counted when all he was paid was around $160 per month with $100 extra to support me and $30 for Laurie. I’m not terribly high maintenance but this was cutting it a bit short. Every payday we’d go to the commissary to load up on a month’s worth of Rice A Roni and Macaroni and Cheese, neither of which we’ve been able to look in the face since.

We made the most wonderful friends during our stay at Fort Hood. Everyone on the street was our age, away from home, poorer than church mice, and great people. Our best friends were from West Virginia, Jim and Judy Talerico (Oh, how I hope you somehow read this and get in touch with us!), and she could make the best homemade pizza you ever tasted…especially when you were living on the above-mentioned food. The four of us played badminton all the time while Laurie sat in her stroller and cheered us on with her rattle. It was in the Spring or Summer of 1971 that we began hearing a song called "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by a guy named John Denver. You simply would not believe how that song hit the spot for all we homesick young folks down there, most especially for the Talericos since West Virginia really WAS home! There has never been a time since that Johnny Denver has not been my favorite singer and all his songs my favorite songs. It was heartbreaking when he died so tragically because he was actually part of our family’s life…it was always his 8 tracks and later cassettes that went on rides with us and with whom we very badly sang along.

ETS was coming up soon and how we looked forward to it. Jim and Judy left a couple weeks before us, having wanted to see Laurie walk so badly. She managed this a few days after they were gone. Our yard sloped gently downward, and she would push her own stroller as walking practice; of course, it would get ahead of her and there she would be laid out flat on her face with the stroller on it’s back. She never got hurt and thought it was as hilarious as the noisy huge groups of choppers that came over our house practicing combat assault maneuvers. My goodness, the things we learned to take for granted! On the night before we said goodby to the Army officially, the neighbors threw a big ETS party for us. Garry, not being a big drinker, decided to celebrate heartily, getting drunker than a skunk which, of course, set me off in righteous indignation so that I left him there to act like an idiot all by himself. You can imagine my delight the next day when he had to drive home to Michigan with a massive hangover, and I let no opportunity to say "I told you so!" go by!! He really lucked out because by this time Laurie was an absolute gem in the car.

At long last Vietnam and the Army were behind us – what an absolute wonder it was to once again see all of Michigan’s trees, which we had taken so for granted. I can’t finish this without mentioning that in 1978 our second daughter was stillborn. She had died in my womb three days before her due date because I’d developed gestational diabetes with no one knowing. One year and one day later our son was born, healthy and happy.

Garry didn’t initially have the nightmares and problems that you read about with a lot of the vets (those were to come later), but there were certainly things that had to be dealt with. In 1988 we were sitting together on the sofa on Veteran’s Day, watching a special on Vietnam, when I saw that he was crying. After much hugging and talking, it became clear that what bothered him the most was wondering what had happened to his friends, three of them especially. He recalled that Danny Bridges lived in California and the name of the town started with an "M", so I got the atlas and one of them sounded familiar. Upon calling the operator and finding someone by that name listed, Garry was sure it couldn’t possibly be the right one but I called anyway and got hold of his new wife. Bless Esther’s heart, she must have wondered who the heck this woman was asking if her husband had been in Nam in 1970, but she called him in from outside….I shall never forget listening to Garry’s side of the conversation and how excited they both were. We then managed to find Jake and Gildy with no problems, and from there the guys from Range I and II platoons were finding each other like crazy and spending fortunes in phone bills. We arranged the first reunion in Boulder, Colorado, in May of 1989, and thirteen of the guys showed up, including their lieutenant, Charley. It was just wonderful, but you have never in your life seen anything as touching as thirteen guys in a huge group hug, most of them with tears running down their faces. 

Garry is now 50 and I shall be in a few months. Laura (as she prefers to be called) is 29 and making me feel older each time that is mentioned. She is the mother of our 7 year-old grandson, the best grandson anyone could ask for, spent eight years in the National Guard before retiring, and has a good job and a good life. Shawn is now 20, still living at home as he goes to college very nearby and makes us very proud by working full-time as well as making the dean’s list. Garry works at the same place he did the day he graduated from high school but for a long time now has been white collar and in the laboratory. I’m still a wife, mother, housewife and now grandma…everything I’ve ever wanted to be.

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I can't deal with writing about  PTSD and how it has affected our lives since 1971 and will leave that for Garry to do, if he so chooses.  For so very long we didn't even have a name for what has been so wrong and the many things I didn't include in this long report.  As this was being written, the last straw was being laid on my dear husband's back, and our lives were about to be changed in ways we'd have never dreamed.  Now we walk the same road so many others have trod, but we're walking it together and with God's help.

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