The flight back was without any interesting happening, but my mind was now filled with new things to consider. A dying relationship, a fledgling relationship, my friends were going different directions now. There was much to think about. It seemed I was moving faster than I wanted to yet I was welcoming it all into my thinking. It was the first time in my life I was having to make decisions that would affect the rest of my life and not really knowing the consequences of them at the time.
I arrived back in Lawton late in the evening. When I walked outside the airport to get a cab back it was then I realized I was back in the land of the desolate. With no trees to block the howling wind across the prairie I found it cutting through me like a knife. It was so cold that I pulled my field jacket up around my face and held onto my hat as I carried my bags to the waiting cab. It was a quiet trip back to the base where I was dropped off near my barracks. By this time I realized that it was sleeting lightly as I exited the cab. From there to the barracks it began to sleet even harder and with the wind blowing against my face it felt like needles piercing my skin. The walk was really a short one, but with the weather, such as it was, it seemed like a lot further.
Entering the barracks I found some of my buds were back and heard them say some were on their way. We found out that our one guy who was our shining example of what not to be did something only he would do. He’d taken a bus home and the trip was several days out and back, leaving him only three or four days of a two week leave actually at home. Yet with all that I’d have to say he was resourceful.
The next day was quick to come and it was back to class with only two weeks till we graduated from this part of the world. This week went by with ease. We did one thing that almost froze my legs to the point I couldn’t walk. We were taken to the compound area were the missile was in it three parts and we each had to mount the boom crane off of which the missile was launched and sit about eight or ten feet into the air and load the missile onto the launcher. The time it took up there in the freezing wind was long enough to bring a man down. I had on everything I was issued for cold weather and I was still wishing I had more to put on. When I finished my turn I slowly crawled down from my perch and could barely feel my legs. It was a chore to get them to completely straighten back out.
Well, before we could get out of there the next week we found ourselves doing guard duty overnight. What a trip. That was another time I could say I almost froze to death. They would drop us off at places around the base, namely the missile compounds and we would have to walk around a parking lot for two hours in the cold wind. I’m telling you, Fort Sill is one cold place in the winter. It was the exact opposite of Fort Polk’s summer time dreamland. I’m being facetious here, so hang with me.
The middle weekend of this last two weeks had my head spinning. I remember going over to the rec room where the TV and pool table were with some desks and such. I was going to write a letter. I had gotten one from Julie. She says she doesn’t remember saying this and I wish I’d saved the letter, but she actually apologized for being mean to me and wanted us to paint the town red when I came back home in a week or so. I was ecstatic. But I was still fighting this Vickie thing too. I was sitting there puffing on a cigar and trying to eat at the same time. Someone made note of it and I felt like an idiot. That’s how messed up my mind was at the time.
Something else I forgot to mention while I was home on leave. I’ll put it here so I don’t have to put it back somewhere else earlier in this story. Suffice to say it goes with the incident that happened this particular night after the cigar and eating episode. I’d never drank before. Nothing, Nada. My mom decided to celebrate my being home while dad was back in Castle Hayne by buying a pint of liquor. I’m still not old enough to buy or drink the stuff, but she went out and got it. So one night we drank it up between her, Danny and myself. I got high and tried to leave and walk down the road and mom told me I couldn’t go out drunk. So I locked myself in the bathroom and tried crawling out the bathroom window, while they were trying to get the door open. Now you have to know something. It was at least seven feet to the ground from out the window. I would have probably hurt myself had it not been for them getting the door unlocked and pulling me back in. See, I was going out the window head first. In the excitement of it all Danny got sick and threw up on the hallway floor. He’d eaten a bologna sandwich and in my state I found it amazing how he could eat it and not chew it well enough. I was commenting on how he must have swallowed half a piece of bologna whole. Mom was telling me hush and after a while I went to the living room and fell asleep on the couch.
Okay, you say. How does this apply to this evening back at Fort Sill? Well that afternoon a couple of the guys and myself went into town and got some liquor and sneaked it back to the barracks. That evening one of the guys and myself drank it up and went outside in the cold and threw rocks at the Charge of Quarters office building next to our barracks. The Sergeant came out and saw us and gave us a good tongue lashing and made us go back into the barracks and not to come back out. We thought it was funny though and after he went back inside we went back out and began throwing rocks at the Charge of Quarters office again. This time when he came out we realized we had overstepped our bounds, because when the Sergeant got done with us this time we didn’t come out of the barracks anymore that night. I woke up the next morning with a terrible headache and promised myself I wouldn’t do that ever again. That was the first time I promised myself that over the next year and a half.
Well, I kept myself a paragon of spotlessness the rest of my time there after that night. I had to. I was being watched because I proved to have a wild spot if I drank, although it eventually led to me falling asleep. See some people drink and want to do different things like fight, make love and such. Me? I would eventually go lay down and sleep the rest of the night. I didn’t drink any more while I was there.
We all made plans that last week. We were all doing well with our classes and assured we’d graduate. I bought more plane tickets to fly home and even went ahead and made my reservations to fly from Wilmington to Fort Jackson for processing to my duty station in Germany. Ah, the day was fast approaching. I would be back home to further pursue the sweet Julie I had met who was now beginning to come around to me.
The day came when we did our last march and we sang heartily with the drill sergeant and went through our graduating process. There were no parents and pomp and circumstance involved this time. We were simply congratulated and given a certificate of completion and we were on our way.
And there we were. Back at the Lawton Airport awaiting our flights and as last time I flew to Dallas, then Atlanta and on to Wilmington. My dad picked me up again, but this time we went straight up to home as it was the weekend. I hung around long enough to say my welcomes and gave everybody a big hug and I didn’t waste any time getting to Wilmington to see Julie. Billy and I had some time together too since I stayed around at his house a lot. His dad was always out on the truck doing long haul for Wertheimer Bag Company. Eleanor was always a second mom to me. I enjoyed being included into their family.
Then there was Julie and her mom. Her mom could make some of the best homemade biscuits you ever laid your lips on. I found Julie could cook like her mom. I was totally won over on that count. I still had not met any of Julie’s family, but I was hearing from her that some of them were very wary of me, since I was in the Army and had just met her. I guess they assumed the worst about me. Julie and I went out to the movies some and we dated as much as possible. She was back in school you understand. One memorable evening we went to the Starway Drive In theater to see some lame B movie. I don’t remember what it was about but we got to sit close together and stuff. But the memorable part was when the guy in the car next to ours got and unzipped his pants and peed right there between our cars on the driver’s side. It was kind of embarrassing, yet funny. I don’t know how to explain all this without sounding goofy, but I was really in love with this petite young high school Senior. She could be funny, serious and was very down to earth. And the biggest part, I loved her mom too and I knew she thought the world of me.
By the last week I knew I had to make my move. It was the first day of February 1971, it was payday for me and I was told to take my 201 folder to any military base and go to the paymaster and I could get paid. So I had my old Falcon, which by the way, was still discharging the battery. I go in it and drove to Camp Lejeune from Wilmington that day. I had a flat tire on the way and had to stop off and change it, hoping it would still crank. Fortunately it did and I made it there. I found the paymaster’s office and got my pay in cash and headed back to Wilmington. I didn’t stop till I got to Front Street and I parked, got out and walked into the first jewelry store I could find, which happened to be Mill’s Jewelers and I looked over the rings until I found what I could afford that would say what I wanted to say. It was a twelve dollar pre-engagement ring. It had a small diamond chip setting, but it was what I could afford and I felt it would fit the occasion.
So that evening I took Julie to the Bailey Theater to see “Goodbye Columbus”. While we were watching the movie I looked over and asked her for her left hand and placed the ring on her finger. She just sat there looking at it. I guess I may have to rewrite this part once she reads this, but at least she didn’t take it off. After the movie we went back to her house and she showed her mom and I felt really warm inside that I had done something right for a change. I felt her mom was completely in agreement. It was enough to show my intentions at such an early stage without going overboard. I meant what I said and did and I wanted to spend the next nineteen months really getting to know everything I could about her.
I really didn’t want to leave, but I knew I had to. I was thoroughly convinced we’d get married. My only thing about leaving was that there was a lot of racial unrest in Wilmington at the time and it involved the schools. But I had a good visit with my family at home. I spent as much time with Julie and her mom as I could muster and then my dad took me to the airport early one morning for my flight to Fort Jackson by way of Charlotte. I was gone again. This time I was going far away and would be gone for what seemed like an eternity to me.
