Bowling for Sleepovers

Bowling for Sleepovers

By Chas4455©

"Grandma Carol that was the best dinner I've had in forever. Thank you so much."

"Well baby, I know you don't eat right at school, all of that fast food, burgers and pizza with your friends. I try to make sure you have a good meal when you come here to visit. You should try to come more often. It gets lonely here since your grandpa died last year."

"I know grandma, I'll try to come more often. It's not far from Manhattan to Junction City.

"Grandma, I have a favor to ask of you. You know I'm majoring in history, and I'm taking a class in Historical Research. I have to do a project that involves interviewing a family member. Can you work with me to do a story?"

This is Carol Jorgenson's story that she related to me, her granddaughter, Cynthia. Some of this she knew first hand, some of it is from conversations with Sarah Maxwell and her husband, Bobby. She also had a conversation with Maggie Maxwell, Bobby's mother. Some information she also learned from her husband, Sergeant Major Ronald Jorgenson, US Army (retired), before his death.

-----

Your grandfather and I were living in Junction City, Kansas. He had just been promoted to Sergeant Major of an infantry battalion. We were living in a rented house while waiting for an opening in the on base housing. In the house next to us lived a nice young couple, Lieutenant Robert Maxwell and his wife, Sarah Jane, and their two year old son, Jimmy.

It was 1968, and the Viet Nam war was hot. Young men from Fort Riley were being deployed to South East Asia every day. Bobby had finished Artillery Officer Basic at Fort Sill before being assigned to an artillery battalion at Fort Riley. He and Sarah had lived here for almost a year before Bobby got his orders. He had two weeks before he had to leave his wife and son.

After Bobby left, Sarah would come over to visit and have coffee with me almost every morning. She was lonely and had no family nearby. I'm sure I was almost a mother figure to her. Her own mother had died when Sarah was a teenager, and she had been raised by her aunt, whom she was never really close to. Her father, her aunt, and two cousins all lived in Portland, Oregon.

I still remember the conversation we had one morning, about two months after Bobby left.

Sarah was at her wit's end. Jimmy never seems to sleep since his daddy left. Every night, she puts him to bed, and then when she should be getting some time to herself, he gets out of bed and comes to see what she is doing. He has walked in on her while she is in the shower, or on the toilet. Several times she has caught him up in the middle of the night. One night he broke a full dozen eggs on the kitchen floor. Another time she caught him getting into the cleaning supplies under the sink. She thought she had childproof locks on the cabinets, but he learned to open them. Finally, out of desperation, she put a lock at the top of his bedroom door on the outside so that he can't open it.

"Oh girl," I remember thinking, "You ought not to do that. That would be dangerous if something happened in the night and he needed to get out. And locking him in his room is going to put off his toilet training if he can't go to the bathroom."

"He just misses his daddy and wants assurance that you are not going to leave him." I told her.

-----

After they were married, Bobby and Sarah would go out at least once a week, for a date night. One of the things they liked to do was bowling. When they were in college, their first date was to go bowling, and they enjoyed it ever since, even when Sarah was pregnant.

Now Sarah is getting bored being home every night, watching Jimmy. She decides it wouldn't hurt to take Jimmy, and go to the bowling alley. It would be a pleasant diversion to maybe have a drink like an adult, and watch other people having a good time.

There is a supervised play area in the bowling alley that Jimmy enjoys, so she orders a gin and tonic, and watches the bowlers. The sound of the pins falling and the balls rolling is exciting to Sarah. Everyone around her are laughing and having fun.

She is sitting directly behind four lanes where she can watch their scores on the overhead electronic scoreboards. It is fun to compare their scores with her usual. A couple of them are better than she and Bobby, and some of them must be just beginning.

At the bar stands a man that has been watching her for the last twenty minutes. He stands about six feet tall, with short dark hair, just a touch of gray starting to show at the temples. He has a thin athletic build, and steel gray eyes that seem to look right through you to your soul. Everything about his appearance would tell you he is the epitome of the cavalry officer that he is.

Early in his military career, Major Edward Alexander traded tanks for helicopters. After completing his flight training, Lieutenant Alexander was assigned to an aviation unit in Germany. He spent three years there, eventually becoming the personal pilot for the brigade commander. When he wasn't flying the commander on inspection trips around Germany, he spent his free time touring Europe on his BMW motorcycle, or in his Audi convertible.

Eddie Alexander learned he was catnip for married ladies, even married German ladies. They weren't looking for a commitment, and that was fine. When their husbands were away, he was ready to play. He had been lucky so far, as he had never been caught by a cuckolded husband.

When he sees Sarah put down her empty glass, Eddie decides it is time to make his move.

Sarah is approached by the tall good looking guy who appears about her age, though maybe a little older. He introduces himself as Eddie Alexander. He doesn't mention that he is a Major, and is on the brigade commander's staff. He offers to buy her another drink. After her fourth drink, he suggests that he should drive her home. They take her car because it has the child seat in it.

Eddie says he needs to call a cab to take him back to pick up his car, so she invites him in. Once inside, she asks if he would like some coffee. She carries her sleeping son into the house and puts him to bed. When she comes back into the kitchen to fix the coffee, she has changed into a long tee shirt that barely comes half way to her knees and wearing a pair of fuzzy slippers. She has let her ponytail down, her hair falling down around her shoulders. Her nipples are plainly visible, poking out under the thin material of the night shirt.

Eddie is standing in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, watching her every move. As she turns toward him to reach for the coffee canister on the counter, he reaches for her and pulls her toward him for a passionate kiss. She is startled, but quickly responds and gives herself to him completely.

As they walked past Jimmy's door, on their way to her bedroom, Sarah reached up and flipped the lock closed. She didn't want any interruptions tonight. In the morning, Eddie calls a cab to take him back to the bowling alley to get his car.

-----

Sarah doesn't know Bobby's assignment is much more dangerous than he told her. In his letters home he assures her that he has a staff job and is always in a safe area. She shouldn't worry, and he will be coming home to her and Jimmy and everything will be good.

In actuality, Lieutenant Maxwell is an artillery forward observer. His job is to be on the front lines, standing next to the infantry company commander, ready to call for artillery fire on whatever target is given to him. His radio operator, the RTO is standing next to him, and the infantry commander's RTO is standing on the other side. The four men are always target number one for enemy snipers.

In October, 1968, Bobby has two months left before he goes home, back to the 'World'. His infantry company, C Company otherwise known as Charlie Company, has just been landed in LZ Rosebud, and is approaching a village surrounded by rice paddies. Bobby, accompanied by Captain Jim Bragg and Specialist Jesse Rodriguez, are 300 yards from the village when all hell breaks loose. The infantry squads react immediately, spreading out and returning fire. It appears a sizeable Viet Cong force is defending the village at all costs. It is later determined the VC had been collecting a large stockpile of weapons and ammunition in this village in preparation for a planned attack on a Vietnamese Army camp. They had removed all the villagers and turned the village into an armed camp.

To his left, Bobby sees that Captain Bragg has been hit by the first volley of fire. Rodriguez has also been hit, in the leg. He is down but still conscious. Bobby immediately takes charge of the situation, takes the radio handset from his RTO, and immediately calls for all available artillery fire to be directed on the village. Bobby quickly has the massed firepower of three artillery battalions, 54 cannons, firing repeatedly at his direction.

With an infantry squad providing security, Bobby establishes the company command post. A forward air controller shows up in a small plane, and contacts Bobby on his radio. At Bobby's direction, the FAC brings in six Skyraiders dropping 250 pound bombs and firing rockets on the retreating enemy.

In two hours, the village is a smoking hole in the ground and the Viet Cong are no longer a threat.

As the infantry are sweeping through the smoking remains of the village, eliminating any remaining resistance, medevac helicopters swoop in to pick up the wounded. As Bobby is directing his platoon leaders, a medic stops him.

"Sir, you've been hit. Let me bandage that up. Are you in any pain? I can give you morphine."

For the first time, Bobby looked at the blood running down his left arm and dripping from his fingers.

"Just bandage it the best you can, and try to stop the bleeding. No morphine, I can't afford to lose focus now."

Bobby made sure Captain Bragg and Specialist Rodriguez were loaded on a helicopter and evacuated. His platoon leaders gave him a situation report, and evacuated their dead and wounded. Sergeant Williams was the third member of Bobby's forward observer team and had been with the company executive officer and the lead maneuver platoon going toward the village. Sergeant Williams and Lieutenant Meyers had both been killed in the initial firefight. Captain Bragg died in the helicopter on the way to a hospital in Da Nang.

Helicopters started to bring in the rest of the infantry battalion, and take Charlie Company back to their basecamp. The men cleaned and secured their weapons, got fed a hot meal, got cleaned up and rested as well as they could. In two days they would be ready to go out again. Bobby reported to the dispensary to have his wound attended.

"Lieutenant, the bullet grazed your arm, without striking a bone or a major artery. There is some muscle damage that may take some time to heal, maybe six months. We have patched you up the best we can here, but you are going to be evacuated. Since you only have two months left we are going to send you home." the battalion surgeon told Bobby.

This was Bobby's third wound since being in country. Six months earlier, Bobby and his battalion had been at Fire Base Julia, a hilltop in the middle of the jungle that had been bulldozed off, and had emplacements for the 18 guns of the battalion. In the middle of the night, the VC attempted to launch an attack through the barbwire perimeter. The infantry company providing their security fought them back, as Bobby and the other officers and NCO's in the battalion organized their gun crews to defend their guns. Artillery fire from another supporting firebase broke the back of the enemy attack.

A piece of hot shrapnel from a mortar hit Bobby's shoulder, and another piece hit his hip. It stung like a son of a bitch, and burned like hell, but it didn't keep him from continuing to do his duty. Bobby liked to say he bled more when the family cat scratched him. He never told Sarah about the battle or about his wounds.

Then the battalion commander stepped up. "Lieutenant, I've gotten several reports of the action you took. I want to personally commend you, and thank you. Your swift and decisive actions saved the lives of many soldiers in Charlie Company. You'll get another Purple Heart, and I'm recommending you for a Bronze Star. And, let me be the first to congratulate you on your promotion, Captain Maxwell."

Before Bobby got home, his Bronze Star citation was upgraded to a Silver Star.

-----

Bobby's flight landed him at McChord Air Force Base in the middle of the night. He arranged transportation to get him to the Seattle Airport, and then a flight to get him home. By the time his cab let him out at his door, he had been travelling for the best part of two days. He had tried to call home, but had no luck getting Sarah on the phone. He had no way of knowing that Sarah unplugged the phone while she was entertaining her 'guests'.

Sarah and Jimmy had spent the morning with me, having coffee and gossiping while Jimmy played with Billy, your father. They were both close to the same age. Before lunch, she said she needed to leave to do some shopping. I think she had one of her 'guests' coming over tonight and needed to pick up something for supper. She doesn't know that her husband, Bobby, is waiting for her at home.

Bobby was disappointed that Sarah and Jimmy were not there to greet him, but he assumed she had gone to the commissary to do some shopping. He decided he really needed a shower and a shave, and to change out of the uniform he had been wearing for two days. He found his civilian clothes still hanging in his closet, though he saw he had lost some weight when he tried on some slacks and a pull over shirt.

Bobby went into the kitchen to see if there was a soda, or anything else to drink. He really didn't expect what he found. The fridge was well stocked with three different brands of beer. He thought that was unusual since Sarah never drank beer. The liquor cabinet also had three half-empty bottles of whiskey and scotch; Sarah would only drink gin and tonic.

Bobby was sitting on the sofa in his own home, drinking a cold beer, when a Major, in uniform, opens the door and walks in. He obviously has his own key. Bobby is not in uniform and doesn't immediately identify himself.

"Major, is there something I can do for you?"

"I'm sorry; I didn't know Sarah had company tonight. This is usually my night with her. Is she at home now? Perhaps I should just call her later."

"She's not home right now, but she should be home soon. She probably just went to the market. Please, have a seat. Can I get you a beer?"

"No thanks, but I'll have a scotch. I'll get it, I know where she keeps it."

"How long have you known Sarah?"

Bobby starts to pump Eddie for information about Sarah. The Major is not reluctant to divulge anything to another "tunnel buddy", even that Sarah would lock Jimmy in his room at night so he wouldn't interrupt her lovers. He learns that Sarah has been having "sleepovers" two or three times a week with Major Alexander, and maybe a few others. He mentioned how they met at the bowling alley, and how Sarah would pick up other lovers at the bowling alley. She calls it "Bowling for Sleepovers".

Finally, Bobby stands up and looks the Major right in the eye, "Major Alexander, I failed to introduce myself. I'm Captain Robert Maxwell, Sarah's husband. I think you should leave now. And leave your key to my house."

Major Alexander turned a very pale shade, and his mouth dropped open in a very poor imitation of a goldfish. Upon recovering somewhat from his shock, he managed to mumble, "Captain Maxwell, I'm sorry. What I've done to you is inexcusable. Please accept my sincere apology. Again, I'm sorry."

And with that somewhat insincere apology, he quickly turned and left.

-----

Bobby went back to the bedroom and repacked his duffle bag. He pulled out a suitcase from the closet, and packed those personal items he felt he wanted. He did not bother packing his civilian clothes, since they didn't fit anyway. He then called a cab to take him to the BOQ.

When Sarah and Jimmy got home, nothing in the house looked out of place. She would have had to look carefully in the bedroom to notice anything missing. She didn't see that the lock on the top of Jimmy's door had been ripped off, leaving some splintered holes.

Sarah thought it was unusual that Eddie wasn't already here, waiting for her. She saw the glass on the coffee table, with watered down scotch in it, so she knew he had been here. She wondered why he would leave. Then the phone rang. It was Eddie, and it wasn't good news.

I opened the front door to find Sarah and Jimmy standing there. Sara's hair was a mess, her clothes were wrinkled, her eyes were red and her mascara was running down her face from her tears. The poor thing looked like a raccoon. Jimmy was holding on to her leg and crying because his mother was crying. All she could say to me was "Bobby was here and he left. Eddie told him everything, and he has left me."

I took them in, gave her some water, gave Jimmy some juice, and put her to bed in the guest room. Jimmy played with Billy until I fixed supper, and later he and Billy went to bed. The next morning, Sarah got up and washed her face, fixed her hair, and we had some coffee. I had fixed breakfast for Jimmy and Billy. When she was feeling a little better, when she wouldn't break down in sobs, she took Jimmy and they went home.

Two days later, Sara's doorbell rang, and was followed by an insistent knock on her door. When she opened the door, she saw a young woman standing there, about twenty, with a blonde ponytail. "Sarah Jane Maxwell?" she asked. When Sarah replied affirmatively, she was handed a manila envelope. "Mrs. Maxwell, you've been served."

-----

Major Edward Alexander was summoned to appear before Colonel Bradley, the brigade executive officer. Sergeant Major Jorgenson was standing nearby.

"Major Alexander, you've been charged under the Universal Code of Military Justice of committing adultery with the wife of a subordinate officer. You are hereby relieved of all your duties, and confined to your quarters pending further hearings for court martial proceedings.

"You are dismissed."

-----

Maggie Maxwell came by to see me on her last visit here. She had driven herself from Portland to see her grandson, knowing it was probably for the last time. She helped Sarah gather her clothes and Jimmy's clothes and toys, and put them in her car. She hugged Sarah, and then hugged Jimmy. Jimmy didn't understand what was happening, but mommy and grandma both had tears in their eyes, and running down their cheeks.

Maggie's last words to her daughter-in-law were "Good luck. Drive safely and take good care of my grandson." Sarah takes her son and goes to live with her father who is retired and living in Tucson. It is the last time Maggie saw Jimmy. Maggie died two years later.

When charges were filed against Major Alexander, there were suddenly a few requests for fast transfers out of the country; two sergeants and a captain were quickly on their way back to Viet Nam.

Major Edward Alexander was court martialed for adultery under the UCMJ for having an affair with a subordinate officer's wife. With Sarah's testimony, he was convicted, stripped of his rank, and given a general discharge from the service.

Eddie found a job selling life insurance in Peoria. Two years later he was killed by a jealous husband who caught him in bed with his wife. He also killed his wife and then himself, leaving 2 small boys orphaned and growing up in foster homes.

Your grandfather kept up with Bobby's career. He went on to be an instructor at the Field Artillery School, and an artillery battalion commander in Germany. Bobby eventually became a Colonel and was assigned as an aide to the Chief of Staff of the Army in the Pentagon before he retired.