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Click hereThat "one other thing" was that somewhere along the way someone decided that my wound had actually killed me, and my parents received the "We are sorry to inform you" letter. Because of things I didn't get around to writing home for about three weeks. I can only guess at what went on when Alice got a letter from me dated three weeks after I was reported killed in action. It was bad, according to the next letter I got from home. When Connie got the news she broke down and ran crying into her room and wouldn't come out of it for three days. When she finally did come out she was a mess. Her parents actually had her on a suicide watch after her mother heard her crying in the bathroom one morning and mumbling something that sounded like "If I can't be with him in life I'll be wi-." She didn't hear the rest but assumed it was "With him in death." Connie dropped out of school and wouldn't leave the house and spent most of the time in her room crying.
The rest of the family took it hard, but not as hard as Connie. For them, it wasn't anything they hadn't gone through before. Dad lost a brother and two cousins, and Mom lost a brother and an uncle in War II. A bit closer to home, maybe, but they had been through it and knew how to handle it. When they got my letter and knew I was really alive, Connie came out of her shell and told Alice to tell me that if I wanted my ring back then I was going to have to come home and personally pull it off of her finger.
I made two more runs under fire before the fighting was stopped due to what went on at Panmunjom. I still made runs to move supplies to the troops, but I never heard another shot fired.
*****
I finished my sixteen-month tour in Korea and was sent home. At Ft. Lewis, I was issued new uniforms and informed that I'd been promoted to E-4 (Corporal) and reassigned to Ft. Hood, Texas. I took thirty days of my accrued leave, and along with a ten-day delay in route, I headed for home.
The letters from Alice told me that Connie had stopped dating and hardly ever left the house except to go back to school. I called ahead and let them know I was coming and about what time I expected to be there, so I was not surprised to find a house full of people there waiting for me. Notably absent was Connie. Alice old me she was afraid to face me. After spending some time with the guests at our house (which included Connie's parents), I left the house and went next door to Connie's house, walked up to her room and knocked on the door. She opened it and before she could say or do anything I grabbed her left hand and pulled my ring off it. She looked at me shocked and started to tear up. I dropped down on my right knee and asked:
"Constance Marie Dennis, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
She started crying and when I stood up she threw herself at me, wrapped her arms around me and cried into my shoulder sobbing out, "Don't leave me; please don't ever leave me again."
After a bit I tried to pull apart, but she wouldn't let me go. She hugged me tighter. I finally said "Come on, sweetheart; we need to go and tell the moms to start planning the wedding."
"You mean it? You really mean it?"
"I do."
The same two words I said four months later in front of eighty-six family and friends.
I don’t believe that she learned on a banana, and I don’t believe that she was just dating for something to do.
/
ZK
JPB I want you to know I like most of your stories. I have learned to accept that you don't always "finish" the stories you write and I pretty much follow your suggestion to finish the story with the results that I would prefer. Thanks for your hard work!
Read about half the first page and bailed. Sorry, JPB, probably another one of your great stories but I just can’t do stories about high school kids. Yeah, they may be eighteen but if they’re still in high school then they’re still kids to me. I’ll try to catch the next one.
No vote
He should not have reunited with Connie when he returned from Korea. She was running around on him and based on how Connie treated him in school and her statement to Alice that Rob would have to remove the ring from her finger himself instead of returning it to his family, she clearly does not respect Rob. After leaving the Army, Rob would be better off attending college out of state, dating other women, and giving them an open and honest chance at a relationship.
As I read this I could feel for those who served in Korean War. I spent a couple of years as a government civilian (DOD Civilian) working in Seoul, Republic of Korea (South Korea). It was a great government tour of duty. I also was blessed to meet several Korean War veterans both ROK military and United Nations Troops. To meet these men was an honor. Seeing the photos from the time sets your mental state back a few years when you see there is limited to no foliage (trees or overgrowth). Because during WWII the Japanese stripped the land of all the trees to be sent to Japan for building materials. This made the conditions of the nation a military person’s nightmare. There was limit cover for those transiting with supplies from the port of Pusan/Busan (Americans never called Korean city by the correct name until the early 2000’s).
With all that being said, this story was well written. It completed the flow from being a High School to soldier, with descriptions of war just like those who served in Korea told. No blood and guts, just the minimum amount of information keeping everything inside. Both WWII and Korean War veterans keep their burden of war inside. The fact that she took it so hard to closed up with her emotions and shock. Most people would not know how to deal with the notification of death. This was realistic depiction.
Inadvertent were facts of life during the war many families received the telegrams from Western Union saying their loved ones had died. It wasn’t until the Vietnam war that the Military sent personnel to homes for notification, instead of a telegram from Western Union delivered by a Western Union employee.
I really enjoyed the ending. But you are going to hear this a lot. “FTDS,” you started it and left it hanging. To me it was good read. Thank you for writing it.
Keep Writing
JH4Fun
Very nice story and well told. You have talent that I don't. Thanks for a good read.
A really great well written throughly enjoyable story that touched all of our senses and our hearts.
Thank you.
A story that is complete and has a beautiful forever and ever ending.
Thank you again.
SW