Married life . . .

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life,  hello to all of my friends out there in Blogland.  From my last blog, I was running around different places all over Southeast Asia.  I was based out of the 51st Special Operations Unit on Okinawa.  Like I said, it was a little Unit called Torii Station out of Yomatan, which was close to Kadena Air Base.  After two years of this, I was nearing my ETS (Estimate Termination of Service) date.  And I was looking forward to getting out.  Here is the reason why . . .

I had over the two years on Okinawa carried on a correspondence with Mila back in the Philippines and had got to know her pretty well.  In fact, I proposed marriage to here through the mail system.  She had accepted my proposal.  I had over two years put in paperwork to marry her, but my paperwork kept getting lost.  I had put it in three different time and all was lost.  I was told later that the reason it was 'lost' was that I had a Top Secret Crypto clearance.  If I got married to a 'foreign national', I would lose my clearance and would not be able to work my job, either of them.  That was why I was wanting out.  Love concurs all.

I try to get out of having to go back to CONUS (Continental United States) to get out and tried to ETS in Hawaii.   They disapproved this and said that I must go back to Travis Air force Base in Oakland, California.  It had been three years since I had seen my family back in Indiana.  So I got out, flew to Indianapolis where my family was glad to see me back home.  It was nice to get some home cooked meals that I grew up with.  On the third day home, I was up early, writing a letter to Mila telling her of my plans.  When my mom came it the room she asked me who I was writing to and I told her.  She sat down and we had a little talk.  She asked me how long it took the mail to get to her and I explained that normally it would take all of 14 days or longer to arrive.  Mon then said if you really care about her, forget the letter, get you a plane ticket and fly back to the Philippines and get her.  I tore up the letter, got me a ticket for the next day and flew back.

Mila was sure surprised to see my back there.  When I rang the bell at the gate to their compound, the maid came out, she was surprised to see me, forgot to open the gate and ran back into the house, leaving me outside.  When she told Mila I was outside, she could not believe it.  After running to the American Embassy and everyplace in between, we were married and her father bought us plane tickets back to the states as a gift.  We spent a couple of days in Tokyo, Japan on our way home. A little side note: Mila and I have been married for 44 wonderful years.

We stayed with my parents for a couple of months till we both found jobs and also an apartment in Madison, Indiana.  I was working long hours at the Grote Manufacturing Company and Mila got a teaching job with Pope John XXIII Grade School, both being in Madison.  After a year of this, we moved to Bloomington, Indiana where I took the GI bill and attended my freshman year at Indiana University.  We had bought a trailer and was living out on Vernal Pike.  After my freshman year, we decided that I needed to go back into the Army.  Back to the induction center at Indianapolis.  Raised my right hand again for four more years.  But, being my security clearance had been pulled I could not go back to my former job with the Army Security Agency.  I did not have to go through basic training so they were sending me to Fort Knox, Kentucky to await my orders and notification of my next assignment.

We moved our trailer down to Pleasure Ridge Park, half way between Louisville and Fort Knox.  The park was very close to Ky 31W Highway, known as Dixie Highway, or due to the many accidents that happened there, Dixie Die Way. 

In my next blog, I will tell you about our kids and about my experiences at Ft. Knox, Kentucky.