I was 21 and newly in the Air Force at my first duty station in Tacoma, WA. It was a great job and I love what I was doing and where I was doing it. Then one day I spotted what was to be my dream job. I applied for and was accepted into the Aeromedical Evacuation training and eventually transferred to Scott, AFB in Illinois.

Upon arriving I checked it with the 1^st Sargent ready to begin my flight training and take to the sky. What a shock I had when I found out that people going overseas and reservists had first dibs on training slots. I was even more shocked when the 1^st Sargent then gave me my room key and told me to come back and see him in 30 days as it would be that long before he could do anything with me and told me if I was going to leave the area, let him know.

30 days seemed to drag by. I sat in the barracks, watched TV, talked to the other air crews, watched more TV and after I watched even more TV, I would go to bed. I was so happy that my 30 days of R&R were up. I just wanted to get started with my training and take to the sky. Boy was I disappointed when I went back to the squadron and was told to again come back in 30 days. That wasn't going to work.

I talked my 1^st Sargent into calling his friend in the hospital to allow me to work over there for the next 30 days. I don't think I could take another 30 days of watching TV.

I worked in the hospital for the next 30 days on several different wards. My last week there was spent on the Orthopedic floor. I had a blast. First the people are not sick, they are broken. They, for the most part, don't act like sick people. Secondly, because this is a regional hospital people are brought there for treatments that they can't get at their smaller base hospitals.

It was my last day there. I finally got my okay to start my flight training. Towards the end of the day I was talking to a young lady who had laid her motorcycle down and had her leg in traction. Hey, you can't beat a captured audience. It's not like she could walk away.

I digress. She was in a 4 bed ward with 3 older ladies. Betty the lady across from her was there because she had mouth cancer and they burned half of her lower jaw off with radiation. The lady next to Betty I don't remember why she was there. In the bed next to the girl I was determined to, and was making headway with, date was a lady who had just come back from having her leg removed below the knee.

Sitting with her in one of those high back chairs hospitals have for family was her daughter. I really didn't see her their except to hear her speak to the nurse when she would come in and ask how her mother was doing. Hey, I was off duty. She was the patient of somebody else now. Besides, care of someone that soon after surgery all the medics did was vital signs etc.

Well the young lady who worked after school came in and asked if anyone wanted anything from the BX before it closed. That was when the voice in the chair said “bring me back a tall, dark, handsome man.” Me, being the one to say something if given a great one liner said, “I spend 20 minutes trying to pick you up and you order out, what am I Chinese food?”

Jump forward to after visiting hours and I picked Mary up in front of the hospital. We then went to the local Pizza Hut where we had anchovy pizza. To this day she swears I don't like them I only ate them to impress her. That was August 1, 1978.

We sat and talked in the park that night until 4am. I don't remember about what other than it was anything and everything. Neither one of us wanted to make that evening end. I don't think it did end, it just paused. We talked every day, sometimes several times a day for about 2 weeks. I came in off a mission and Mary and I had planned to go see a movie. Don't remember what we went to see. What was playing was the Muppet Movie.

While we continued to talk over the next couple of weeks. That movie turned out to be our one and only date. On August 23, 1978 we were married.

It was going to be a small wedding and for the most part it was. She was in a nice white dress and I was in my Class A uniform. She made the plans as I was gone on missions around the country. She had it planned for a Wednesday. I flew back into town on Tuesday and was leaving again Friday.

Boy did she have it planned. The preacher was a different story. He forgot that was the day that construction was to start on expanding the church. So bright and early on a hot St. Louis day, the construction crew came in and tore down one wall of the chapel. They did hang plastic down the length of the chapel to keep birds and such out. And when the service started, they took a break and watched.

Did I tell you it was a hot St. Louis day? On of the construction workers could see that everyone was hot in the church so he turned on one of the big construction fans in the back of the room. That was a nice thought. What it did was send a cloud of white plaster dust across the room blocking the view of everyone.

But wait, there's more. Because I was new in town and didn't know anyone she even arranged for a best man for me. I was in town long enough to help pick out the rings and get them sized but he had them. He was “kind” enough to make it to the wedding before it started, but not by much. He was wearing a polo shirt and on his leg he had a long, Velcro leg and knee brace. Seems he just got out of the emergency room. Earlier that morning a husband came home to his wife. My best man made his best escape from her bed. Out the window of a second story apartment.

Things went great for a few years. We have two great daughters and our first grandson was born about 12 weeks ago. So after 13 years of marriage, she decided that she liked women, which is subject of a whole different post. I still love her. I would like to get back together with her but she doesn't want to leave her partner. Nice lady, hates me.

The second wife was so nasty, I expect to turn on Fear Factor some day and see her being served on a plate.