War Bonds: Love Stories from the Greatest Generation

315 Pages·2015·25.28 MB·English

by  Hval

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
One Band of Gold
Two Lady in Waiting
Three The Luck of the Draw
Four Have a Little Faith
Five Footloose, Fancy Free and Fun
Six Dishpan Hands
Seven From Sailor to Preacher
Eight Damn Yankee
Nine Globe Trotters
Ten Little Things Add Up to Love
Eleven Pearl Harbor Survivors
Twelve Brothers and Their Brides
Thirteen A Seat Next to You
Fourteen Hard to Say Goodbye
Fifteen She Still Wears the Pants
Sixteen The Farmer’s Wife
Seventeen Pin Curls and All
Eighteen Letters From Home
Nineteen Bicycle Built for Two
Twenty Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You
Twenty-One Happy Trails
Twenty-Two Peg O’ My Heart
Twenty-Three I’ve Got Your Number
Twenty-Four The Short Drive Home
Twenty-Five Preacher’s Boy and Farmer’s Daughter
Twenty-Six The Pilot and the WAVE
Twenty-Seven Laughing Through the Years
Twenty-Eight Keeping Time
Twenty-Nine Second Look Was All It Took
Thirty The Marine and the Sailor
Thirty-One So Nice to Come Home to
Thirty-Two Sharing the Ride
Thirty-Three First Kiss
Thirty-Four Fireworks
Thirty-Five Wings of Gold
Thirty-Six Romance on Wheels
Afterword
For Derek
Our love story is my favorite one of all.
And for Ethan, Alexander, Zachary and Sam.
My greatest wish is for each of you to find
your own happily ever after.
INTRODUCTION
Boy Scouts stood at solemn attention. Teenagers doffed their ball caps. Veterans
stood and saluted. Amid the clapping I heard shouts of, “God bless you!” and
“We love you,” but mostly what I heard were these words shouted over and over
again: “Thank you! Thank you for your service.”
In May 2010, I was asked to accompany a group of Pearl Harbor survivors
during the annual Armed Forces Torchlight Parade in Spokane, Washington. The
invitation to ride along stemmed from a series of stories I’d written for the
Spokesman Review newspaper about the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
I was unprepared for the emotional response of the crowd, as the truck
carrying the small band of heroes wound its way along the parade route. Seated
across from Warren and Betty Schott, I watched them smile and wave at the
parade-goers.
The Schotts had been on Ford Island during the attack on Pearl Harbor. While
Warren’s naval service was noteworthy, it was the story I’d written about their
seven-decade marriage that garnered the attention of newspaper readers.
In fact, each time I featured a World War II-era couple in my Love Stories
series, my inbox overflowed with reader feedback.
“What if you compiled all those stories in a book?” my husband, Derek,
asked. “People can’t get enough of them.”
As I watched the crowd’s reaction at the parade that night, I realized he was
right. The stories of couples who met or married during or shortly after World
War II were compelling—and time was running out to tell them.
The idea for the book percolated while I thought of another couple I’d
interviewed, Jerry and Nancy Gleesing.
As a young pilot during WWII, Jerry and his crew had been shot down over
Hungary on their second mission and taken captive. Days of fear and uncertainty
followed, but when a POW guard gestured for Gleesing to remove his wedding
ring, Gleesing found his voice and his courage.
Often during the interview process, things came up that the couples have
never shared before—sometimes even with each other.
Take, for example Walter Stewart. His wife, Laura, gave birth to a baby girl
who lived only minutes, just before Walter, a sailor, shipped out overseas. As he
processed the loss of their child, Walter said, “I sat at the aircraft factory and
cried like a baby. You plan for nine months and then it’s just gone.”
Seventy years later, Laura had looked at him, astonished. “You never told me
you cried,” she said. “I never knew that.”
The stories in War Bonds were born out of the hardship, separation and
deprivation of World War II. While the stories still resonate, modern
relationships have changed. A half-century from now, it will be difficult to find
marriages that have endured 60 to 70 years.
And the passing of approximately 555 World War II veterans each day means
that unless documented, their stories die with them.
War Bonds isn’t a marriage manual, but as you read these stories, you may be
challenged and inspired to cultivate and nurture your own relationships. I know I
have been.
As World War II bride Barbara Anderson said, “People today give up too
soon. The best is yet to come.”
1
CHAPTER
BAND OF GOLD
JERRY AND NANCY GLEESING, A FEW DAYS AFTER THEIR WEDDING.
There’s a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere
— PAUL ROBERTS & SHELBY DARNELL, 1942
T
he thin gold ring on Jerry Gleesing’s finger isn’t flashy, but he wouldn’t
trade it for a diamond-studded platinum band. It’s rested on that finger
since his bride, Nancy, placed it there on June 1, 1944.
It hadn’t been easy to win her hand, or even get her to glance his way. In
1940, Jerry heard a new girl had moved to his hometown of LaMoure, North
Dakota, and he kept his eyes peeled. There wasn’t much excitement in the small
town, so the arrival of a young lady was big news. Jerry first spotted her on his
way to the ballpark on a Sunday afternoon. Her dark hair and dimples captivated
him.
“I was 15,” Gleesing recalled. “Quite a bit older than she—I was born in
August, Nancy in September.” Alas, his status of older man by a month failed to
impress the new girl. “She didn’t even speak to me for the first six months,” he
said, shaking his head. “She was a lot smarter than I thought she was.” But Jerry
was smitten and persistent. By their senior year, they were an “item.” Nancy
recalled their first date with a smile. “He brought me violets.”
In fact, one of their dates became legendary at their small school. “We
skipped school one day and had our pictures taken,” Nancy said. “We got
caught.” As a result, when the entire school went on a field trip, Jerry and Nancy
were the only two left behind. They didn’t mind. Years later at a high school
reunion, the day Nancy and Jerry skipped school was still a hot topic.
In 1942, Jerry, 18, enlisted in the Army Air Force and left for basic training.
Though she missed him, Nancy shrugged and said, “I knew it was something he
had to do.” While he went through basic training and then on to flight school,
she joined the Army Nurses Corps and served for six months.
“We got married when I got my wings,” Jerry recalled. They used his two-
week leave for a honeymoon. Soon their first child was on the way. While the
war raged in Europe, the couple took comfort in dreaming about their baby.
They were sure it would be a son. “We were having Michael,” Nancy said, as
she remembered that time.
All too quickly, Jerry received orders to deploy to Italy as a flight officer with
the15th Air Force, 459th Bomb Group. He had to leave his wife and unborn
child behind. “It was hard,” Nancy admitted. Those three words can’t begin to
convey the sadness she felt when she kissed him goodbye.
In Europe, things didn’t go well for her husband. On Jan. 15, 1945, Jerry said,
“I was shot down on my second mission. We nursed the plane along until we got
to Hungary.” He and his crew had to bail out. Jerry laughed, describing the
novelty of his situation. “We never learned how to bail out, just how to fly the
plane!”
FLYBOY JERRY GLEESING, 1943.
He got out of his chute and ran for the trees. “I just had a few seconds to
decide how I was going to elude capture.” That wasn’t enough time. Within
minutes he and his crew were surrounded by locals armed with pickaxes and
shovels. “I thought they were going to kill us,” he said. But instead they quickly
handed the captives over to the Germans.