GI family life long ago, “Take a Cruise.”

The favorite place I can find on a ship is the most foreward spot on the main deck where I can stand. The wind blows my hair and is fresh on my face. The wake splits in two at the bow The ocean is lovely–whether a bit stormy or clear blue. I don’t feel sick standing there, bundled up properly.
WHY IN THE WORLD did Uncle Sam cut orders on my sergeant husband to return to the States on the USS Butner in the summer of 1954? BUT~they were cut! And to be changed? The United States Army moves so ponderously slow when it wants to, and it seemed so now.
We packed up, reported to Bremerhaven to board the USS Butner. I was expecting our first child in two months, an obvious fact, well known at the military Schwabinger Krankenhaus in Munich. When the Sergeant in charge saw my advanced state there was alarm in his visage.
“How can you travel back to the United States?” he blurted out to me.
I was on the orders! How could I remain behind?
“Well! You can’t travel!” he glumly asserted, with a tone in his voice that indicated we had organized this problem all by ourselves. What were we to do?
“You will remain in Bremerhaven until the child is delivered, plus six weeks after,” he pronounced irritably! I had flummoxed the United States Army! Wasn’t the first time, or the last.
My husband and I were dumbfounded. Why were these orders cut? Where would we live? How did this come to be?

This is an excerpt from the up and coming book about “Military Family Life.” A good title is lacking. Join the contest ~ free book to the winner~

Advertisement