Miracle Bride
Some people call it fate, some call it destiny, and some people say you create your path. Others call the things that happen to us miracles. Some say we are given doors of opportunity every day. The ones we decide to open and walk through make up our life. I happen to believe in God and miracles, both!
I graduated from Bloom Township High School (Chicago Heights, Illinois) in 1966 and went to college for a year. I was bored in college, so I decided to take a break for a while and just work. My draft board had other plans for me. They sent me a letter, and my mother called me to let me know I was to report for a physical. So I decided it would better for me to pick my field rather than to be on the front lines as an Infantryman. My recruiter suggested that I become a medic. All he told me was that I would be stationed at some nice hospital. Great, man. You hold the paper; I’ll move the pen. What he failed to tell me was that medics also served on the frontlines with infantry units.
I left for Basic, then AIT, then the orders: my whole class was going to Vietnam. So on March 23rd, 1968, I landed in Vietnam. I was assigned to 170th Assault Helicopter Co. Dispensary in Pleiku. It was there I picked up a magazine called Hotrod Cartoons and saw the list of GIs’ names and contact pen pals from the States, so I wrote in. Within a few days, I was sent to Ban Me Thuot to work the dispensary with 155th Assault Helicopter Co. While I was there, two things happened. First, more than 3,000 letters arrived from girls from all over the States. I picked five to write to, and Stephanie was the only one who wrote back. I gave the other letters away to other guys. The second thing to happen was that I found out that my uncle, Doug Burrell, was assigned to the Scouts, 2/47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division. My uncle and I grew up together, so I decided to put in a transfer to be with him. I was sent immediately.
Stephanie graduated from high school in 1967 and got married to Roger K. Jones. Roger enlisted in the USMC and went to Vietnam, where he was killed on May 16, 1968, during a mortar attack, leaving behind a wife and a 19-month-old daughter, Candice. Stephanie moved in with her father, Col. Albert Gamache, a fighter pilot stationed at Andrews Air Force Base near DC. She was there to help him with his three sons.
Her brother, Scotty, went camping and came home with a magazine called Hotrod Cartoons. Stephanie found a section where GIs in Vietnam were asking for pen pals. So in August 1968, she began to write a GI named Kerry Pardue and two others. I was the only one to write back. Soon we were writing every day. Over the next seven months, we became best friends. Before I left Vietnam, I told Doug that I was going to marry Stephanie. Right after we started writing, she decided to go to school to become a hairdresser, and she moved into an apartment in Baltimore, Maryland.
Doug and I left Vietnam on March 23rd, 1969, and I went home to the Chicago area and stayed for a week. While there, Stephanie and I talked on the phone every day. I caught a flight to Baltimore to meet her and Candice. I stayed for a week. We hit it off, but I had orders to report to the 18th Airborne Corp in Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. I knew I wanted to marry Stephanie and decided to go to the Pentagon and get my orders changed. I found the section and asked if I could get my orders changed to Ft. Meade, Maryland. They told me no, but they also said that I could go to the Flight Surgeon’s Office at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, and do flight physicals. That was only 60 miles away, so I said I’d take it. I left 30 minutes later with new orders.
Stephanie and I went over to her aunt’s house to celebrate, and I asked her to marry me. She said yes, and we set a date for September 5th, 1969. Three-year-old Candice gave her mother away. That was 54 years ago, and we’re still together and still best friends. We raised three children and now have 10 grandchildren.
I had to go to Vietnam to meet my future bride. I do believe in miracles!