Letters from a Soldier

As a woman and a mother, there are many things that are near and dear to my heart. I was thinking the other day of how quickly time has passed and how the world has changed. I thought how small things and events have changed the course my life. One simple gesture was a letter.

I met my husband at a dance at an Air Force base. At that time, our fair city of Las Vegas had few things for a young person to do. I certainly didn't want to hang around a casino, this was in the early 60s when the strip and Fremont St. looked very different and was almost 90% smaller than it is today. I started going to a dance which was held at Nellis Air Force Base when I got off work at the telephone company. I had a pretty good single life. I lived at home, drove a beautiful Thunderbird, and was a supervisor - not bad for a 19 year old. The dances on the base were great and the only place in town where you would feel safe. One evening as usual I met with my friends and we were all chatting before going into the dance area and I noticed an extremely handsome guy walk in the door and pass our group. He did catch my eye, but I didn't catch his. That's okay, I had lots of friends, didn't matter to me........then. We went in and grabbed a table when lo and behold, this handsome guy came up to the table and said it was his table, but I could sit there if I danced with him. I did, and we danced all night. I'll skip all the inbetween stuff and tell that in another post. I will say when the evening ended, I thought it was more than a regular meeting and looked forward to hearing from him again. There were no calls the next day, or the following day, so I just went on about my business and regular routine. No sweat, I had lots of friends.

A letter from a soldier came later in the week. The stamp was an 8 cent red air mail stamp pasted upside down in the corner, the address was from A/1 Robert P. Sullivan, sent from Travis Air Force Base, near San Francisco, California. Can you imagine how I felt, thinking I would never hear from him again. I was shocked at receiving the letter but what was written inside was even a bigger shocked. As the letter began, he mentioned all the niceities and what he had been doing. Then he said he was at the laundromate doing his laundry - - - ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?------- and, he wanted me to do his laundry for the rest of his life. Now what a proposal that was!!!!! If that wasn't an off the wall, totally unexpected, oddball proposal, I don't know what is!!!!! Well, guess what, I really got myself into a load of dirty clothes because I said I do!!!

There were more letters from my soldier that followed. There were also letters sent from my soldier after he had joined the Air National Guard after we were married later on in our life. I have letters postmarked from Savannah, Georgia; Fairbanks, Alaska; and some from Minnesota. He didn't travel too far after leaving the military so my soldiers letter came in the form of written love notes on scrapes of paper, left here and there for me to find.

I received another form of letter from a soldier and that was from our son Brian. He enlisted with the U. S. Army after he graduated from high school. His letters were captivating. He was a talker in person and that personality permeated his letters. He was terrific at expressing how he felt and writing about what he was doing. He wrote letters on typical notebook style paper and several sheets written front and back. There was a lot of reading when Brian wrote. He was personable in his writing and it felt as though he was talking directly to you. He expected a response also and if he hadn't heard back within a reasonable time, you would receive a disciplinary letter. I received long letters from South Carolina, Georgia, and several bases in Germany. The last base he was stationed was in Stuttgard, Germany. He loved being there and he loved serving in the Army. He was a gun-ho soldier and his letters were a priviledge to receive to hear about his spirit and dedication. His letters stopped in November of 1989, when we received the call that every parent never wants to receive. Brian had been injured in a non-combat accident on base. The story doesn't stop here about Brian's life, but Brian could never write a letter after that accident. I have every letter he wrote and sometimes will pick one up and read about that wonderful person's life that particular day. He was special, he was unique, he had a terrific laugh and a big zest for life. He was competitive and a softie. He was a very nice person. Brian died April of 2000.

It has been 40 years plus since I received my first soldier's letter. I lived in another part of Las Vegas then, today I live in Henderson. It is ironic I was thinking, how things have changed. I raised a grandson. He is a fine person. He is unique, talented and a really personable guy. He is competitive. After he graduated from high school, he enrolled in community college, but he wasn't stimulated enough to do what he needed to do to get it together, so he decided to join the military - the U. S. Army, and he mentioned once he thought of Brian in making his decision. So today, I receive soldier's letters from my grandson. You will be surprised to know I haven't received one written letter from our solder, Tom. Times have changed and we are now in the technology and electronic age. My letters and correspondence from my solder now comes in the form of emails, text messages and instant messages. Who would have thought? We all have computers in our home and Tom has his computer with him. He also has a camera on his computer and what fun we have when he puts on a show for us as we are instant messaging. It is the best of all worlds especially since he is stationed in Iraq. The change of communication are amazing.....I do continue to write or type a letter to Tom religiously every week, sending the Sunday comics or tidbits of news from the newspaper. I understand that our solders do like to receive letters from home - just to keep in touch.

My soldier's letters whether handwritten, typed, or emailed are precious in any form. I have waited impatiently to hear from each of my soldiers when they were away serving their country and especially today do I wait with worry since Tom is so far away and there are so many problems in the Middle East. Even though the only physical form of letter I have from Tom comes saved in the folder I have especially marked for his emails, each unique collection of words from each of my soldiers are treasures of gold.