Chapter Ten: What are friends for

"What are you going to tell your Mom?" I asked Chuck as we got into his car. "She is not going to take the news of you joining the Army very well."

"Well I don't think your wife is going to be all that happy either!" he said with a grin.

"Yea, you are right about that. Well since we leave in 2 weeks I won't have to sleep on the couch for long."

It was October 1969, my best friend Chuck and I had just signed our enlistment papers. We had two weeks to get our affairs in order and be ready to leave for Fort Ord and basic training. I had gotten my draft notice three weeks prior and had taken my physical when I decided that I would rather choose where I served so I enlisted, and Chuck decided to do the same.

I had been married to Diane for a little over a year. We weren't adjusting to married life very well. We fought a lot but always tried to makeup before bed. Our sex life was ok but nothing great, we were both only 18 when we got married, right out of high school. Diane was big into the anti-war protests at school, while I was trying to get into ROTC. When I look back I have to wonder what we ever thought we had in common.

Now, don't think that I took this step without talking to her, I did. Or rather I talked at her because she refused to listen to any of my reasons. I realize now, almost 33 years later, that it wouldn't have made any difference what either one of us said. We were destined to move apart and go our separate ways.

Chuck dropped me off at home and headed off to tell his mom and step-dad what he had done. At least I didn't have to worry what my parents thought about my enlistment. They had separated shortly after I left home to get married, and they sort of wrote me off. Actually Diane took the news fairly well, I still ended up on the couch, and there was some yelling about deserting her, and what would her friends think about her husband being a 'Baby Killer'. That set me off and that is I ended up on the couch, more by choice that anything else.

In the morning I drove over to Chuck's place to see how he had faired. His mom was a little cold and obviously stressed, but wasn't openly hostile at me. Chuck and I tried to explain to her that, we were going to be drafted at any time, so it was better to be able to choose which part of the military we would serve in, Chuck had enlisted for a carrier in computers, and I chose the Corps of Engineers. She agreed that we would be safer in those fields than in others but she still didn't like it.

The last person to tell was Chuck's girlfriend, but that was going to be easy. Christine was the daughter of a Command Sergeant Major in the US Army at Fort Sill Oklahoma. When Chuck called Christine and told her that we had enlisted she told him that she was going to get her dad to let her come to California before we left. That started talk of a going-away party. The next thing we knew that date was set for the following Sunday afternoon. Christine was going to arrive on Saturday to spend the weekend.

I offered to let her stay with Diane and I, but Chuck's mom vetoed that! She wanted to make sure that Christine and Chuck were not left alone together where they might get into trouble. Instead she made Chuck move out of his room and onto the living room couch. He was very nervous as I drove him to the airport to pickup Christine on Saturday morning. They hadn't seen each other in several years. They had met several years earlier, on a family trip, and immediately fell in love. The relationship had survived the problems of distance and raging teenage hormones.