Thomas My book, Surprise Endings, is now available for sale.
In 1988, my first wife left me for another man. To be fair, we were both in different branches of the military and stationed about a thousand miles apart. The physical separation meant we didn’t see each other that often and I’m sure she got lonely.
Still, I was lonely as well and I didn’t cheat on her so I have to consider myself an innocent party.
She left me in January, and I drove out to see her the second I found out, but the shock of what happened didn’t land with its full force until September. Setember 13th to be exact. You see that was the anniversary of our first date. I’d met her some time before, but our first date was Friday, September 13, 1985.
I was still in the US Army at the time and even though I had leave time coming and an understanding platoon sergeant, I took off from Fort Bragg, North Carolina without approval. I wasn’t planning on visiting her when I took off, I just needed to get away from the emotional onslaught I felt on such an emotionally charged day as our anniversary.
I drove through South Carolina and then Georgia. I continued on through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and into Texas. It took me three days, but with only a couple hours of sleep each night, I finally arrived in Los Angeles, California. By the time I arrived, the weight of what I had done was dragging me down. I felt the loss of my wife on top of the fear of what would happen to me when the authorities got a hold of me for being AWOL from my unit.
The excitement of being in California quickly diminished in light of my circumstances and I soon found myself heading East again on Interstate 10. I drove through Arizona and New Mexico on into Texas. I drove all the way through Texas and then on to Louisianna where my wife had become stationed after she left me. I tracked her down and tried to talk to her, but all she would say was, “It’s over Tom. Move on.”
I guess I realized that I needed to move on, but my heart still didn’t want to, so I left, in tears and without even the slightest hint of where to go next. I found myself heading West again and ended up in Dallas before I remembered that my sister lived just a bit north of there in Witchita Falls. I realized I needed an ally and I drove up to her place.
She was of course aware that I was AWOL and being in the Air Force herself, knew that what she needed to do was get me back to my unit where I could face up to what I had done. A life on the run wasn’t in my best interest and my sister knew this. She welcomed me into her home. We had a great time playing games and watching movies that night but she said we had an appointment to take care of the next morning. That was all she said.
The next morning, my sister who loves me very much, drove me down to the Witchita Falls police station where I was transferred down to Fort Hood, Texas and eventually taken back to my unit at Fort Bragg. I did get an article 15 for my actions, but since I had such a clean record and so many of my superiors stood up for me at the trial, the battalion commander gave me a relatively light sentence.
So while I praise the desire to drive across country from coast to coast, I highly recommend having permission to do so first.
