In March 1964, St. Louis, MO had a USO in the basement of what I believe was a veterans building. It was downtown near the city hall. My friend heard about a Saturday dance. We went. I met my future husband that night. He and his friends were stationed at Fort Leonard Wood (Fort Lost in the Woods). They came up to St. Louis. I went again and again to meet up with Bill. We wrote letters during the week. Met again at the USO. I invited him to the Easter church service and dinner with my family.
Bill was scheduled to report to Germany after a 30-day leave. He wrote a letter asking me to marry him. He called one evening, and it was decided to marry. We had a week to plan the wedding. After the wedding, we drove to his parents’ home in Southborough, MA. He went to Germany, and 6 weeks later, in June 1966, I joined him.
We had 4 daughters. Our first was stillborn. We were in Germany, experiencing grief without parents. We were stationed in Arizona, Bill went to Vietnam, then to Fort Sill, OK, onto Germany again. Back to the states in 1975 to Fort Riley, KS.
We were married 6 weeks shy of 55 years when Bill passed away from Agent Orange.
Mary Perricotti
Salina KS