Having passed the physical, the end of the month found him on a bus bound for basic training at Camp Barkeley near Abilene, Texas. Barkeley was the site of a medical replacement training center, the largest in the country. At peak, 60,000 men were in training there.
Wanting to postpone the inevitable parting as long as they could, Mid packed up and went to Texas to be as near to Jim as possible, for as long as possible. Ardath was left in the care of Jim’s parents, Leo and Helen McVeigh.
Mid rented a room in a boarding house, spending every moment she could with her husband.
Upon completion of basic training, a sad goodbye was said, little realizing that would be their last embrace for close to three long, hard, lonesome years.
Remember, there were no cell phones or e-mail back then, no contact of any kind, except letters with holes cut out of them from where they had been censored.
Mid came back to Montrose, her little daughter, and her family, including her younger brother Buddy, who came to live with her following their mother’s death and who stayed until he himself entered the service.
My dad was also an Army vet (Korean War). Read the whole piece here.
