Engineer Memoirs
and Germany. That was when Ralph was about six months old and we were able to
leave him with my friend who lived across the street.
Then we made a trip to Holland. We had a Dutch girl living with us. We took her and
Ralph to Holland because she had to make periodic trips back to renew her student
visa. We also spent two weeks in England and Scotland.
And then we spent the last month in the south of France because we were not allowed
on the airplane with a newborn baby. The baby had to be 10 weeks old. We moved out
of our house and went to Guethary in the south of France with the brand new baby, a
two-year old, and a Dutch girl.
Q:
So you went over there with no children and you came home with two?
A:
Came home with two.
Q:
That's quite an accomplishment for one tour.
You know, you said something that once you mentioned it, became obvious, but I really
hadn't thought about it. You really didn't have a regular military career because you
didn't live on military posts.
A:
That's right.
Q:
I guess Fort Belvoir is the only post your husband was stationed on in the states.
A:
Well, the schools--Leavenworth and Carlisle--and in 1971 to 1974 we lived at Fort
Sheridan, Illinois.
Q:
Right, sure.
A:
But no. That's true. At SHAPE, they later built SHAPE village. That was really an
Army post, except it was multinational. They had a point system to be eligible--number
of children, time in country, et cetera. We didn't qualify and didn't want to live there
anyhow. We wanted to live on the economy, in the French environment. But that would
have been a post environment, if you will.
Q:
So your whole experience is really different from what you might call the normal Army
family because you were an Army family in a civil environment most of the time?
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