The second round of gunshots made Jo jump even more than before, and she knew these ones were coming. Seconds later, the third and final round of shots fired and the tears poured down her face like a fountain had just been released. She thought to herself that he was too young to die. All she could do is cry, as the echoes from that ceremonious 21 gun salute reflected through the air.
“Jo,” Paul yelled up the stairs, “where are my boots?” “On the patio,” Jo responded. She knew her husband was in a hurry. He was lucky enough to be granted leave for their wedding much less a two week honeymoon. Now, however, the honeymoon was over and Paul was to report to the Georgia Army based he had been stationed at for the past four years in just three hours. Granted Paul and Jo only lived a few hours south of there, but still, she knew three hours from now her new husband would be gone, and she wouldn’t get any free time with him for at least a month.
Paul was an intelligence officer in the US Army. His current assignment was to be stationed at Fort Gordon Army Base just outside Augusta, Georgia. He was fortunate enough that his active duty assignment was to be a training officer to new recruits. He was the top of his class at West Point and considered one of the best intelligence officers the Army had stateside. This gave Paul a great assignment that the furthest he’s ever had to be from his new wife would be the three hour drive from their home. He would spend his days training new officers on intelligence lingo. How to read and retract information from gathered information. It was his job to prepare these officers to go overseas and decipher information as well as handle what messages would come out after they deciphered them. Paul’s job was a challenging and demanding one. Not on the body, but on the mind and emotions.
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Back home, Jo was unpacking from a honeymoon that seemed to be over before it began. Paul had only been gone a day and she already missed him so much it hurt. They had only been married for three weeks, but they had been together for ten years. Jo met Paul during her freshman year of high school. She was only fifteen. He was a cocky, popular junior whose looks were clearly better than his grades. He had flowing blonde hair and ice blue eyes that pierced directly to her heart when she looked into them. The day the calculus teacher from Athens High asked an over achieving, top of her class, Jo to tutor a promising football quarterback would turn out to be one of the best days of her life.
Paul walked into the tutor center that first day, and sat down across the table from the short, skinny brunette tutor he had been assigned. She had fair skin with faded freckles. Specked green eyes outlined by thin wispy eyebrows. Her hair grazing the left side of her face, shiny and smooth, Paul wondered if this tutor was as equally smart as she was beautiful. He had dated a majority of the girls in his grade, as well as the seniors above him. This freshman tutor, however, was like no one he had seen in the school before.
Paul had a date with Jo secured by the end of the first week she tutored him. He came to see that she was smart, but she was also interesting, enlightening and funny. Jo would wait for Paul after football practice and he would drive her home every day. The five minute drive would last hours as they sat in her driveway and talked, learning more and more how perfect for each other they were. Joe found out soon that this boy who she once thought was a dumb, pretty football star was actually quite brilliant. He just needed the right motivation to get there. She took extra time to help Paul discover his hardships in studying which would eventually lead to an increase in his grades which got him into West Point, well that and a promise to play football.
Paul’s dad, granddad, and four uncles were all West Point Alum, as well as Paul’s brother being a current cadet in his first year. Paul knew if he could graduate in the top fourth of his class and keep his body healthy and in shape, he would be guaranteed admission. This guarantee is what led him to slack for a while because he knew it would be easier coming from a West Point family to get in. Lucky for him, Jo entered his life and helped him realize his academic potential. Paul graduated in the top 20th percentile in his class, with full admission acceptance into West Point Academy and a starting spot on their football team. Just two years after meeting the love of his life, he was ready to embark on a dream he was raised to fulfill. Jo would finish high school and attend NYU to pursue a teaching degree. This put them in the same state which was close enough for them to endure time apart. Every leave Paul got, every break Jo could find, they would find away to see each other. This kept their relationship alive throughout the six years they were forced to be apart.
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A loud knock on the door to Paul’s office startled him. He was so divulged in writing his training report; he had put himself in a sort of trance. That knock on his door pulled him out of that state and he jumped up to attention. When he answered the door he saw a husky, talk, solid man standing before him. Like one of those army plastic men you played with as a child had come to life. This man, Paul knew however, this was his base commander. “New orders just came down Paul, may I come in?” The commander said as he let himself in, Paul getting out of the way knowing him asking was only a courtesy, and an answer wasn’t necessary. As Paul sat down across from his commander he had an idea of what this conversation was going to be about. It had been a great run, and he had been lucky, but with the fall in intelligence recruits, he knew this time was going to come. “We leave at 0900 day after tomorrow,” the commander continued. He had been explaining to Paul that with the decline in intelligence recruits he was needed overseas. He would be stationed at a US Embassy somewhere in the Middle East working intelligence and briefing battalion commanders. Paul’s heart raced, not because he had to ship out in less than 48 hours, but because he was going to tell Jo that she would see her husband for not a month now, but twelve. This was going to suck he thought.
When the phone rang, and Jo saw it was Paul on the caller ID, her heart leapt. She couldn’t wait to hear his voice. Minutes into the phone call however, there was a different feeling in her heart. Now there was a feeling of pain and deep worry. “It’s just Embassy work,” he assured her, “I’ll be behind Marine Guard around the clock.” Paul and Jo both new despite what Paul said that working in the Embassy overseas wasn’t nearly as safe as he wanted it to sound. There had been several bombings of US Embassies over the past several years Paul had been on active duty. Many of the recruits he sent had been injured in them. Fortunately, though, no one that Paul and Jo knew had perished…yet.
“When do you leave?” Jo cried. “Morning, day after tomorrow,” Paul responded holding back his own tears. “I can’t come home, but I want you to come here,” he said to his distraught wife. So Jo did. She packed an overnight bag and started on the three hour drive to Fort Gordon. She knew it would be the last time she’s see her husband in over a year.
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The flight was bumpy, loud, and cold. The impromptu deployment of Paul and the three other intelligence officers didn’t allow time for commercial transportation. Instead they were put into a military supply transport. These planes were loud and very uncomfortable. Paul had more detail about where he was going. His deployment was at the US Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. This brought the young officer a small amount of comfort because he knew the chief intelligence officer at the embassy. A man two years ahead of him at West Point, a man to whom Paul had known all his life. Paul closed his eyes and tried to drown out the sound of the turbine engine and rattling cargo with the memory of the words his wife left him with the previous evening. As Jo and Paul said their goodbyes, she told him she loved him, and that she was proud to be his wife. She told him that no matter what happened, she would always be proud. This warmed Paul’s body, and he drifted into a calm and pleasant sleep.
The plane hit the tarmac so hard it pulled Paul out of his slumber like a bullet out of a gun. As he wiped his eyes and shook his head to wake himself up, he looked around to see his comrades had had similar reactions to the bumpy cargo transport landing. The plane slowed to a halt and as the back door opened, the Istanbul heat hit Paul like a wall. The hot, dry air felt like a thousand degree change from the cold plane he had spent the last nine hours on. The sun beat down on his face directly above him. Scorching his pale skin, he wasn’t ready for this heat to hit him like this. The tarmac around him was pretty empty. A few military escort vehicles and a black Hummer awaited him and his three fellow officers. Out of the Hummer stepped a man who stood about six feet tall. Buzzed blond hair and a distinct tan line out lining where his sunglasses would go. The man approached Paul and yelled for him to stand at attention. Paul chuckled and hugged his brother. The chief intelligence officer at the Embassy was Paul’s older brother Doug. He had been stationed in Istanbul for the past nine months and when he found out Paul was on orders to be deployed, pulled a few strings to get him at the same embassy he was stationed at. This was comforting when Paul was notified, but even more so when he told Jo. Jo felt so much better about Paul being stationed with his brother. They could look after each other, she would tell herself, and that brought a calming relaxation to her.
When they got to the Embassy, the new officers were shown to their living quarters and then given a set of orders that covered their next week. As Paul looked over it, he knew he was no longer the guy in charge, the man who knew what was going on. He was the new recruit, the one who needed the training, and it would be at least a week before he would be able to actually do what he was deployed for. The scope of work on his orders included intelligence briefings, policy seminars, and safety drills—one thing Paul was sure to pay attention to. He was going to do anything and everything to get back to Jo safe. His nights were essentially free over this briefing period. He thought how great it would be to have that time to adapt, get to know Istanbul, and most importantly spend time with his brother. Paul could tell Doug was equally happy to have him around. They had been inseparable growing up, and it would be nice to have someone around to provide that comforting reminder of home.
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The house felt emptier to Jo than it normally did. A feeling she found confusing because Paul was rarely there, he was always stationed on base. Now, however, she knew he wasn’t hundreds of miles away; he was thousands of miles away. Jo kept busy as much as she could. Her teaching occupied a majority of her time and between grading finals and preparing for the holidays, she found it easier to forget about Paul overseas. She was comforted knowing he was with Doug who had the experience, not to mention she had just spoken with Paul over a choppy web-cam feed, and to all appearances, he looked good. She was looking forward to the upcoming holiday. Paul and Doug were getting a three day leave and were going to travel to Rome to view a Christmas mass with the Pope. Jo was excited for the pictures Paul was going to get of all the Italian architecture. He said he was going to scope out all the great cafes and museums. He was going to plan out a second honeymoon when returned from deployment. Jo was happy Paul was doing well, and she appreciated his optimism and promise of coming home. It made her life so much easier at home.
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Jo jumped out of bed startled at the phone ringing. She made out the time on the alarm clock though her foggy half-asleep eyes. “2:00” it read. Confused by the early morning phone call, she picked up the phone. “Mrs. Halloway?” the voice on the phone asked. “Yes, who is this?” Jo answered. “Ma’am, there will be a military escort at your house shortly. I need you to go with them, it’s your husband.” Jo dropped the phone and her heart sunk. She couldn’t breathe; every breath was a battle to get air into her lungs. She sat there, a distant voice from the phone, now on the ground, calling out to see if she was still on the line. Tears began to flow down her face, no sobbing or cries, just lonesome tears flowing down her fair-skinned cheeks. Her mind surging with thoughts: What could have happened? What was she to do? She assumed the worst, although battled with herself to hope for the best. It could be anything right? They’d call for anything, don’t assume the worst Jo. Don’t.
The military escort vehicle was a black Lincoln. It was very inconspicuous and nongovernment looking. The driver was instructed to do just that, drive. He sat in the front seat while a young, quiet, and timid looking Private sat with Jo in the back. Jo was terrified; all she knew is that they were driving to meet the base commander. She knew her husband was alive, but to what extent she did not. The three hour drive seemed like an eternity. When the car pulled into the base, it was met by the base commander standing with the Fort Gordon chaplain. “What happened to Paul?” Jo cried out, now sobbing in fear of the thoughts of her ailing husband thousands of miles away. The base commander grabbed Jo by the hand and sat her down on the curb. He explained that there was a train accident. While Paul and Doug were on their holiday leave, the train they were taking to Rome derailed. There were many casualties; Paul was in a military hospital in Italy in an unknown condition. Jo broke down; she wanted to jump on the next plane to Italy to be by her husband’s side. Her heart ached in fear, she collapsed into the shoulder of the once tough military commander in front of her, now showing his own pain for is friend in his eyes. Jo wouldn’t make a flight to Italy; she would receive a phone call that would change her life only an hour later.
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The second round of gunshots made Jo jump even more than before, and she knew these ones were coming. Seconds later, the third and final round of shots fired and the tears poured down her face like a fountain had just been released. She thought to herself that he was too young to die. All she could do is cry, as the echoes from that ceremonious 21 gun salute reflected through the air. She looked up at the crying soldier standing next to her, and grabbed his hand tightly. His leg in a cast, a crutch under his opposite arm, Paul was standing there grasping his wife’s arm, mourning the loss of his brother. The train accident left him with nothing more than a broken leg and a few dislocated fingers, his brother Doug on the other hand, lost his life. It wasn’t fair to Paul, his brother was so young. Only thirty, never married, spent the last twelve years serving his country, and this favor is returned by God in the form of a train accident that ultimately took his life. Paul was angry and Paul was sad. He didn’t deserve to come home alone; he deserved to come home with his brother. Jo was full of mixed emotion. She was eternally thankful that God had spared her husband’s life. She was terribly saddened by the loss of her brother-in-law. However she was mostly worried about the state of her husband now. This death had hit him hard. He had barely spoken a word since he returned home only a week ago escorting his brother’s body. She knew it would be a long road of recovery for Paul in the upcoming months, perhaps even years. All she could do now, was hold his hand, cry with him, and mourn with him—the loss of a soldier, a friend, a brother, and an American hero.
“Jo,” Paul yelled up the stairs, “where are my boots?” “On the patio,” Jo responded. She knew her husband was in a hurry. He was lucky enough to be granted leave for their wedding much less a two week honeymoon. Now, however, the honeymoon was over and Paul was to report to the Georgia Army based he had been stationed at for the past four years in just three hours. Granted Paul and Jo only lived a few hours south of there, but still, she knew three hours from now her new husband would be gone, and she wouldn’t get any free time with him for at least a month.
Paul was an intelligence officer in the US Army. His current assignment was to be stationed at Fort Gordon Army Base just outside Augusta, Georgia. He was fortunate enough that his active duty assignment was to be a training officer to new recruits. He was the top of his class at West Point and considered one of the best intelligence officers the Army had stateside. This gave Paul a great assignment that the furthest he’s ever had to be from his new wife would be the three hour drive from their home. He would spend his days training new officers on intelligence lingo. How to read and retract information from gathered information. It was his job to prepare these officers to go overseas and decipher information as well as handle what messages would come out after they deciphered them. Paul’s job was a challenging and demanding one. Not on the body, but on the mind and emotions.
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Back home, Jo was unpacking from a honeymoon that seemed to be over before it began. Paul had only been gone a day and she already missed him so much it hurt. They had only been married for three weeks, but they had been together for ten years. Jo met Paul during her freshman year of high school. She was only fifteen. He was a cocky, popular junior whose looks were clearly better than his grades. He had flowing blonde hair and ice blue eyes that pierced directly to her heart when she looked into them. The day the calculus teacher from Athens High asked an over achieving, top of her class, Jo to tutor a promising football quarterback would turn out to be one of the best days of her life.
Paul walked into the tutor center that first day, and sat down across the table from the short, skinny brunette tutor he had been assigned. She had fair skin with faded freckles. Specked green eyes outlined by thin wispy eyebrows. Her hair grazing the left side of her face, shiny and smooth, Paul wondered if this tutor was as equally smart as she was beautiful. He had dated a majority of the girls in his grade, as well as the seniors above him. This freshman tutor, however, was like no one he had seen in the school before.
Paul had a date with Jo secured by the end of the first week she tutored him. He came to see that she was smart, but she was also interesting, enlightening and funny. Jo would wait for Paul after football practice and he would drive her home every day. The five minute drive would last hours as they sat in her driveway and talked, learning more and more how perfect for each other they were. Joe found out soon that this boy who she once thought was a dumb, pretty football star was actually quite brilliant. He just needed the right motivation to get there. She took extra time to help Paul discover his hardships in studying which would eventually lead to an increase in his grades which got him into West Point, well that and a promise to play football.
Paul’s dad, granddad, and four uncles were all West Point Alum, as well as Paul’s brother being a current cadet in his first year. Paul knew if he could graduate in the top fourth of his class and keep his body healthy and in shape, he would be guaranteed admission. This guarantee is what led him to slack for a while because he knew it would be easier coming from a West Point family to get in. Lucky for him, Jo entered his life and helped him realize his academic potential. Paul graduated in the top 20th percentile in his class, with full admission acceptance into West Point Academy and a starting spot on their football team. Just two years after meeting the love of his life, he was ready to embark on a dream he was raised to fulfill. Jo would finish high school and attend NYU to pursue a teaching degree. This put them in the same state which was close enough for them to endure time apart. Every leave Paul got, every break Jo could find, they would find away to see each other. This kept their relationship alive throughout the six years they were forced to be apart.
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A loud knock on the door to Paul’s office startled him. He was so divulged in writing his training report; he had put himself in a sort of trance. That knock on his door pulled him out of that state and he jumped up to attention. When he answered the door he saw a husky, talk, solid man standing before him. Like one of those army plastic men you played with as a child had come to life. This man, Paul knew however, this was his base commander. “New orders just came down Paul, may I come in?” The commander said as he let himself in, Paul getting out of the way knowing him asking was only a courtesy, and an answer wasn’t necessary. As Paul sat down across from his commander he had an idea of what this conversation was going to be about. It had been a great run, and he had been lucky, but with the fall in intelligence recruits, he knew this time was going to come. “We leave at 0900 day after tomorrow,” the commander continued. He had been explaining to Paul that with the decline in intelligence recruits he was needed overseas. He would be stationed at a US Embassy somewhere in the Middle East working intelligence and briefing battalion commanders. Paul’s heart raced, not because he had to ship out in less than 48 hours, but because he was going to tell Jo that she would see her husband for not a month now, but twelve. This was going to suck he thought.
When the phone rang, and Jo saw it was Paul on the caller ID, her heart leapt. She couldn’t wait to hear his voice. Minutes into the phone call however, there was a different feeling in her heart. Now there was a feeling of pain and deep worry. “It’s just Embassy work,” he assured her, “I’ll be behind Marine Guard around the clock.” Paul and Jo both new despite what Paul said that working in the Embassy overseas wasn’t nearly as safe as he wanted it to sound. There had been several bombings of US Embassies over the past several years Paul had been on active duty. Many of the recruits he sent had been injured in them. Fortunately, though, no one that Paul and Jo knew had perished…yet.
“When do you leave?” Jo cried. “Morning, day after tomorrow,” Paul responded holding back his own tears. “I can’t come home, but I want you to come here,” he said to his distraught wife. So Jo did. She packed an overnight bag and started on the three hour drive to Fort Gordon. She knew it would be the last time she’s see her husband in over a year.
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The flight was bumpy, loud, and cold. The impromptu deployment of Paul and the three other intelligence officers didn’t allow time for commercial transportation. Instead they were put into a military supply transport. These planes were loud and very uncomfortable. Paul had more detail about where he was going. His deployment was at the US Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. This brought the young officer a small amount of comfort because he knew the chief intelligence officer at the embassy. A man two years ahead of him at West Point, a man to whom Paul had known all his life. Paul closed his eyes and tried to drown out the sound of the turbine engine and rattling cargo with the memory of the words his wife left him with the previous evening. As Jo and Paul said their goodbyes, she told him she loved him, and that she was proud to be his wife. She told him that no matter what happened, she would always be proud. This warmed Paul’s body, and he drifted into a calm and pleasant sleep.
The plane hit the tarmac so hard it pulled Paul out of his slumber like a bullet out of a gun. As he wiped his eyes and shook his head to wake himself up, he looked around to see his comrades had had similar reactions to the bumpy cargo transport landing. The plane slowed to a halt and as the back door opened, the Istanbul heat hit Paul like a wall. The hot, dry air felt like a thousand degree change from the cold plane he had spent the last nine hours on. The sun beat down on his face directly above him. Scorching his pale skin, he wasn’t ready for this heat to hit him like this. The tarmac around him was pretty empty. A few military escort vehicles and a black Hummer awaited him and his three fellow officers. Out of the Hummer stepped a man who stood about six feet tall. Buzzed blond hair and a distinct tan line out lining where his sunglasses would go. The man approached Paul and yelled for him to stand at attention. Paul chuckled and hugged his brother. The chief intelligence officer at the Embassy was Paul’s older brother Doug. He had been stationed in Istanbul for the past nine months and when he found out Paul was on orders to be deployed, pulled a few strings to get him at the same embassy he was stationed at. This was comforting when Paul was notified, but even more so when he told Jo. Jo felt so much better about Paul being stationed with his brother. They could look after each other, she would tell herself, and that brought a calming relaxation to her.
When they got to the Embassy, the new officers were shown to their living quarters and then given a set of orders that covered their next week. As Paul looked over it, he knew he was no longer the guy in charge, the man who knew what was going on. He was the new recruit, the one who needed the training, and it would be at least a week before he would be able to actually do what he was deployed for. The scope of work on his orders included intelligence briefings, policy seminars, and safety drills—one thing Paul was sure to pay attention to. He was going to do anything and everything to get back to Jo safe. His nights were essentially free over this briefing period. He thought how great it would be to have that time to adapt, get to know Istanbul, and most importantly spend time with his brother. Paul could tell Doug was equally happy to have him around. They had been inseparable growing up, and it would be nice to have someone around to provide that comforting reminder of home.
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The house felt emptier to Jo than it normally did. A feeling she found confusing because Paul was rarely there, he was always stationed on base. Now, however, she knew he wasn’t hundreds of miles away; he was thousands of miles away. Jo kept busy as much as she could. Her teaching occupied a majority of her time and between grading finals and preparing for the holidays, she found it easier to forget about Paul overseas. She was comforted knowing he was with Doug who had the experience, not to mention she had just spoken with Paul over a choppy web-cam feed, and to all appearances, he looked good. She was looking forward to the upcoming holiday. Paul and Doug were getting a three day leave and were going to travel to Rome to view a Christmas mass with the Pope. Jo was excited for the pictures Paul was going to get of all the Italian architecture. He said he was going to scope out all the great cafes and museums. He was going to plan out a second honeymoon when returned from deployment. Jo was happy Paul was doing well, and she appreciated his optimism and promise of coming home. It made her life so much easier at home.
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Jo jumped out of bed startled at the phone ringing. She made out the time on the alarm clock though her foggy half-asleep eyes. “2:00” it read. Confused by the early morning phone call, she picked up the phone. “Mrs. Halloway?” the voice on the phone asked. “Yes, who is this?” Jo answered. “Ma’am, there will be a military escort at your house shortly. I need you to go with them, it’s your husband.” Jo dropped the phone and her heart sunk. She couldn’t breathe; every breath was a battle to get air into her lungs. She sat there, a distant voice from the phone, now on the ground, calling out to see if she was still on the line. Tears began to flow down her face, no sobbing or cries, just lonesome tears flowing down her fair-skinned cheeks. Her mind surging with thoughts: What could have happened? What was she to do? She assumed the worst, although battled with herself to hope for the best. It could be anything right? They’d call for anything, don’t assume the worst Jo. Don’t.
The military escort vehicle was a black Lincoln. It was very inconspicuous and nongovernment looking. The driver was instructed to do just that, drive. He sat in the front seat while a young, quiet, and timid looking Private sat with Jo in the back. Jo was terrified; all she knew is that they were driving to meet the base commander. She knew her husband was alive, but to what extent she did not. The three hour drive seemed like an eternity. When the car pulled into the base, it was met by the base commander standing with the Fort Gordon chaplain. “What happened to Paul?” Jo cried out, now sobbing in fear of the thoughts of her ailing husband thousands of miles away. The base commander grabbed Jo by the hand and sat her down on the curb. He explained that there was a train accident. While Paul and Doug were on their holiday leave, the train they were taking to Rome derailed. There were many casualties; Paul was in a military hospital in Italy in an unknown condition. Jo broke down; she wanted to jump on the next plane to Italy to be by her husband’s side. Her heart ached in fear, she collapsed into the shoulder of the once tough military commander in front of her, now showing his own pain for is friend in his eyes. Jo wouldn’t make a flight to Italy; she would receive a phone call that would change her life only an hour later.
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The second round of gunshots made Jo jump even more than before, and she knew these ones were coming. Seconds later, the third and final round of shots fired and the tears poured down her face like a fountain had just been released. She thought to herself that he was too young to die. All she could do is cry, as the echoes from that ceremonious 21 gun salute reflected through the air. She looked up at the crying soldier standing next to her, and grabbed his hand tightly. His leg in a cast, a crutch under his opposite arm, Paul was standing there grasping his wife’s arm, mourning the loss of his brother. The train accident left him with nothing more than a broken leg and a few dislocated fingers, his brother Doug on the other hand, lost his life. It wasn’t fair to Paul, his brother was so young. Only thirty, never married, spent the last twelve years serving his country, and this favor is returned by God in the form of a train accident that ultimately took his life. Paul was angry and Paul was sad. He didn’t deserve to come home alone; he deserved to come home with his brother. Jo was full of mixed emotion. She was eternally thankful that God had spared her husband’s life. She was terribly saddened by the loss of her brother-in-law. However she was mostly worried about the state of her husband now. This death had hit him hard. He had barely spoken a word since he returned home only a week ago escorting his brother’s body. She knew it would be a long road of recovery for Paul in the upcoming months, perhaps even years. All she could do now, was hold his hand, cry with him, and mourn with him—the loss of a soldier, a friend, a brother, and an American hero.
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