Uncle Rich's and Aunt Karen's Story

Uncle Rich and Aunt Karen’s Story as told by Aunt Karen: I can’t remember the first time I met my husband, I probably was only 5 years old. I married the boy who lived across the street. We started dating, when I was 13. He seemed like he really liked me and he had a good sense of humor and could always make laugh. Rich was two years ahead of me in school, but we planned to get married as soon as I graduated. Those plans changed suddenly when he was drafted on April fool’s day 1968. He had already tested for each branch of the service and he decided to join the Marine Corp because they guaranteed him electronic schools if he signed for 4 years. After basic training and his basic electronic school, he came home at Christmas and we were married on December 28th 1968 in a small chapel at the foot of the mountains in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The chapel was decorated with red poinsettia plants, I wore my wedding gown and he wore his dress green uniform. He had to leave to go back for two radio repair schools and I was able to join him in San Diego, California. We went to North Carolina than he was sent to Viet Nam for one year. When he left I was 2 months pregnant with our first son. I was able to meet Rich in Hawaii for R+R and he got to meet our three month old son. After serving in Viet Nam we went to Virginia until Rich was discharged in May 1972. We moved to Ohio, had another son and 39 years later we still call Ohio home. We just celebrated our 41st anniversary and our love for each other is still strong.