While in Vietnam (68-69) with Echo Company, 26th Marines, I wrote to Linda Mitchell. I met her through a letter introduction by my brother Tom who was a junior at the same high school she was attending (she was a senior). I wrote to her and she wrote back. I would describe some of the beauty of the mountains and the tragedy of the war and she would tell me about her dog “Charlie,” her family, and high school.
When I came home, I asked Linda out for a date and she said yes (my next duty station was NSA, Fort Meade, Maryland). I proposed to her 17 days after we met while still on leave and we were married about 3 months later (now going on 48 years). Linda later told me she knew I was the person she would marry when I first got out of my car on our first date.
Amazing woman, she stayed with me after I almost cut her throat when she came into the bedroom to wake me for duty, While stationed at Ft. Meade. I pulled my knife from under the pillow and put it to her throat, she screamed, and I woke up. Needless to say, I got rid of the knife quickly. Had she reported me, I would have been dishonorably discharged, because PTSD was not recognized back then.
We have two adult children and grandchildren. Never thought I would leave Vietnam, yet alone get married and have a family. I was one of the lucky ones despite my injuries.
Wrote a “44 Year Love Story” while teaching at Penn State Abington and dedicated it to my brother Tom, who has since died, and my wonderful wife for sticking by me!
I am total/permanent disabled, but I now focus on fighting for veteran causes as therapy and a way to “pay it forward” for the “younger veterans and their families!
Semper Fi!
Read: “A 44 Year Love Story,” by James Ulinski
as published in The Abington Review, April 2013- Vol.12, pages 32-34, Pennsylvania State University at Abington.
James Ulinski in Khe Sahn, Vietnam, 1968