22 and Divorced
Shortly
after my last conversation with Donna I took another week of leave.
I needed to get back to something familiar, and to be with people who
really cared about me. I flew back to New York to visit my parents.
They were great. They didn't ask a lot of questions. They gave me
space and just let me be which was what I needed. My mom was the
only member of my family who had any sort of positive feelings
towards Donna, but then my mom has always been remarkable in being
able to see the good side of all people. I don't remember doing much
while I was there but I did go to a Yankee game with my Dad. For you
Yankee fans the Yankees had been going through a long down period.
They were a middle of the pack team in '71. They still had Mel
Stottlemyre and Horace Clarke but also had a few young players, Roy
White, Bobby Mercer, and Thurman Munson.
My Dad
owned an old Saab, it was similar in size to the Volkswagen Bug. He
had bought it as a second car after I went off to college. I learned
to drive a stick shift with that car. It was a quirky little car.
It had a three cylinder engine so you had to add oil to the gas. It
had what they called “free wheeling”, meaning when you took your
foot off the gas the car coasted, not grabbed so you did not slow
down much. It was like being in neutral, in fact you could shift
between 2nd to 3rd without using the clutch as
long as you paused for a second or two before sliding it into gear.
You really only had to use the clutch with 1st gear.
Since I no longer had access to a car I decided to check out some
Saabs while I was there. The guy who had the local Saab dealership
was one of our neighbors. I purchased the same small model. It now
came with a 4 cylinder engine so no need for the oil. A few days
later I drove it back across the country to California. I put 60,000
miles on it in just 2 years and I was the only driver. I loved that
car.
Once
back at the base and into a daily routine, I started thinking that it
would be a good idea to file for divorce. I didn't trust the guy
Donna was with. He was a shady character, not above engaging in
illegal activities (and I'm not talking pot). I decided it would be
smart to remove myself legally from the situation. I wasn't too sure
how to do it so I retained a lawyer that was recommended to me.
The
lawyer's name was Offutt and he was very helpful and pragmatic. We
talked for awhile and given my situation he gave me a discounted rate
on his fees. Not having any property or kids made the divorce
process simpler. We filed the papers and had Donna served, except
she was no longer at the address I had for her. The only real thing
we owned that was of any value was the car, well, now two cars
because I had bought another one. Of course, I wanted the one I just
purchased but we still owed on the the other one and since Donna had
it I felt it only fair that she should have to make the payments.
She had for some reason stopped making payments and I had already
received a couple of late notices from the bank. I was going to make
the payments but my lawyer had another idea. He said the first thing
I needed to do was find the car and suggested I get the bank to do
that. How? Don't make any payments on the loan. In another month
or so the bank would send me letters about defaulting on the loan.
He told me to ignore them. The bank would then take action to
repossess the car. Since I did not have it or know where it was,
they would track it down. They had the resources to do that. Once
they found it he said they would contact me and give me one last
chance to make the back payments before actually repossessing. At
that point I should be prepared to pay all the back car payments and
the bank would provide me the location of the car. If it was still
with Donna, then we'd find her as well.
One day
in the shop I ended up participating in a discussion about the war.
Now that I was more engaged and more part of the group, I was feeling
more free to express my opinions. I stated my views about the war,
that I did not support it. I said we were backing the wrong side,
backing a regime that was corrupt, unpopular, and unstable. And
naturally, I did not stop there. I went on to say that I was not
going to go to Southeast Asia. If they sent me there they were going
to have to tie me up and load me on the plane against my will. In
fact, I would go AWOL first. This kind of talk had irked people in
the past and it did not fail to do the same here. In particular it
did not sit well with my supervising Sergeant. He evidently decided
that he would show me. Since we were working on a specialty spy
plane (SR-71) that had required additional training we were on a
protected list meaning that we were exempt from being reassigned for
something like 5 years. Everyone stayed on that list unless someone
decided to remove you. That's one of the nice things about the
military, if you outrank someone you have a lot of power over them.
The offended Sergeant decided he would have me removed from the list
and one week later he informed me of his success.
I was
now eligible to get orders to be shipped out. Sure enough, a couple
of weeks later I received new orders. Fifty Airmen received orders
to be shipped out that day, 48 of them to Southeast Asia and 2 to
Omaha Nebraska. I was one of the two. The other one was another guy
from my unit, Joel Barton. I no longer remember what Joel did to
motivate them to take him off the protected list, but we both
realized how lucky we were. We celebrated our good fortune. The
luckiest part was that shortly after I was transferred some of my
co-workers at Beale ended up being sent TDY (a Temporary Duty
assignment) to Cambodia. We would have been among them.
The
name of the base in Nebraska? Offutt, the same as my lawyer's.
Weird... Offutt was the SAC (Strategic Air Command) headquarters
and we were working on secret spy planes that were largely used for
spying on Cuba so we were at least at that time exempt from being
sent off on a TDY assignment to Southeast Asia. It's funny how
things go sometimes, once again I lucked out.
I
received the orders in September with a reporting date in October. I
had a court date for the divorce tentatively set for early November.
I went down to the administration building and explained that I was
in the middle of a divorce and needed to stay here until my court
date, otherwise I would need to come back for the divorce or start
the divorce procedure all over again. However, I did not want to go
back into the pool, I was happy with the assignment and would be
willing to do that if necessary. They let me keep the assignment to
Nebraska and delayed my reporting date until the end of the year.
The supervising Sergeant was not pleased, and of course the delay
meant he was still going to have to have me around another couple of
months.
The
bank found our Toyota at a dealership somewhere in the San Joaquin
Valley. Donna, however, was nowhere to be found. The address and
phone number that were left were fake. The car had been there for
some time and it had a good sized repair bill on it. I retrieved it
and paid the bank. I now had both cars. My lawyer told me he'd try
to get them both for me since my wife had abandoned it, and the way
he was putting it, also abandoned me. I wasn't thrilled that he was
going to say Donna abandoned me in court but he assured me it was
necessary. He thought we had a decent chance of getting both cars
since I was in the military, Donna had left me while I was overseas,
and it appeared she was not going to be present in court. According
to him, all points in my favor.
In
court my lawyer had instructed me to answer every question “yes”
and to not say anything else. In fact, he told me I didn't even have
to listen to the questions, just make sure to say just “yes”. So
I was up on the stand and saying yes and yes and yes. I was getting
tired of just saying “yes” so for one of the question I ad-libbed
“yes, that's my understanding”. Well Mr Offutt shot me a look
like I just screwed up the whole thing so I went back to strictly
“yes” answers.
The
Judge granted the divorce and gave me both cars with the stipulation
that I sell one of them for no more than the amount I owed on it.
Just
like that I was 22 and divorced.
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