Rough Draft Student #3
March 6, 1941
It’s a rainy Monday morning. I laid in bed looking out the window wondering what he was doing at this exact moment. I knew he was doing the right thing, serving our country, but I couldn’t help think about the day I would find out something happened to him and his family would receive the gold star- the one that tells everyone you have a loved one that died at war.
I wasn’t ready for that day at all. I had to be strong though, not just for me but for him because he needed me. He needed me more than ever right now, and he has to know I’m not going anywhere, that I’ll always be here waiting for him to come.
We write each other from time to time. I know it’s hard for him so I don’t worry about it too much. He’s just in the training now but soon he’ll be off to the real thing. Training isn’t all that safe either; I know that several people have lost their life already testing out the air craft and what not.
It sucks thinking he could lose his life training, but I just keep telling myself he won’t. His name’s Kyle by the way, the guy I keep talking about. We met in grade school and have been best friends since. We knew when we were younger we were going to fall in love, and that’s pretty much what we did. He told me a couple months ago he was going to enlist, it’s not like the men have a choice anyways.
I tried to stay strong, but I think he knew how much I didn’t want him to leave. We’re from Tampa, right by the bay. I thought he would stay here for training, but he was told he was getting sent to Tallahassee instead, the Dale Mabry Field to be exact.
My dad is actually a general there too. I found some letters he’s wrote to my mom talking about the field. It was supposedly named after a Tallahassee native and World War 1 pilot captain Dale Mabry, son of Florida Supreme Justice Milton Mabry, who passed away during World War 1. He actually has a street named after him here in Tampa too, not sure where that is though.
I try to stay away from anything that reminds me of war, or where Kyle is. It’s pretty cool that the army base act’s as a home though. Kyle told me that there’s a grocery store, a barber shop, a few restaurants and some bars the guys hang out at. He wants me to come up there and be a nurse or work in one of the kitchens, but I kind of brushed off that idea.
As much as I miss him, nursing isn’t necessarily my thing.
There’s a lot going on in the world right now. I mean I know there’s going to be another war because Kyle wouldn’t be training if there wasn’t going to be one. Apparently Germany wasn’t happy with the treaty that was signed to end WW1 because the other countries put all the blame on them, and now they pretty much want revenge. Obviously we don’t think the US needs to go war, but that’s a lot easier said than done.
Mmm I can smell my mom’s cooking, moving out is seriously going to have its down falls when the time comes. Time to eat! I’ll write later–Jessie
5 years later
August 1945
Wow I haven’t wrote in one of these in a very long time. It’s nice to get back into writing. A lot has happened since I wrote about Kyle and how he was at training. Well, the Dale Mabry Field is no longer used as an army base for training soldiers, after the war ended last year it became abandoned when the government opened a new site for the aircraft, which turned into an airport. Soon after the G.I Bill was passed offering all war veterans a chance to get an education.
The University in Gainesville reached an all-time high of enrollment applications, so the Florida State University for Women (where I go) bought the Dale Mabry Field and made it a second campus for the veterans.
Unfortunately Kyle didn’t make it through the war.
I didn’t want to know details, but apparently a bomb had gone off where he was at that time.
I miss him, there’s not a day that goes by where I don’t, but I had to move on with my life and that’s what I did.
It’s awesome the Florida State University for Women made the Dale Mabry Field a campus, I go there all the time and just walk around.
Just thinking that I’m walking where Kyle walked makes me feel good, complete almost. I know at those moments he’s next to me; the air gets a little heavier and I feel a presence.
Although I don’t share that with anyone, I’m sure my friends would think I’m crazy, but I know it’s true. I know he’s really always next to me. Well, until I decide I need to write again -Jess.
Comments: Poor Kyle had to die? So sad. Need to do more research so you can make Kyle based on a real soldier with a real "unit" who would have been near a historically real/ specific "bomb" ...
