I had been reassigned to Page Field, Ft.
Meyers, Fla. The day I arrived while waiting for a bus to take me out to
the field, this perky little brunette walked in sat across the room. She
was something else, looked so neat and clean, just like the girl next door was
supposed to look. She got on the Page bus but was too far ahead to get
near. A couple weeks later I was in town for a movie, got back to the bus
station and there she was a gain. This time I got the seat next to
her. She was a radio operator going out to pull the graveyard shift.
Name was Evelyn Johnson, but called Jonnie from the Johnson bit.
Walked her to the radio shack and made a date for a movie - the rest is 65 years
of history.
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1. - One of the guys in the Photo Section
did this "glamour?" shot of me.
2. - My Jonnie at work on the teletype
machine.
3. - Here she handles the radio. As
she looks back she thinks of the responsibility her job carried, at the time it
didn't bother her.
4. - The Photo Section tried to make a pet
out of a turtle that wandered in.
5. - My friend Carol Hebble from Baltimore
had spent 2-1/2 years in Karachi, India. We were planning on going to Pht.
Sch. in N.Y.C. when we got out. He did go to NYC with me, but chickened
out at the last minute. Turned around and went back to Balto., I stayed
and went to school.
6. - My own private pin-up girl, she was
(and still is, just 65 years older) a beauty.
7-8. - That summer we spent all of our off
duty hours together. From day one we hit it off real good. Along
about July I decided I wanted her to be My Jonnie. Asked her to marry me,
and she accepted.
9-10. - Aug. 15, '45 VJ Day we had a
victory parade in the streets of Fort Meyers.
11. - I color a portrait of
Jonnie that I had taken.
12. - Here we have the Photo Section guys
at the PX having a "cold one" -- make that several "cold ones".
13. - Page was just starting to get
returnees, it was manned by a bunch of USO Commandos. This photo
represents 13 years of overseas duty.
14. - Page was a P-51 training base, the
instructors were all combat veterans. Here some of them received belated
medals for "above & beyond".
15. - Another shot of MY Pin Up
girl.
16. - That skinny guy is what was left of
180lb guy after two bouts of Dengue Fever in the Pacific.
17. - More off duty time spent
together.
18-19. - These were taken in Jaxonville
after our wedding Dec. 10, '45
20. - We had a weekend off and went to
Miami, this was taken at a nite club there. I think it was on the bus back
across the Tamiami Trail to Ft. M. that I popped the question.
21. - I spent an awful lot of graveyard
shifts with her at the Radio Shack on the field.
22. - Another VJ Day parade
shot.
