Gislinde & David Holdsworth's Story

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A. [1964] Preparation for first unit assignment with the 82nd Airborne Division and move to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.  While still a cadet, Dave had already made three training jumps from 3000 feet with the Skydiving Club at West Point, but the Army did not recognize these as contributing to his necessary jump status for assignment to the 82nd Airborne. [Linde stayed with the Dow’s and got work in a Chinese laundry while Dave was in training followed by their move to Fort Bragg.]

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B. [1965] Dave’s deployment to the Dominican Republic (DOMREP) as part of the US forces in Operation Power Pack. [Linde moves back to Moemlingen then later works as a Red Cross volunteer in the hospital at Fort Bragg caring for the wounded soldiers from the DOMREP operation.]​

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C. [1966] Dave’s time learning the Vietnamese language in Monterey, California at the Defense Language Institute (DLI), with follow-on assignment as a Vietnamese Ranger advisor in Viet Nam, fighting Viet Cong forces.  [Dave’s promotion to captain.  Linde accompanies him to the DLI and returns to stay with the Dows when he departs for Viet Nam. Linde gives birth to their first child (Eileen), goes to Moemlingen to await the end of his tour and then returns to the states to accompany him to their next assignment.]

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D. [1967] Army’s Ranger School (in the “swamp phase”) at Eglin Air Force Base, near Fort Walton Beach, Florida as a senior instructor. [No things that Linde had ever experienced, some very scary, some really enjoyable.]

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E. [1969] Dave’s return to Viet Nam, assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), on the 1st Brigade staff, then as a rifle company commander in the jungle along the Cambodian border, fighting mainly North Vietnamese forces.  Then, finally as an assistant operations officer on the division staff. [Linde back in Moemlingen, not knowing much of what was going on, with at least 2 weeks between letters and no letters when he was in the jungle with his rifle company.]

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F. [1970] The return to the states to attend the Infantry Officer Advanced Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. [Linde and Eileen back to join him, living in on-post military quarters.]

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G. [1971] Dave’s assignment as a student for 2 years at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California to get his master’s degree in Operations Research/Systems Analysis. [The family living in a rented house in Marina, California with back fence along Fort Ord’s boundary. Linde gives birth to their second daughter, Katya.   Linde becomes a US citizen in the week Dave is taking final exams, and they prepare to fly together to Germany, 2 days after he graduates.]

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H. [1973] A 3-year assignment to US Army Europe headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany, designing, administering, and analyzing the results of quarterly personal opinion surveys. [Dave’s promotion to major.  Linde serving as his assistant stairwell coordinator, dealing with the issues and fun arising from among the other five families in the stairwell in Patrick Henry Village.]

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I. [1976] A 1-year assignment as a student in the Command and Staff course at the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. [Linde and daughters accompanying him, living in Navy housing.]

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J. [1877] Qualifying as an Army inspector general (IG) at the IG course presented in Washington, DC with subsequent assignment as the Assistant Inspector General for US Army, Alaska, stationed in Fort Wainwright, Alaska and responsible for everything north of the Alaska Range.  This also involved doing sensitive special investigations involving matters south of the Alaska Range and internal to the headquarters (as an unbiased/external investigator). [Linde dealing with the other wives’ not knowing how to behave around the new IG and dealing with getting the girls safely on their school bus at down to 68 degrees below zero. But otherwise enjoying the ski slope when the ambient temperature was minus 20 degrees or warmer.  Linde does volunteer receptionist work in one of the doctor’s offices in the hospital at Fort Wainwright.]

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K. [1979] Assignment as the Executive Officer of the 1st Battalion, 60th Infantry at Fort Richardson, Alaska.  [Living in government housing and falling in love with the protestant chapel community, helping make and serve meals in the kitchen under the chapel sanctuary, decorating the sanctuary for Christmas, and driving up the adjacent mountain for Easter sunrise services.  Some of her friendships there have remained throughout the rest of her life.  Dave gets promoted to Lieutenant colonel—having the weird situation of two LTCs in the battalion for about a month.]

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L. [1980] Assignment as a branch and then division chief in the Army’s Concepts Analysis Agency (CAA) for 3 years, responsible for simulations of combat (mainly against Soviet and North Korean forces) in all theaters of the world to develop requirements for combat for ammunition by weapon type for US Army forces.  [Linde gets a job working for a doctor in Bethesda, Maryland—26 miles one-way from their home in Chantilly, Virginia—as a receptionist, bookkeeper, records filer, handling insurance claims, preparing patient appointment notes, and making coffee.]

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M. [1983] Assignment in the Pentagon as a branch chief in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, responsible for determination and certification of world-wide combat ammunition requirements for US Army forces (using the periodic force-on-force simulation results from the CAA). [Linde continues work for the doctor in Bethesda, plus periodically drives to the Pentagon in the dark to bring Dave a fresh uniform and a sack lunch when he has to work all night.]

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N. [1985] Assignment as Chief of the newly created Research and Analysis Division (RAD) in the headquarters of the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), Quarry Heights, Republic of Panama.  [Dave’s promotion to colonel.  Linde becomes a master at putting together quick-notice meals for up to 20 officers (usually Chileans and Argentines) who had been fighting against each using the suite of computers in the RAD, hopefully building real friendships rather than remaining real-world politically opponents.   This was generally at short notice and she could not know in advance what would be for sale in the commissary.  She had to adjust her plans on the fly.  She never panicked; just made it happen.]

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O. [1986] Assignment as the Deputy J5 for Policy under the J5 for USSOUTHCOM and leading parts of the Top-Secret planning for the pending potential invasion of Panama to oust Manuel Noriega and render the Panama Defense Forces ineffective. He was also responsible for developing the command’s compartmented (“black”) capabilities planning (Special Technical Operations). [Linde would often not see him for more than 2 hours per day for weeks on end (although he was only a 2-minute walk from the house being sequestered in a sensitive compartmented information facility {SCIF} in the tunnel into the mountain). Linde organized and managed the Latin American Auction to raise scholarship money for college-bound students.  This involved acquiring art work from local artists, precious stones from throughout Central America, and other items donated from merchants in Panama and elsewhere.  She could sweet talk almost anyone out of anything.  She MC’d the event in the officers’ club alongside a professional auctioneer.  She even had high-ranking government officials (US and foreign) attending and bidding at the auction.]

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P. (1988) Assignment to lead the development and running of a Joint Mission Analysis (JMA) process for the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. [Linde got a job working for a doctor in Tampa, this time with several other co-workers, mostly as a receptionist.  But her records review and filing often found her bringing home a large stack of records for review and editing (and the records had to be completed before the next workday).

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Q. (1992) Upon retirement, returned to the home state of Alaska and Dave worked as an adjunct instructor for Chapman University and then as a full-time instructor in the Management Department of Alaska Pacific University (APU) in Anchorage—teaching both graduate and undergraduate students and serving as the thesis advisor for selected graduate students. [Linde got a job in a doctor’s office with one other employee.  Again, receptionist, records management, insurance processing, appointments, coffee-making, and being totally loved by the staff and patients.]

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R. (1997) Responded to a request from Dave’s former Ranger camp commander (now a retired brigadier general) to gain access to Dave’s brains to help his company bid on the contract at USSOCOM for renewal of the JMA contract.  Eventually this turned into Dave and Linde leaving Anchorage and APU, returning to Tampa, to provide contract support (at more the 3 times what he was being paid at APU) to the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) and then USSOCOM.

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S. (2011) Final/final retirement in Tampa, Florida and subsequent movement (2020) to Orange Park, Florida​

[One thing to note throughout this is that Linde was generally unflappable and quickly under control, regardless of the situations she faced.She would cry in sad situations (like the funerals for father, mother, and sisters), but never broke down or lost it.The exception was at the end of Phase R, when she felt forced to call upon her dear friends and some neighbors to help her deal with some severe health situations Dave faced. And she did not how to deal with the complex situation as matters got worse.

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They built a house in the Orange Park Country Club, right next to Katya’s house, and proceeded to start attending the Protestant Chapel at Naval Air Station, Jacksonville.Then out of the blue, the military decided to stop supporting the provision of church services as they were being attended mostly by retirees, and directed the chaplains to provide services only to active-duty personnel.Daughter, Eileen, who had recently moved from Wisconsin to a townhouse in Oak Leaf Plantation tried out the Argyle Church of Christ and recommended it for her parents

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They did, and found a loving atmosphere awaited them. Even though it was not structurally like St. Martins in Moemlingen or the cadet chapel at West Point, the loving atmosphere made it the place to be for them.]

 

 

Additional details by the above duty/assignment phases​

Phase A: After returning from their adventures on the single campsite island in Lake George, New York, Linde and Dave stayed at the Dow’s house outside of Westwood, New Jersey.  He and Bob Dow did some landscaping work for a neighbor who owned a landscaping business. And Linde helped Helena in the house.

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When Dave informed them when he had to leave for Fort Benning Georgia for Airborne (aka “Jump”) School and then Ranger School, the Dow’s would not hear of Linde not staying with them until Dave had to report to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in mid-December of 1964.

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Dave had no knowledge of nor gave permission for what was to follow.

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After he left, the Dow’s (Bob and Helena) decided to take an across-country trip in their Cadillac with Linde and a female friend of theirs—Irene, a multi-lingual lawyer from the Polish consulate, who was also a world-class fencer.  Their plan was that Linde would learn a lot more English on the trip.  But when they got back, everyone was speaking some German.  The only places they could not go near were US military installations (since Irene was, technically, a communist government official).

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Linde felt the need to get a job, to help pay the Dows for at least some of her room and board.  [She was already doing laundry, cleaning the house, cooking meals, and making Warren Dow’s martinis when he got home from work.] So, Helena went with her to check out the “help wanted” sign in a Chinese laundry business next door to the dental office where Helena worked.  Linde was hired immediately to fold and package into boxes the laundered men’s shirts.  This was a lot like the work she had done for years in Aschaffenburg.  In this case, the owner spoke only Chinese, his wife spoke Chinese and English, and the teenage boys who would come in after school and worked on Saturdays were bilingual.  The owner’s wife was heard to chew out the boys if they tried to teach Linde any swear words.  But they loved her and invited her to their home for lunch on Saturdays.

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Bob Dow taught her how to drive (stick shift) using their little Volkswagen Karmann Gia in their large yard behind their swimming pool.  The yard sloped and had small hills and trees throughout, but Linde learned enough to pass her test and get her drivers’ license.

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Upon completion of Dave’s training in Ranger School, they left for Fort Bragg, renting half of a duplex house in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  The neighbors immediately fell in love with her and she with them.  Linde would walk a few blocks to the laundry, often paying for Dave’s stiffly starched uniforms with a pocket full of pennies.

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Even with the extra $110 per month hazardous duty pay, since he was now on jump status, she was pinching pennies.  Dave was amazed how she could produce gourmet-tasting meals using hotdogs and potatoes.

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On New Year’s Day 1965, they were invited (formally attired) to the brigade commander’s home, along with the other officers in the infantry brigade.  When they arrived, the brigade commander (a full colonel) and his wife greeted them at the front door, and the colonel proceeded to give Linde a big kiss on the cheek.  At that point Dave told himself that he definitely wanted to make it to be a full colonel….  Linde showed a penchant for being a naturally born bookkeeper, and assumed the role of managing their finances for the rest of their lives together (a big load off of Dave when he was deployed to various foreign combat situations).

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Phase B. At the end of April, President Johnson ordered the commitment of US forces to stop the civil war that had broken out between the government of the Dominican Republic (DOMREP) and communist rebels who had taken over most of the down-town area of the city and threatened the US embassy.  OPERATION POWER PACK forces included all of the 82nd Airborne Division and two marine battalions (the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines and the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines), as well as a multi-national Latin American brigade.  Some 69 soldiers were killed (including one of Dave’s classmates from West Point) and many more wounded in the operation, with many of the wounded being returned for treatment in the hospital at Fort Bragg.  Linde offered to be a Red Cross volunteer, helping care for the wounded (like going through the wards providing reading materials or snacks).  A couple of months later, Linde went home to Germany, returning to Fort Bragg when Dave returned upon completion of the military operation in the DOMREP, 5 months later.

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Dave went back to normal work in his battalion and Linde restarted her Red Cross volunteering. Dave got promoted to 1st lieutenant and Linde proudly pinned on the insignia of rank during the ceremony.  

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Phase C.  In April of 1966, Dave received orders to proceed to Monterey California, to the Defense Language Institute, for the 12-week Vietnamese language course in preparation for a subsequent assignment to Viet Nam.  Before leaving, they made a quick trip to visit the Dows and discovered shortly thereafter that (surprise, surprise) Linde was going to have a baby.

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The trip across country in a car with no air conditioning and periods of high heat (like in Death Valley) was challenging.  Linde often had to hold up magazines to block the sunlight for them to see while driving west directly into the setting sun.  And, of course, they had to contend with passing truck drivers honking their horns and gawking at the gorgeous blonde sitting next to Dave.

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Language school was very demanding but fun (Dave ended up being an honor-graduate), including numerous parties among the students in his class (and even, occasionally with their Vietnamese instructors).  Everyone got to know and love Linde.

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When the instruction was complete and Dave took off for Viet Nam to be an advisor to the Vietnamese Rangers, Linde and the wife of another of the students drove together back to the east coast. The major thing with which they had to contend was to discover and deal with one of the motel operators spying on them through a hole in the room’s wall.  Linde went back to stay with the Dows until the baby was born, and Dave reported to the Military Assistance Command’s Team 77 at the Trung Hua Vietnamese Ranger base camp, about 9 miles north of the 25th Infantry Division’s base camp at Cu Chi.

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Again, it was 2 weeks between letters between them. And she did not burden Dave with minor issues.  And he didn’t dwell on the sniper fire directed at him that passed between his legs while moving with a Ranger company on line through a flooded rice paddy; or of stepping inches away from and seeing two Chinese communist grenades that had been partially buried and wired together to explode if stepped upon them at the road into the rifle range just outside the Ranger base camp’s mine field.  The Good Lord was clearly watching over him that day. 

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As time got close for Linde to give birth, her mother flew from Germany to the Dow’s house to be with her.

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On the third of January 1967, Dave was promoted to captain at the Ranger camp.  When the ceremony ended, the advisory team chief approached Dave and handed him a Red Cross telegram announcing the birth of his daughter, Eileen.  There was a lot of celebrating in Advisory Team 77 that afternoon (at Dave’s expense).  Fortunately, the Vietnamese Communists (VC) decided not to attack or fire mortar shells at them that afternoon or night.  Again, no radio or phones to talk between them.  But a lot of letters got written.

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Immediately after Eileen’s birth, Bob Dow and a fencer from the West Point team tried to visit Linde.  The hospital staff said they could permit only one of them to see her and that individual had to be related to her.  Then Bob said he was the father and the cadet was her husband.  After the nurses picked themselves off of the floor in laughter, they were both allowed in.

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Shortly thereafter, Linde, Eileen, and Eileen’s new grandmother flew back to Germany, to Moemlingen.

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For Dave, things got worse in mid-March when the VC launched a heavy 82millimeter mortar attack on the Ranger camp. Dave was only wounded in the back by a single piece of shrapnel, but his team sergeant had so much in him he could not be moved to have x-rays made to see where all the shrapnel was.  He died 2 days later in the hospital in Cu Chi.  And there were major losses among the Vietnamese Ranger troops and their families, as well.

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Dave had to be very cautious in what he told Linde concerning this event.

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Phase D. When his Viet Nam tour ended that summer, Dave flew to Germany to pick up his family and make the move to report to the Army Ranger department at Fort Benning, Georgia.  When he got there, he was offered the choice of three locations (all based upon the three basic phases of Ranger School).  Instead of choosing to remain at Fort Benning (for the initial phase), or go to Dahlonega, Georgia (for the mountain phase), he chose the third and final (swamp) phase at Eglin Air Force Base (adjacent to Fort Walton Beach, Florida).  Linde was mentally prepared for any choice, but loved the idea of going to the Florida panhandle and taking Eileen to the beaches.  

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Upon arrival at Eglin AFB, they were assigned to on-base officer housing, surrounded by Air Force families and the occasional families of Army Rangers.  They were in single-story duplexes, formed into 6-family quadrangles with a big common grassy area where the kids played.

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Linde really hit it off with the neighbors and felt totally at ease communicating with all of them in English.

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As a senior instructor, Dave was gone for 2-day segments moving with and evaluating the Ranger students mostly in the swamps, at times in chest-deep water, in the dark, trying to avoid the alligators and poisonous snakes, while closing in on and attacking the “enemy” forces (consisting of rotational active-duty Army units from Fort Benning).

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After evaluating and debriefing the Ranger platoon leader and assistant platoon leader for their performances in the phase, and after being replaced by another instructor, Dave would walk alone out of the swamp and drive the 26 miles home from the Ranger base camp.  He would then have the night to sleep, write his reports, and return to the Ranger camp to link up with another student platoon (that had remained in the swamps with next to no sleep or food).

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Linde knew when to expect him, so met him at the back door.  He knew the drill: she forced him to take off all of the muddy pieces of his jungle fatigues and put them in the washing machine before progressing to the fully filled bathtub.  She would periodically check on him to ensure he had not fallen asleep and drowned.  He did fall asleep multiple times.

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Then, it was “welcome home” time with wife and daughter.

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In the panhandle of Florida, there are periodic hurricanes, with Linde not knowing what Dave’s situation was in the swamps when they hit.  In one case, Dave’s platoon was hit by a lightning strike killing two of the students in a machine gun position, putting another unconscious in the hospital for three days, and giving everyone else, including Dave, the feeling they had stuck their feet into electrical outlets. Their radios did not work and emergency flares went no more than 20 feet before being wiped out in the heavy rain that followed. The training was suspended for the day as all of the 6 student platoons were moved from the field back to the Ranger camp. The word got out at the Air Force base, but without details.   It was only after Dave finally got home that he could tell her what happened.  Linde was concerned through it all in worried discussions with the other wives, but did not freak out.

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Linde’s close friendship with some of the other Ranger instructors and their wives continued throughout her life.  One incident was an event she never forgot, when she visited the quarters of Bob and Muriel Parrish and saw that Bob had acquired a pet monkey.  Linde swore the monkey attacked her as Bob brought it close to her face.  And she got very scared, when visiting the quarters of Lee and Clara Thompson and Lee handed her a gunny sack with a large live rattlesnake inside it.  It was one of the Ranger instructor duties to bag poisonous snakes and bring them back to camp to have their poison drained for serum production.

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Phase E.  When Dave got orders to go back to Viet Nam, Linde made plans to take Eileen and go back to Moemlingen.  She rented an apartment in a small building near the center of the town (with the luxury of a small wood-burning stove and refrigerator) within walking distance of her family home and all of the downtown stores.  Fortunately, the German Mark to US dollar exchange ratio was still very favorable (about 4-to-1), so Linde did not have to worry about her finances.  To Eileen, the absence of modern conveniences we had in the US was no big deal.  She loved being around her cousins, giving Linde a break, when her cousin Hermann and his friend Johnny would swing her between them along the sidewalk or tease her about seeing her panties (which she vehemently denied).  Each time they would take Eileen by the butcher store and get her a slice of Weisswurst.  Again, it was at least 2 weeks for letters between Linde and Dave.

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Phase F.  Eileen was initially picked on by the other children in the military quarters at Fort Benning since she was not speaking English, until Linde told them she was speaking German.  It did not take long before the English language came back to her.

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Phase G.  Linde really hits it off with wives from Dave’s OR course classmates (with one couple living two houses away).  The ladies frequently baby-sat each other’s kids.   Partway through their tour, Linde gave birth to “Daughter number two” (Katya).  As she was lying in the hospital bed, Dave told her he had completed the registration information at the hospital.  She then chided him for spelling her name as “Katya” rather than “Katja.”  Dave thought “Katja” would be a pronunciation problem in school.  But the deed was done. And it’s “Katya” forever after (or “Katch” or “Dah Dats” names picked up from neighbor kids and used by her father to this day).

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Phase H.  Linde established several close/lifetime friendships with the ladies living in the stairwell.  As personnel got reassigned and moved, the list kept getting bigger.  Linde prepared a great party for Dave’s promotion to major, but the event had to be in stages (since the quarters could handle only so many guests at a time). Things were going well for the preparations for the first set of guests when the grill caught on fire.  Dave rushed it out into the stairwell.  Unfortunately, the wax on the stairwell landing also caught fire, adding to the excitement until some wet towels could be brought out to save the day.  Linde, largely unphased, continued as the consummate hostess.

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Phase I.  Linde developed close relationships with her neighbors on the base.  One couple had been with us at the Florida Ranger Camp and had worked for Dave.  The wife was great at making Peking Duck meals (using a bicycle pump to separate the skin from the meat).  The best fun they had was to hold races with the lobsters across the kitchen floor before cooking them.  It was hard to tell which lobster was really the winner. The land-race winner got cooked anyway. One thing that stood out was when two German Shepard puppies were observed chasing Katya around the outside of the house.  At first appearance, it looked like they were just playing, but when they passed again and the look on her face was of terror, one of the neighbors jumped up and saved the day.

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Phase J.  Upon arrival at Fort Wainwright, adjacent to the city of Fairbanks, they were assigned quarters in North Post, next to the post commander, the post chapel, the officers’ club, and to other sets of 12-unit officer quarters.  Their 12-unit building had access to a common basement (like in Heidelberg in Patrick Henry Village), so one did not have to put on winter gear to visit the neighbors. Every unit had a head-bolt heater outlet to keep the car plugged when extreme cold arrived.  In one case, it hit 68 degrees before zero and the battery in their car froze and split after someone who was sharing the outlet at the headquarters building caused the outlet to short out.  JC Penney in Fairbanks made some money that night.  Linde always reminded the girls to hold their breaths until they made it into the school bus.  The connecting steam utilidor at the end of the basement allowed the building’s occupants to get to the post chapel, the officers’ club, the post commander’s quarters and the other sets the of officer quarters without having to be exposed to the weather.  It also offered what was used by some as a four-tenths of a mile jogging track. The on-post ski slope stayed open as long as the ambient temperature was minus 20 degrees or warmer.  In the winter, Linde could get to the slope in just a few minutes (it took more than 30 minutes in the rest of the year), since the engineers would create an ice bridge that even tanks could drive over by boring holes in the ice over the adjacent Cheena River and letting the water bubble up through the holes and form an ever-thicker bridge.  Linde and the girls spent a lot of fun nights on that ski slope.

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Phase K.  Linde got along great with the other wives in the battalion.  On Friday afternoons the battalion commander would declare a training meeting in the officers’ club where, afterwards, the wives joined their husbands for refreshments and a meal.  This really allowed the wives to interact on a regular basis (whether they lived in military quarters or off post.).   Linde and Dave started going to the protestant post chapel and found it to be much to their liking.  The chaplain and his wife became close friend until they died, many years later.

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Linde would help prepare the meals in the kitchen a few minutes before the service ended.  For the first half of their tour at Fort Richardson, they could take left-over turkey or other meals to the Brother Francis Shelter. But towards the end, someone declared that they could no longer accept food not prepared by them.  What a waste, but understandable!

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Linde got to perform her magic again when Dave got promoted to lieutenant colonel, organizing and cooking for members of the battalion who attended.

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Linde also helped Dave take pictures of the congregants and post them with their names in a large book attached to the wall in the entrance to the chapel. The photos were inserted within hinged plexiglass sheets opening like a book, so all of the photos could be seen, simply by turning the pages.   

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Phase L.  Linde really took to her job in the three-person doctor’s office in Bethesda.  Patients really took to her great personality.  She knew them all by name.  What she learned there would stand her in good stead later in life.

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Phase M.  As the girls are really growing, Eileen in high school and Katya getting in junior high, Linde felt comfortable leaving them alone until she got home.  She did not panic when Katya and two of her neighborhood friends decided to have a hair-cutting party. Plus, she accepted Dave’s absence twice a week to take saber lessons and compete in fencing tournaments on weekends.

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Phase N. Eileen was off to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, coming down twice a year when school was on vacation.  In the winter break, she would leave Fairbanks at usually 45 degrees below zero and arrive in Panama at 95 degrees above.  Dave would usually give her 48 hours before taking her out running.  Katya would have been in high school (having been such in Northern Virginia), but the military school system in Panama required the 9th graders to be treated as junior high students.

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One time, while Linde and Katya were enjoying the beach on the Atlantic side, Dave took Eileen (who was in ROTC at the university) to run the military compass course through the Jungle School (the school not being in session).  Dave ran point and looked out for potential bushmasters (the two them being a long way from help if bitten), while Eileen steered them with her compass.  They ended up the on the highway to the school and walked to the beach.  The guard at the entrance to the school was a bit shocked to see two very sweaty individuals emerging from the jungle and walking toward him.  Linde declared both to be crazy.

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Phase O. The Officers’ Wives Cub tried to get Linde to be the Latin American Auction chairperson again for the next year (since they unanimously thought she had done since a fabulous job), but she was pretty much burned out.

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Phase P. Linde got a job in a walk-in clinic in Brandon, FL, principally as a front desk receptionist. She established lifetime friendships with some of her co-workers.

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Phase Q. Again, her friendship with the doctor and two co-workers became everlasting. When they left for the next phase, their daughter, Eileen, took over the job.  The doctor knew Eileen would be just like her mother.

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Phase R. Linde had already greased the skids on purchasing a house in Tampa.  The selling realtor was so impressed, he accepted a modest downpayment and declared she would get the money back if Dave did not get the job.

 

Phase S. The years 2024 and early 2025 were exceptionally difficult for Linde.  Following their attendance at Dave’s 60th class reunion at West Point, she developed a persistent cough.  The family doctor thought she may have pneumonia and prescribed anti-biotics. This went on for months, including chest x-rays at Baptist Clay Hospital in February 2025, before she was referred to a pulmonologist.  Eventually, she was scheduled to have a series of biopsies from a large mass in her left lung.  They had her on a gurney in the hospital, all wired up, when the head nurse came down and declared the doctor refused to do the biopsies without a PET scan to guide him. Linde got unwired and was sent home.

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It was almost 2 weeks before the PET scan could be done due to claimed issues with delivery of the necessary chemicals.  After more than a week, not having received the information about the results, a number of frantic phone calls were made to the pulmonologist’s office (with no response).  Finally, she received a copy of the radiologist’s report, but nothing from the pulmonologist’s office.  The radiologist cited the lung cancer had spread to other organs.  A close oncologist friend looked at the report and confirmed that Linde had only a week to maybe 6 months to live.

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She died, surrounded by Dave, Eileen, Katya, Katya’s husband (Gary), and two of her grandkids (Jordan and Christian), two weeks later, a few minutes before 3AM on 7 May 2025.

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For weeks thereafter, Dave  still received calls from the pulmonologist’s office telling Dave he needs to reschedule Linde’s appointment. Each time, Dave told them she had died….