Veterans Day is near. Honor your hero here

I would like to honor my dad, Elmer "Eddie" Edwards (WWII), his father, Thomas Ed Edwards (WWI), my father-in-law William "Allen" Thomas (WWII), Samuel 'Pink' Allen (American Civil War), my husband's great grandfather. My dad's grandfather Henry Edwards, Canadian - Boer War. Also all those that died on the soil of my homeland, Belgian (esp. Flanders Fields and the Battle of the Bulge)

Send me your hero's name.

Women for Women International

http://www.womenforwomen.org/

Women for Women International supports women in war-torn regions with financial and emotional aid, job-skills training, rights education and small business assistance so they can rebuild their lives.
Today, through November 15th, a wonderful supporter has agreed to match every gift we receive up to a total of $100,000!.
Your matched gift will help Women for Women International build a permanent, supportive presence in the war-torn countries we serve by helping to fund projects like the construction of new Women's Opportunity Centers (WOC).

How I met my wife in merry old England

by Bernard G. Owens

I was a wide eyed stranger to the surroundings when I landed in Glasgow, Scotland on my birthday in 1942. After processing through all the channels I finally ended up on Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters in September of 1992. Spending most of my time getting used to my new surroundings in the next two of three months I decided to stay out a little late on the 15th of December 1942.

Upon returning to the barracks at 9 Audley Street, I was entering the underground, which by the way during the war was completely covered with thick material so the light could not get out for the Germans to have a target. On going in I ran smack dab into this very beautiful English nurse in her crisp uniform and nearly knocked her down and her first expression was “You’re just like the rest of the Yanks; you don’t know where you’re doing”. After apologizing for about five or ten minutes, I invited her to sit down on a bench in a nearby park and let’s talk it over. She agreed and about an hour and half later she had calmed down and I found out that she was a nurse at Mile End Hospital, which was a good distance from where we were. I hailed a cab and agreed to see her back to the hospital. I left her at the gate as the guard wouldn’t let me inside.

After several days of frantic unanswered phone calls to her at the hospital she finally took my call and I invited her out for Fish and Chips. We spent the evening together very delightfully and agreed to meet again at her pleasure. These visits ended with me asking her to become my wife on the 20th of January 1943. Unexpectedly she said yes and we put in our letter to the American authorities for permission. On the 20th of March we received our permission and were married on the 23d.

We rented an apartment at 23 Cambridge St., London, W1 and had an excellent landlady named Mrs. Dash whose husband was killed in the war already. We were very happy there and our son was born on January 12th, 1944. After several assignments in England, France and Germany I had enough points to come home, however through a friend in personnel in Paris, I was able to get a six month extension back in England and process all the paperwork for her to come to the United States. I came home the last week of March 1946 and proceeded to New York to meet my love.

From the manifest she and our son departed Southampton on 18 April 1946 and landed in New York on 27 April 1946. We proceeded to Texas and my new assignment to Carswell AFB, Ft Worth, Texas. We had a wonderful and full military life with assignments to AFROTC duty, Saudi Arabia and Germany. I finally retired in August 1970 and we lived here in San Antonio for over 40 years.

We were married 65 years when she passed away on April 18th, 2008 at the age of 88, which was the exact date she left Southampton 62 years earlier. We had a loving relationship throughout our life together and neither of us regretted the encounter many years before. I am now 93 years old as of the 24th of this month never regret a single day of loving my English nurse.

Dora Owens and son Michael arrived on the USAT Saturnia

British war bride story

It was a cold dawn, that March 8, 1946. The light was just beginning to come up from above the horizon. Most of the ship's passengers had already crowded onto the top deck and were looking at the new day appearing. 
We were in a strange country but somehow to me it didn't seem foreign. I felt that I knew it so well. There was a toothpaste sold then in England in the mid-40's, I believe the manufacturer was Gibb's? I remember fairy castles decorating the tins. To me, the emerging grey skyscrapers of New York were my childhood castles. They were not unknown shapes but familiar objects not to be feared. Perhaps all the movies I had seen about this fabulous country also helped me at that moment. The Statue of Liberty welcomed this cargo of war brides eagerly waiting to be reunited with their soldier husbands.
I had first met my husband on Christmas Eve, 1943. I was a Wren stationed at Portkil on the river Clyde, opposite to Greenock and Gourock, well known Scottish ports. There were only eight of us in our unit, some living in a small house commandeered by the Navy for the duration of the war while the others slept in a Quonset hut across the path. That particular holiday, most of the girls had gone home to celebrate Christmas. I was on duty with another young woman called Ruth. We didn't have much to do because it was Christmas and were delighted to get a phone call from a friend in the village, asking us if we would like to entertain two young American officers who were all alone, not knowing what to do on Christmas Eve. Well, we said, we would try. And that's how I began my romance!

Do you have a war bride story?