Young Wives-Overseas
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Brenda had dispelled the stories she'd heard from girls she worked with at the military club at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. One girl had talked about a friend who'd spent two years with her husband in Germany. When she returned to America, she had been placed in a mental institution. Another girl told a harrowing tale of a young soldier who severed the head of his wife's lover, and carried it to her hospital bedside where she was waiting to give birth. Whether or not these stories were true, they had aroused some apprehension in Brenda. She viewed them as sad and scary. But the story she'd read in the newspaper about the rising wave of spouse abuse in the military was still in her thoughts. It was so uncharacteristic of the military, from her point of view, that she was having problems with its plausibility. Shaking her head to chase away memories of the gossip she had heard, Brenda glanced at the television screen and the highlighted map indicating the route of travel. The red arrows pinpointed the plane being almost across the Atlantic Ocean, and heading for the first land-based European country, "The Netherlands." Breathing a sigh of relief that she had safely traversed the mighty expanse of water, Brenda struggled to shake the remaining cobwebs of negative memory, and convince herself that whatever was happening in Germany, she would soon find out. Closing her eyes, she drifted into sleep.
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About the Book
Year after year hundreds of young American wives leave cities and towns across the United States to join their military husbands in some foreign country. Armed only with their youth and innocence, most are unaware of the hardship, distress, frustrations, and sometimes life-threatening incidents that can occur while living in a foreign country. Consider the following headlines that appeared in an overseas newspaper: --Young military wife disappears along with her two sons from her military quarters. --Young soldier decapitates wife’s lover, then takes the head to wife’s hospital bedside where she’s waiting to give birth. --Young soldier rapes and kills estranged wife in front of their son. Brenda, Sarah, and Maxine join their military husband at a remote military base in Germany. Their journey, which initially promised happiness, excitement, and adventure, quickly turns dark and sinister upon their arrival. Deplorable living conditions, lack of friends, and moral support from the military, dissipates the magical dreams they had before leaving the United States. Confronted with a foreign and military culture that conflicts with their American lifestyle, they are soon deeply immersed in an undertow of drugs, sex, and violence. Only by bonding together in a unique personal relationship, are they able to survive and return to America scarred, yet determined to rebuild their lives
About the Author
S.L. Williams is an American writer living in Germany. Born in Georgia, he migrated to New York City during early manhood, where he began writing and publishing stories for various national magazines. He has also written, produced, and directed dramatic productions and musicals for community theaters in New York and Europe. After his induction into the army, Mr. Williams was assigned to Germany. After leaving the military, he returned to Germany to work for the military as a civilian. He has personally witnessed some of the situations and conditions he writes about in this book. Mr. Williams is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a bachelor and master’s degree in business administration.