European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 26, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday november 26, 1985 the stars and stripes Page 9 one of go s 550 pen pals becomes Bride so Many special interests Spur philippine Fri wedding i love inc Beach and in just struck me top a theby Mike Novogradac some soldiers married their High school sweethearts before joining the army. Others joined the army then went Back Home to marry their sweetheart. Then there s sgt. R. Stephan Tremain 32, from he co 237th engr in. Tremain joined the army got a divorce got out of the army came Back in the army and then flew All the Way to the Philippines to marry one of his 550 pen pals. Tremain s pen pal turned wife Melba 24, caught his attention with her first letter. It was written on the Back of a report card to let you know i m a real teacher that caught my sense of humor Tremain said. Pen pals write their letters in a form he said. They go hello my name is insert Namei come from a family of insert number children i m insert religious denomination and then they go into the statistics of their land. Melba s letter did t follow the form. I was struck with her originality he said. Tremain knows about writing partners. He has been writing letters since March 984. But it was Early 1983 in the states when he developed a spec he inter est in the Philippines while watching a Tel vision documentary. When i came Back into the army and was sent to Germany i read the pen pal column in the stars and stripes. I was mostly interested in English speaking countries outside of North America and Europe try main said. When Tremain got into the swing of writing his pen pals he got organized. He kept a data Sheet on each person he wrote to keep them separated in his mind. His replies were from Iran Equador Algeria France Argentina and other countries. Only 12 of the 550 letters were from men. Still it was Melba s letters that surfaced above All others. During their last five months of correspondence something happened that can Only be understood by Tremain and Melba. In those last letters so Many Mutual interests had surfaced he said. We had the same likes dislikes and ideals. So much had formed through our letters thai it All look on a romantic Over tone. Tremain decided to take leave to meet Melba. And seven other filipinas in inc Manila area. I had romantic interests with a few he said but i went there with an open mind. If 1 came Back single thai was Melba lives in Agno a town about 50 Miles North of Manila and she teaches English at the Agno National High school. From Manila in was a six hour drive to Alamino by bus and another one hour drive to Agno byte Concy part jeep and part bus left Over from world War ii the ride is so Long because they drive on some of the worst roads in the world Tremain said. On the a Cerney to Agno people asked me where i was going he said. When i told them Agno they just looked at me foreigners never go to Agno. It s a Small town of about 5,000, made up of maybe 20 families who Are All related in some Way or anyway they delivered me right to the front Steps of the High at that Point Tremain entered the school and Fol Lowed a sign that read administration and personnel he went in. Approached a clerk and asked for Melba. They went and got her out of class and the first thing i thought was my she looks much belter in person the school gave her the rest of the Day off. And on our wedding Day the school was closed be cause All the teachers came to the the Day soon came when Tremain asked Melba. Along with her father for her hand in marriage. Melba and i look a walk to the Beach on the South China sea said Tremain. We went to a place called umbrella Rock where inc Ocean Waves hit a Rock on All sides shaping it into an umbrella. It was Beautiful there the Waves the Beach Coconut and Palm Trees question. She said yes and then said i d have to ask her he said. And that s when the family lies come Tremain explained that when a Man marries a Fil Ipina he marries the family and the Cullura too. They re very he said. All members of any family discuss everything with the entire family. To the Tremain explained the difficulty in asking Melba s father for her hand in marriage. He looked at me and asked me if i had already discussed it with Melba he said. I just simply answered with a yes. Then he oriented me with the philippine culture concerning marriage. He said you know Here in the Philippines marriage is permanent he asked me if i was sure that s what i wanted and then said he had no object came the drawn out process of registering to be married. At the Agno City Hall they told me i needed a special certificate from the . Embassy in Manila Tremain said. He then had to take another seven hour ride Back to Manila to spend 40 minutes at the embassy. He up Cal the night with some relatives of Melba s before return ing to Agno. There he registered and had to Wail 10 Days before being married. On the eve of their wedding about 150 guests feasted on two roasted goats in Celebration. The next Day they jammed Inlo Melba s House for inc ceremony which Cost 2 pesos 12 cents. Tremain s new wife arrived in Heilbronn nov. 8 and is making the adjustment to her new life with her husband. We re having a great Lime Tremain said. I m showing her Germany and she s being Well re Melba s reaction to her pen pal marriage fell in love with him and Ihal s . Novogradac in Public again Ioe Clallie with the he Del. U s. Mihi Arv Community Heil Brome Marcos launches citizens defense training plan Manila Philippines up presi Dent Ferdinand Marcos sunday launched a citizen s military training program saying it will form the nation s second line of defense against foreign aggression. In a nationally televised speech before some 125.000 cadets from 152 participating schools in metropolitan Manila the philippine Leader said the program is a weapon which will save our nation without your having to fight any Battle or any our nation must have a second line of defense behind our regular military forces in the fortuitous event of War when indeed All must be mustered and called to the colors whether trained or not Marcos 68, told the cadets Assem bled at Manila s Rizal stadium. Recalling the japanese invasion of the Philippines in world War ii Marcos said filipinos must always be prepared so that no enemy will Ever be tempted to once again invade these sacred shores. And that if they must come they must pay a High some 50 students protesting the pro Gram shouted Marcos Hitler dictator dog As the presidential motorcade swept Inlo the stadium. They were pushed Back by military cadets. The program is contained in a presidential decree known As the National service Law signed by Marcos under his emergency Powers in 1980. In is being implemented for the first time this year. It states that filipinos 10 years of age and Over must Render military and civic services under the supervision of military officials to promote respect and compliance with Law and order. Catholic and private schools have opposed implementation of the program likening it to the youth corps of Hitler Germany and saying in will Lead to the militarization of campuses. It has allowed the military Camel s nose into the larger educational Lent said father Joaquin Bernas head of the Jesuit order in the Philippines. And the Camel Ain t the honorable and respected beast it used to be Ber Nas said. Newspaper reports sunday said at least 20 military personnel visiting the United slates had been listed As dose re ers or absent without leave according to official records released following the defection of three officers to a .-based opposition group. The reports said efforts were being exerted through official channels to secure the return of inc awol who had either attended training courses or went on Holiday but failed to return on comple Tion of their official leaves. Maj. Vicente Carag of the philippine air Force and it. Col. Jaime Gupilan of the army s engineering corps announced thursday in los Angeles their defection to inc movement for a free on oct. 25, col. Alexander Bacalla of the army s psychological warfare Section joined the movement saying he could no longer Wear with Pride the uniform i once so proudly Raul Mang Lapus a former senator and foreign minister who Heads the exile group said he expected More than a dozen other officers to defect to his group because of disaffection in the military. Did Shakespeare write Xci read a love poem London a some British schol ars say they remain sceptical Over an american researcher s claim to have Dis covered an unknown love poem by William Shakespeare in an Oxford Library. The 90-line poem in nine stanzas that was printed in London s sunday times prompted John Wilders a shakespearean specialist of Worcester College. Oxford to a it was so dreadful that at first i just read the Early stanzas and then gave up. Professor David Palmer of Manchester University said i Don t think it adds much to Shakespeare s reputation. It is an overt display of ingenuity but it has poor poetic the poem includes such lines As. In All duty her Beauty blinds me her servant for Ever being set lips met arms twined and did bind my heart s Gary Taylor of Topeka kan., said he found the poem in the bodleian Library written by an unknown scribe in a 1630s anthology of English poetry and attributed to Shakespeare. The volume tied with Pink ribbon was among 5,700 manuscripts bequeathed by Richard Rawlinson a Book collecting Bishop who died in 1755. Taylor 32, said he ran the poem s con tents through a computer to give it every stylistic test and checked the manuscript for possible forgery. Countered Wilders i Don t think computers Are he said the poem is so utterly conventional the rhythm is so Clumsy the rhymes so forced. It s so typical of any number of minor elizabethan Lyric writers of the 1580s or thereabouts that i should t be at All surprised if some elizabethan specialist pops up and says of yes we know that poem but it s by someone else " the poem will be included in the new Oxford Shakespeare to be published next year by the Oxford University press co Edi Ted by Taylor and Stanley Wells a British expert on the Bard of Avon. Wells said he backs Taylor s claim about the poem. Taylor told a reporter this is not a Case like Adolf Hitler s forged diaries. There is no question of this being a forgery and the manuscript is genuine. The onus is on people to prove that it in t John Carey Merlon professor of English literature at Oxford is not convinced be cause of the Quality of the Shakespeare died in 1616. Because his will was Only found in 1747 and his marriage License in 1836, Taylor said he thinks other discoveries could be made because Many 17th-Century anthologies of earlier work Are lying around. London s daily Telegraph after consult ing poetry specialists described the discovered poem As a clumsily handled Elizabe than cliche of a kind found in any number of lyrics designed to be accompanied by a
