European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 8, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Sunday March b. 1987 the stars and stripes Page 9 it took years but her dream came True stuff writer we1nheim, Germany Rita an Drew hat a big summer coming up her oldest daughter is getting married she s taking a trip to he states and puerto Rico ,. And Shell be meeting her hither Tor he first time. The meeting will fulfil a dream that she has chased for 30 years. My Mother had always shown me his picture Andrew explains but she told me it was Tny Uncle in the slates when 1 was 10, she decided i deserved in know and could handle the truth her Mother told her Abou being in in 1945, living across the Street from Cole Man Barracks in Mannheim. She and her friends would visit a military club there where she met a Young puerto Riean sol Dier who played a guitar. They overcame the language Tamer and Tel in love. When he found out that she was pregnant he asked her o marry him but As he Mother explained it to Andrew she declined the marriage proposal for several reasons. " for one your Grandfather would not allow it and besides i did t really want logo so far away to a differ ent country she said her Mother told not the army shipped her father to Korea before she was bom. Three year Slater her Mother married the Man thai became As far As Andrew knew her father after learning about her biological father she tried to Contact him by writ ing to the address on several idlers he had sent to her Mother after he left Ger Many. But the address on her father idlers was 10 years old and Andrew s letters came Back stamped address she wrote More letters but with the same results. By 1963 she had almost Given up Hope when she married a Soldier who ironically was stationed at cold than Barracks. I used to have dreams about him her father she said. I would dream that 1 would walk out into the Street or into an elevator and this Man would come up and say i i m your dad " it look 22 years but her dream came True although the Way it happened was very different from the Way she had imagined. In 1983, Andrew and her husband now with three children of their own were in Savannah i. Her husband washout of the service now teaching in a nearby town and they would be return ing to Germany to live. Andrew had to give her dream one last shot. My husband suggested that we ask the veterans administration for help so we called the office in Savannah Andrew recalls. They had no Luck there and hey were referred to another of fice. It referred them to the a office i Chicago. Luckily her father s service number was on one of the litters and a few minutes after it was fed into the com Puter Andrew heard yes there is this Rita Andrew sorts through the letters and pictures she has received from her father. Person in san Juan puerto As Andrew recall thai moment the moment she had waited nearly 30 year for she remembers that All she could say or think was god he really is alive but even then in was t a simple matter of writing or calling him be cause the privacy act prevented the a office from giving out his address or phone number. All officials could do was suggest that she write a letter to hint and Send it with another letter to the privacy act office explaining Why she wanted 10 find this person. If they fell that my request was legitimate they said that they would for Ward the letter on to him she said and then if he wanted to gel hold of me he would. Eventually she began to have doubts then As to whether her father would really want to see her whether he would really car about her after All these years. But she had waited too Long had gone through too much to Back Down. So she wrote one More letter. Actually 1 had my husband write the first letter Andrew said. I was too nervous and my spoiling in English was t thai the privacy Aci office did Forward Andrew s letter to puerto Rico her father received it july 23, and immediately called Andrew s Mother in Law i Savannah where the idler indicated they would be staying until the begin Ning of August when they had to returned Germany. But Andrew s dreams of speaking to her father would have to remain unfulfilled a while longer because her Hus band s new leaching Job no the dodi3s High school in Mai Beim had caused them to return 10 Germany earlier than they had planned. Andrew had missed her father s phone Call by three Days. Glumly after heir return to Ger Many Andrew received a letter from her mail her in late saying hat her father had called and that he would be writing to her in Germany Andrew was overjoyed. I cried for the first few Days but they were Happy tears. I could t believe it was so Happy. I wanted to Ell the wailing for the letter was hard but finally it came on Andrew s anniversary. Aug. 2. And All of Andrew s doubts were dispelled he called me his dear daughter Rita " she proudly recalls. He said hews really surprised at first and he Andrew had other surprises coming. Suddenly she had two More Brothers and seven More Sisters. I have a brother Here that i grew up with but 1 always wanted Sisters. I did t realize that i was going to have seven of them though Andrew said laughing. Andrew and her father have been corresponding regularly now for about 18 months. He writes in broken English and i think sometimes some of inc things i ask him he does t really understand he does t know the words maybe Andrew said. There Ore a lot of questions i would like to ask like did you Ever try to find me but it s hard be cause i Don t really know him Andrew s Mother is very Happy about her finding him my Mother never talked bad about him Andrew said. She was very much in love with him and from the letters and from the Way she talked about him it really seems like they were Happy together for whatever time they had. I Don i feel like it was just one of those Little affairs and then it was Over with. He was her first big love and i am Here because of it and she never Felt that he betrayed her or anything like her Stepfather died 15 years ago but Andrew is sure that he would have been very Happy for me also especially since he never knew his family Hissom or his dad. He was raised by a Foster Andrew is planning a trip to puerto Rico this summer hoping to spend at least three weeks getting to know her father and his family. As she talks of the trip and of finally fulfilling her lifetime dream her hands Drift to the creased and obviously much read and reread letters and to the photographs on the table before her touch ing them sorting through them As if to assure herself that they Are real thai this in l just another dream. She s understandably apprehensive about finally meeting him face to face but at she puts it the dream in t com plete until i be hugged and kissed plan to mobilize medical personnel sought by Chuck Vinch Washington Bundru Washington the selective service will Send a legislative proposal to Congress within a year thai would allow a system for drafting medical personnel in the Early Days following a military mobilization. In wartime our nation must possess the capacity to provide both additional combat troops and the medical person Nel to treat them Wilfred Beci acting director of the selective service system testified at a congressional hearing last month Bui As the Taw now stands selective service lacks the authority to even plan for the Call up of needed health care personnel he said. We could substantially shorten the delivery times of health care personnel after Mobili action if we were Given authority and funding to design and develop a system for the Posi mobilization registration of those with essential medi Cal the selective sen ice proposal Grant the authority to Register or in duct medical personnel but it would enable us to prepare for such an eventuality in Lime of National emergency excl said. A spokesman for the selective service stressed that there arc no plans for the peacetime registration of Medici Al professionals. That s not a requirement he said. Only males aged 18 to 26 arc currently required to Register. All we re asking is 10 be allowed to write the computer software programs that would run a registration and draft of medical personnel during a mobilization to said with the software in place the first medical personnel drafted would be available in less than two months after mobilization compared 10 seven or eight months without the data base i he spokesman said. The system would Cost about is Mil lion and Lake about in months to draw up. What we re saying is thai As Long As we have the luxury of Lime we should go ahead and do this now he said
