The Corpsman’s Wife
Getting away from her abusive, soon-to-be-ex-husband, Susi Jury accepts the invitation of her lifelong best friend, Tracy, to attend the Navy Boot Camp graduation of her younger brother at Naval Station 
Great Lakes near Chicago. At a celebration for the graduates at a local bar, she accidentally spills red wine on a young, handsome sailor–Lance Wells. Love at first sight? Absolutely.
The next morning, as they lay in bed confessing their love for one another, she realizes that her life has just changed forever–and so far, for the better. Lance returns to the base and Susi to her home in Arizona. Soon comes the first hurdle in their relationship: Susi is pregnant.
What follows is a romance for the ages that spans more than twenty years. From a long distance courtship, followed by the birth of a daughter, then through marriage, overseas deployment, loss, loneliness, and eventually coming to terms with the effect that PTSD can have on a relationship.
As the years pass, Susi witnesses how Lance’s Navy experience as a Fleet Marine Force Corpsman changes him. A short deployment during Desert Storm, a horrific plane crash on Guam, the horrors of 9/11, and the Battle of Fallujah–all seem to drain the spirit out of a once vibrant and devoted husband, leading to an act of desperation that finds Susi in a situation she could never have imagined.
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Book Excerpt
Pages 138-140, Chapter 11, Guam – I’m always here for you
“Nae agineun eodi issni?” she whispered. Lance looked at Specks, waiting for the translation. “She wants to know where her baby is.” They had found the charred bodies of two infants, and Lance hoped that neither of them was hers. He told her that they would find her baby and that they needed to get her to the hospital.
Seventeen of the survivors were taken to the naval hospital and twelve to Guam Memorial, most of them treated for second- or third-degree burns. Witnesses would later say that they saw a bright burst of light, but no one was sure where it came from. No one could understand how anyone had survived given the breakup of the fuselage and the fires.
The woman was processed through triage and placed on a helicopter, holding onto Lance’s hand the whole time. The senior chief had in- structed Lance to go with her. She was injured beyond help. At the hospital they cleaned her up as much as possible, and another doctor tended to her only to confirm what they all knew. She would not survive…no one was left in the assigned emergency room but the nameless woman wanting her baby and Lance. He wondered how she was still alive; nothing in her was still functioning properly. He stood, fighting tears, and gently wiped away the black, bloodied hair that had fallen into her face, her dark brown eyes barely hanging on to life, her skin looked so pale. She smiled, and her lips moved. Lance bent over with his ear as close to her mouth as he could.
“Did you find my baby?” Her English was very poor, but he managed to make out what she said in a faint whisper. He knew she only had minutes left. Why should he tell her the truth? At this point the truth would do more harm and cause more agony in her final moments. “Yes, we found her,” he lied. He realized he’d made a mistake not knowing if the baby was a boy or a girl. He was hoping she didn’t understand him that well. “The baby is doing very well. When you feel better, we can bring it in for you to hold.” He knew he went against policy, but he did what he felt right. She smiled and squeezed his hand. He could see that she wanted to say something else and he leaned in again.
“I will sleep a little, then I see her?” He felt relieved that his hunch about the baby girl was correct. Tears welled up in his eyes and he hoped she wouldn’t see. The last infant body they had found was a girl about eight months old. “Of course,” he lied again, and she responded with the hand squeeze.
The door opened. “We’re here to take her to the morgue!” one of the two guys standing in the door announced. Lance glared at them. “Get out, just get out.” They backed up and the door swung shut behind them.
“Damn, that guy’s got issues,” he heard one of them say. Had this been any other time, he would have gone after them to set them straight, but not now. He didn’t care about their comment. He turned his attention back to the young woman.
He must have stood there for what felt like an hour or more before her heart rate slowly decreased and the inevitable tone of the monitor announced her death.
For a moment Lance stared at the machine, the sound piercing the silence. He reached over to turn it off. Time seemed to stand still when he slowly sank back into the chair he had sat on. He noticed all the bloody rags on the grey floor, how cold the room was, and some small part of him wished he hadn’t chosen FMF. He thought of Susi and Sammi, and in a matter of seconds the whole night came crashing down on him. He had seen horrible things in the desert during his first two deployments but nothing like this. He fought with all he had in him but could not hold back the tears. A tremendous wave of guilt swept over him. He should have been able to save her, he should have stayed at the site, he should have done more. He looked at the small hand in his and repeated over and over how sorry he was.
He had no idea how long he had been sitting there when he felt someone taking the dead woman’s hand out of his.
“Your wife is out in the lobby, why don’t you let us take over?” suggested one of the other corpsmen, who had come in to prepare the body for transfer to the morgue.
The rain and blood-drenched uniform had dried along with all the mud on his boots. He could not take his eyes off the woman and walked out of the room backwards. It was not until he was in the hall and the doors had closed that reality made its way back to him. His shift had ended hours ago, and he knew by now Susi would have heard about the crash and been worried.
About the Author, Sabine Chennault
Sabine Chennault (1961), born in Ewersbach, Germany, came to America in 1981. She worked as a waitress and later as an Optician before becoming the office manager and later a licensed Optician. From 2002 until 2003 she attended Scottsdale Culinary Institute where she graduated with honors; several years later she obtained a Bachelors’s degree in English literature and went on to pursue her MA in family counseling. She quit school to dedicate herself full time to writing. She has two children from her first marriage, a daughter with her husband and best friend of thirty (and counting) years, as well as 4 grandchildren. She lives with her husband Lance and their two Huskies in Silverdale, Washington.
