Summer of '69: Darlene McPhee Simeone

Darlene McPhee Simeone, 61, school social worker, Garden City

I was a college student engaged to a Navy pilot. He was 25. I was 22. He was deployed at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. He left for Vietnam in the beginning of August.

I went out to see him at the end of July. It was July 28, and I flew student standby. I think I paid $28, and it was American Airlines. They served everything on china, we had regular silverware. I had filet mignon. It was a great flight, it was perfect, and he was there to pick me up when I got off the plane in San Diego.

We had gone walking on the beach, and he said, 'We'll get married if I come back.' " That was kind of how he asked me. He said, 'I don't want to leave you a widow. So we'll get married when I come back from the tour, if I come back.' And of course I never believed he wouldn't come back.

He kissed me goodbye at the airport and said, 'I'll be seeing you,' and walked away. And that was the last time I ever saw him.

I got on the plane, and I started thinking about what if I never see him again. But then I had gotten letters from him, and he talked about the ring that he had ordered for me. He was going to bring it back when he came back from his tour of duty. And we talked a little bit about what the wedding would be like. I guess I just didn't really understand the seriousness of what was going on in the country at the time. He was reported missing Dec. 16, 1969, after coming back from a mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail and was never found.

I don't think I ever got over it. There was no closure. If you don't see something, you don't believe it really happened. So it did affect me. That's how I remember the summer of 1969.-