“Any soldier” letter leads to “happily ever after”

CJTF7 ^ | Dec. 27, 2003

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

CJTF-7 Public Affairs
BAGHDAD, Iraq
Release #031227c

“Any soldier” letter leads to “happily ever after”

BAGHDAD, Iraq – It was late November of 1990 and the build-up of troops, equipment and supplies for the first Persian Gulf War had begun. Capt. Mark Olinger, a logistics officer, was serving with the 528th Support Battalion, U.S. Army Special Operations Task Force, at the King Fahd International Airport in eastern Saudi Arabia.

During his time in Desert Storm, Olinger often visited Saudi Arabia’s King Khalid Military City. During one visit for a planning conference, Olinger happened to grab a letter out of a stack of “Any Soldier Mail.”

“I grabbed it because I liked the handwriting,” said Olinger, now a lieutenant colonel serving in Iraq as the 1st Armored Division’s logistics officer (G4). “And it was different; it was addressed with purple ink.” The letter was from Sandy Martin, a middle school choir teacher from Quilan, Texas. Little did Olinger know that this particular letter would change the rest of his life.

“My dad was in the Army and my mom’s dad was in the Army,” said Sandy. “It was just our patriotic duty to be supportive (of the troops).”  Olinger called it a “standard, patriotic” letter and said he wrote back a few days later with “the normal response: thank you for your support.” Within the next few weeks, Olinger had received another letter from Sandy and the two continued to correspond throughout the rest of the deployment.

“Her letters were nice and upbeat,” said Olinger. “But there wasn’t really a special connection.” However, when Olinger redeployed to Fort Bragg, N.C., in March 1991, Sandy extended an invitation for Olinger to visit her in Texas.

“Something intrigued me, probably something in one of her letters,” said Olinger, who took her up on the offer to visit. “I was excited to meet him,” said Sandy. “But not because there had ever been anything romantic in our letters. We were a little too mature for that.”

“I was looking forward to seeing her,” said Olinger. “I even sent her flowers at school.” The two met in early May of 1991. Olinger, on block leave, drove from North Carolina to Texas to see Sandy before flying to his home state of California.

“It was love at first sight, however silly that sounds,” said Sandy. “It was just a chemical reaction. It struck me that I was just so comfortable to be around him from the start, and knowing already from our letters that we shared so many of the same beliefs and priorities in life made everything so easy.”
“Right away we clicked,” added Olinger. The two spent several days together, dining at restaurants, visiting the Dallas fairgrounds and meeting Sandy’s parents.

“The days were very fun and very relaxing,” said Olinger. “They were good times.” Eventually, Olinger headed to California, but the two kept in touch by telephone while he was home on leave.

“I couldn’t eat a thing the whole two weeks he was gone,” said Sandy.
When Olinger returned to Sandy’s house he proposed. “I felt like she was the one,” he said.

Sandy accepted the proposal and six months later they were married. The Olingers celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary this December.

“During Desert Storm I wrote 12 letters and ended up with six pen pals and one husband,” joked Sandy.

“We’d barely known each other a year and most of that time together was spent apart, but I have no regrets,” said Olinger. “The two best things I’ve done in my life are join the Army and marry Sandy.”

[SAMWolf]

What a great story, thanks RC.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

During his time in Desert Storm...Olinger happened to grab a letter out of a stack of “Any Soldier Mail.”

“I grabbed it because I liked the handwriting,” said Olinger, now a lieutenant colonel serving in Iraq as the 1st Armored Division’s logistics officer...

“Right away we clicked,” added Olinger. The two spent several days together, dining at restaurants, visiting the Dallas fairgrounds and meeting Sandy’s parents....kept in touch by telephone while he was home on leave.

“I couldn’t eat a thing the whole two weeks he was gone,” said Sandy.

When Olinger returned to Sandy’s house he proposed.

The Olingers celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary this December.

“We’d barely known each other a year and most of that time together was spent apart, but I have no regrets,” said Olinger. “The two best things I’ve done in my life are join the Army and marry Sandy.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rare warm and fuzzy article from Combined Joint Task Force 7. (^:

8 "If you know someone who's serving there, write to them; write often; write regularly." ~ ["Adopt" a Soldier ~ please contact me, or tiki.] ~ USS Clueless | Steven Den Beste

[Soaring Feather]

Ohhhhh a wonderful love story. Thanks Rags for posting it.

Sam, thanks for the ping.

[snippy_about_it]

Awwww. So sweet. Gotta believe in fate!

[MEG33]

Romance is grand!

[KantianBurke]

Anyone ever read Schwartzkof's autobiography? In it he remarks that there was a case of a woman who wrote a nice "To Any Soldier" letter and got a ummm...a bit adultish response from a GI who had been in the sun for too long. :> The woman complained so I don't think that episode ended with matrimony.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Shaking my head in wonder at CJTF7, lol. Christmas sentimental spirit ~ or lots of wassail, far from home. I hope it brings them many more pen pals. (^:

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

You're welcome, bentfeather.

Sharing the good stuff is a joy. (^:

[blackie]

Great love story ~ Bump!

[Capriole]

Wow, that's sweet. I didn't know you could write to "any soldier" and have it get there. I know my little boy would love to write to soldiers; he has written several painstaking letters to imaginary soldiers but we never knew we could send them. Does anyone know where to send them to be delivered to any soldier who is interested? We can't offer romance but this kid's letters would warm anyone's heart.

[2Jedismom]

You can't anymore. This was Gulf War 1...now you have to have a name on the envelope.

[VOA]

"I didn't know you could write to "any soldier" and have it get there."

In the good old days (before 9-11) you could do that, but security concerns have ended
that venerable program.
Now you must send letters/packages to a specific service-person and use their military
(usually "APO" or "FPO") address.

See post 3 above; Ragtime Cowgirl and friends can surely get you some specific service-persons
and their military address for you to write to.

And if you still need more addresses, you can find some at this page from my old
hometown newspaper (note that most are not if Iraq and Afghanistan; but I'm sure all
would get a lift from a well-meaning note).
http://www.poncacity.com/spirit/mailing.asp

[Victoria Delsoul]

Bump!

[Lazamataz]

I hate happy endings.

If I cannot find romance, I want everyone else to be miserable too.

The daisy hangs limply from your hand....she loves you not.
Sucks.
But you didn't need a stinking, dead flower to tell you that.
The fact that she tried to staplegun you to your cat
was what we Noo Yawkahs call a "clue".
So you're left with a tattoo that says, "Jenny Forever"
and a bag of hacked up, bloody,
festering bits of flesh that once was your heart.

[2Jedismom]

And the Hobbit Hole has a care package initiative going constantly...you can send money and letters to one of the Hole Dwellers and she sends them on to a platoon along with all sorts of items like mag-lights and pocketknives and every kind of munchie you can imagine. If someone writes back, then your son will had an address to send to!

[VOA]

"And the Hobbit Hole has a care package initiative going constantly..."

I'll bump the thread for that fine reminder!

[SAMWolf]

Try this link

Or this link

[VOA]

thanks for the links...
and bump!

[2Jedismom]

BTTT

"It’s like in the great stories...The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened. But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."