Deb and I were raised in a modest middle class home in a small southern town. Deb is a couple of years older than I am and after graduating from high school she left to go to college at a university out of town a couple of hours drive away. The two of us had always been very close to one another. Before we were teenagers, many nights I would crawl into bed with Deb and we would sleep together.
Deb being the older, she would wrap her arms around me, kissing my neck and my cheek, much to my chagrin as a little preteen age boy. She would hold me, her little Brother, which I really liked until we both drifted off to sleep. Many mornings our Mom would find us asleep in Deb's bed and she always thought how cute we looked in bed asleep with one another cuddled in each other's arms.
I loved my big sister very much because she always treated me so very lovingly and she, too, loved me just as much as I loved her. Deb always loved how I as a child looked up to her and how I always wanted to be with her whenever I could. She had always tried to protect her little brother and I was always looking out for my older sister, too, as best I could even when I was smaller than she. As a result, we grew up being very close to one another which lasted all of our lives through our elementary and high school days and even through and beyond our college days, as well.
As we each grew older naturally I surpassed my big sister in both size and physical strength and I subsequently became her protector as our roles reversed. Deb had many friends in high school and she was a very popular girl, too. Anyone in our school who knew us knew not to mistreat Deb as they knew that they would have to answer to me. As a teenager I began to realize just how pretty, shapely and sexy she was and that included her 38C breasts. I did not want anyone taking advantage of her and I was not going to allow anyone to take advantage of her if I could help it. That brought us even closer together as we always tried to do as many things together as we could and to protect each other.
When Deb left for college after graduating from high school, I had an empty feeling and missed her quite a lot but, I resigned myself to making the best of the situation. After I graduated from high school I also went to the same university as Deb had and I was really very happy to be near Deb again and to see her again on as frequent a basis as much as I could.
During my first year at the university our dad split with our Mom. He decided to walk out on his wife of nearly 25 years and the rest of his family, that is, Deb and me. Our dad told Mom, "Since both of the kids are out of high school, out of the house and they are in the university there is really no reason for me to remain around any longer." Needless to say our Mom was devastated and Deb and I thought that she never really got over it. We both thought that our Mom showed us both even more love after our Dad left her. Deb and I strongly believed that the sorrow and sadness that our Dad left in our beloved Mom's heart, she carried with her the rest of her life and she took it to her grave many years later.
During the mid '60s it was pretty unusual for a man to just walk out on his family and not even look back. When our dad left our house and our family we figured that he had left the area and we never heard from him and never heard anything about him again. That mystified both Deb and me as to why our dad could do such a thing. Mom never offered either one of us a possible explanation of why he did it, either. We often wondered if he had found some other woman to split the area with. We both thought that maybe our Dad did not really love our Mom or us in the first place. Regardless of why he left, it didn't make a damn, he was gone and that was that and there really wasn't anything that either one of us could do about it. And Mom certainly couldn't do anything about it either.
At the end of my second year in college Deb had completed the requirements for her degree and she was about to graduate from the university. Before graduation Deb received a job offer from a company in Kansas City which she had accepted. I knew that I was going to really miss Deb again in the same way I had missed her after she had graduated from high school and she had gone to attend the university. I knew that empty, lonely feeling would be returning when she told me that she had accepted the job offer in Kansas City and she would be moving there to take the job soon after her graduation.
With my good grades, my two years of college and being in great physical condition I knew that I would be a good candidate to join the US Military. I had always thought a lot of and had a lot of respect for the U.S. Marines. Then I decided to go talk to the local Marine recruiter about joining the Corp and talk to them about what training I could obtain while I was in the Corp.
I made the decision to join the marines at the end of my second year at the university and I was to be sent to boot camp for training. Upon my arrival at boot camp I was to be inducted into the marines as a recruit. I had reasoned that if I was in the Marines I would be very busy there and I would not have the time to be miserable about missing Deb.
After Deb's college graduation ceremony I told my Mom and Deb that I had joined the US Marines and would be leaving for boot camp the first of the week following Deb's graduation. After Deb's graduation I left for boot camp with a group of other recruits as I had previously been scheduled to do.
I did well in boot camp and met another recruit by the name of Jerry with whom I became good friends. Jerry was a good natured, good looking fellow resembling me in looks and in many other ways and he did well in boot camp, too. Jerry was from a little town about fifty miles from my and Deb's home town and Jerry and I both knew of each other's home town and its location in our home state.
When we finished boot camp Jerry and I were granted leave and we traveled to our homes but, he stopped off with me in my home town. When we got to my home town I introduced Jerry to my Mom and to Deb. Deb had come home to see Mom and visit with me before I had to return to my unit for our first deployment after our leave. Jerry and Deb got along well and she later told me, "Don, I think that Jerry is a really cute guy and I could really go for him." She further told me, "Jerry reminds me very much of you, Don, and I guess that is why I like him so much."
After his short visit, Jerry left and traveled on to his home town where he spent the rest of his leave visiting with his family. Later, when we had returned to our unit Jerry told me, "Don I think that Deb is a really good looking, shapely and a very nice girl. I really like her and I want to see her again on our next leave if I can, man."
At the end of our leave Jerry and I returned to our unit and we were deployed with the rest of our unit to Iraq for our first tour of duty. We saw lots of combat action in Iraq against al-Qaeda and a couple of the guys in our unit did not make it back home. Jerry and I both came back home safely after our first deployment. Then we both were given leave to return home to visit with our families. My Mom had let Deb know that I was on my way home for a visit on my return to the US stateside from Iraq. Deb took some vacation from her work and traveled to our Mom's home to visit with our Mom and me hoping to see Jerry there again, too.
This time I brought Jerry home with me again and I wanted to visit with my Mom and Deb as Jerry was hoping to see Deb again, too. Jerry and Deb continued to get along very well with one another and it soon became a romantic relationship. A couple of days later Jerry returned to his home town to visit with his family before the end of his leave.
At the end of our leave, Jerry and I were deployed to Iraq again for our second tour of duty. Jerry told me, "I want to marry Deb and I'm going to ask her to marry me on our next leave, Don."
