THIS VETERANS DAY, I’M HONORING MY MOM AND DAD
BELINDA “LEE” MARLOWE, assistant director, Clinical Nutrition, Food and Nutrition Services, UF Health Shands
My parents, Herbert and Emma Lee Marlowe, both served in the U.S. Army during World War II. My father was in the 82nd Airborne Division and my mother was a nurse.
They knew each other before the war started here in North Central Florida. They didn’t think the war was going to last too long and believed they could continue their relationship after the war.
My dad called my mom from New York before he got on the boat to head overseas. He asked her to “wait for him,” which meant that he wanted her to be exclusive to him so they could get married one day.
My dad’s WWII tour began in Africa. Then he went to Italy and was injured when the jeep he was riding in flipped. He recovered and went to England, where his troop was deployed for D-Day preparations.
My mom helped establish a hospital on Lady Luchville’s Estate in England and one of her primary duties was to work with soldiers who had post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
They were only an hour away from each other and my dad made a point of visiting her every weekend until he was deployed again.
Herbert and Emma Lee Marlowe
U.S. Army Veterans
Early on June 6, 1944 — forever known as “D-Day” — my dad was in a glider and remembers looking out over that channel and seeing gliders that had broken apart, men falling out of them, and just a big armada of ships and airplanes. His glider landed but wouldn’t break apart. The jeep was stuck inside of it, but all his men were able to climb out. They hid and waited. They heard fire and skirmish all around them. In the middle of the night, my dad took an axe and chopped on the glider to release the jeep. When he finally did, he and others reconvened with a lot of other troops. They landed in a town around Sainte-Mère-Église, France. That town continues to be very strongly associated with the 82nd Airborne and was a pivotal town to take during the invasion.
After success in France and 33 days in Normandy, he returned to England and he and my mom decided to get married. The wedding was a big deal because it happened during the middle of the war, and they had to get all kinds of permission. The wedding made the newspapers back in the U.S., as it was a pleasant news break in the middle of the war.
The honeymoon was short before my dad had to return for a mission into Germany.
They were let go behind enemy lines, landing in a farmer’s field.
They hid in a barn and waited but the farmer informed the German soldiers, who rounded them up as prisoners. They were marched to a train and rode for three days without food or water. They arrived in Rostock, Germany, where all the prisoners of war were crammed together.
Because my dad was the oldest soldier at 27, the other men looked up to him. When he arrived they were fighting each other for food. He kept their spirits up in spite of their situation and helped ration the small amounts of food provided. He also insisted they have a church service together on Sundays. At Christmas, they had a tree and decorated it with all their insignias.
A lot of the men that I met afterward told me, “I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for your dad.”
The end of the war was nearing. The Russian allies advanced and liberated the camp.
During this time, my mother was sent to Normandy and then to Belgium.
The Germans were making their final push to win the war in the “Battle of the Bulge.” All my mother knew was that my dad was “missing in action.” But she got a call that he’d made it all the way back through “No Man’s Land” to the American lines and was waiting for her.
They reconnected. My father was over six-feet tall but now weighed around 100 pounds and had not bathed for nine months. He always believed that God had provided a miracle.
I’m very lucky to have been born considering all my mom and dad went through. They were married 55 years and spent the rest of their lives together.
Their experience has always affected my viewpoint of life. When you’re having the worst day, you have to think, “This is nothing. I’m not sitting in a German prison camp starving and freezing to death. This is nothing to be upset about.”
Every time our office goes through an inspection and our staff begins to get a little stressed out, I tell them about my father and remind them, “Stand up and look them in the eye. No reason to be afraid.”
