MONDAY,APRIL21,2003
LOVE & WAR
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 9A
Photo contributed by Ruth Schiefefbusch
Ruth, Lary and Dick Schiefelbusch were reunited in June 1945 after his return from imprisonment in a German prisoner of war camp. The family moved to Lawrence on Nov., 1, 1945.Dick enrolled in six credit hours at the University of Kansas. His specialty is in speech-language pathology, and he helped establish the Schiefelbusch Institute in Life Span Studies.
Relationships CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8A
classes he had enrolled in RU. It was his first semester back since he had joined the National Guard.
After leaving Wichita, his unit trained at Fort Riley. Erica was allowed to visit five or six times.
"Each time I had to say good-bye, not knowing if there was going to be a next weekend and not knowing if it was really good-bye," she said. "You just get numb after a while."
Erica and Dave spoke each night on the telephone in anticipation of his last call. On Feb. 25, the phone rang.
"He called about nine in the morning and told me that they were leaving sometime that day," she said. "He called for the last time about nine that night and told me they were getting on buses and he wasn't sure where they were going."
Waiting
It took about three weeks for Dick's letters to start coming, Ruth remembers. She wrote him back as often as she could, about every few days. They wrote about the weather and about what was going on in the United States.
"After he left, I found out I was pregnant," she said. "I knew he would be delighted but I had to write it in a letter."
Dick was ecstatic and started making a list of baby names to send home. But before the list arrived, Ruth got a telegram:
"The War Department deeply regrets to inform you that your husband, Lieutenant Richard L. Schiefelbusch is missing in action."
"That night my father told me to write a note with free flowing ink and put it under my pillow," she said. "If I dreamed of something white then Dick was alive, if it was black — he wasn't."
"I just knew that he was alive," she said.
She dreamed of a white cotton field and woke up thinking that Dick was still alive. So she tried again the next night and dreamed of a large plane flying overhead shedding a great white light.
Two weeks later, she got a second telegram. Dick was a German prisoner of war. His plane had been shot down on May 14, 1943.
During the war, the International Red Cross made it possible for prisoners of war to receive letters and packages from family.
"I wrote him every day." Ruth said. "The Red Cross let us send a package, one every two months."
Ruth sent sugar and vitamins in each package. She also included small containers of cocoa.
On Oct. 20, 1943, the couple's son Lary was born. Dick received the pastel birth announcement two-and-a-half months later. He had been a prisoner of war for more than five months.
"The first reference I had about the baby was written by Ruth's mother telling me about the difficult delivery," he said. "I got the bad information first, before I got anything about what he looked."
Ruth credits the unusual spelling of their son's name to Dick. He had spelled it that way on the list he sent, she said.
While Ruth waited for Dick's return, she spent her spare time substitute teaching and sewing clothes for Lary.
"Once the baby came, I kept pretty busy," she said. "I had him to take care of."
Ruth tried not to worry about Dick, but continued to write him about Lary and awaited the arrival of his every letter.
Erica Brittain has received six letters since Dave left in February
for Kuwait, then Iraq.
"For the first few days after you receive a letter,you're on an emotional high. It's those next few days when you're waiting for the next letter. Those are hard."
Erica Brittain
Wichita junior
When she got home from spring break, she found two letters waiting in her mailbox.
"I was so excited," she said. "It took a while for the first letter to come."
Erica and Dave had set a goal of writing each other once a week during a group counseling session provided by the Army before his deployment. But Erica sends a package or letter out almost every other day, she said.
tional high," she said. "It's those next few days, when you're waiting for the next letter. Those are hard."
"For the first few days after you receive a letter, you're on an emo-
Erica's letters to Dave contain information about friends, her daily life and newspaper clippings from home.
"I just write anything that I feel like writing," she said. "In his last letter he asked me to send him some things that he needed and couldn't get where he was, so I just try to keep him up to date with what's going on back home and send him things he needs."
She usually sends him snacks and Handiwiipes. He uses them to bathe with because his unit doesn't have a real shower.
Although some of the deployed troops have access to e-mail, Dave's unit doesn't. Access to a telephone is almost nonexistent, she said. Erica said she felt closer to Dave because they were writing letters and communicating in an old-fashioned way.
call home when I'm not here to see if there is any mail or how often I run to the mailbox each day," she said.
After three years as a prisoner, Dick was freed on April 29,1945 when Gen. George Patton's Seventh Army drove a tank over the metal gates of the camp.
Coming Home
Ruth and 20-month-old Lary were waiting at Union Station in Kansas City when Dick arrived home in June.
He met his son for the first time that day. He had only seen him grow in the pictures that Ruth had sent.
"Lary's first words to me were 'chew gum.' It made me smile, but his first word to me wasn't Daddy." Dick recalled. "I knew from that moment that I had to learn how to be a father and Lary had to learn how to have one."
Although the war in Iraq may end soon, Erica isn't sure when she'll see Dave again. The last she heard his unit was laying pipeline in Iraq. She heard that from a member of the family support group she attends.
"You don't know how often I
-
"I just try not to worry about him," she said. "He's been trained well. Granted he isn't in direct combat, there is a chance there could be hostilities where he's at — but he knows what to do."
Because the orders Dave received in January were issued for a year, Erica has to wait until he returns to continue their relationship from where they left off.
But for now, she'll wait for the next letter to show up in her mailbox.
Edited by Michelle Burhenn
HEADQUARTERS,
ARMY AIR FORCES
WASHINGTON
23 June 1945
SUBJECT: Letter of
Communication
TO: 2nd LL.R. L Schieffelbusch
[sic], 0-663417
1. It is with the greatest pleasure that I commend you for the excellence of your performance as a prisoner of war under my jurisdiction in the South Compound at Stalag Luft III, Germany.
2. Your outstanding devotion to duty, sound professional judgment, loyalty and integrity over the eighteen months at Sagan and Moosburg was an inspiration to all with whom you came in contact.
3. To the colossal difficulty of the task of dealing with the Germans, and with the conditions of prison life, you have continuously applied superior characteristics. The war effort has been furthered, and camp morale maintained at a high standard as a result of your services.
4. A copy of this letter will be made a part of your permanent record.
CHARLES G. GOODRICH
Colonel, Air Corps
Senior American Officer
South Compound, Stalag Luft III
Erica Brittain writes her boyfriend, Dave Warren, a letter almost every other day. Warren is deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and is thought to be in Iraq with his Kansas Army National Guard unit.
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