8A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
LOVE & WAR
MONDAY,APRIL21,2003
Relationships
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
we actually had our first date," Dick said. "She had a cute little backhand."
Sitting at the kitchen table of their Lawrence home, Ruth slightly blushed at Dick's comment. He calls her Ruthie now. In November 1945, after returning home from the war, the couple came to the University of Kansas. Although Dick retired in 1990, he still drops into the office of the Institute for Life Span Studies, which bears his name. He is a distinctive professor emeritus in speech, language and hearing.
"I think on our first date, we did something that had to do with dancing." Ruth said. "That was the culture when we were in college. The school held dances every week."
The couple casually dated for the remainder of the year.
After Dick graduated in May 1940, he took a teaching position in Chautauqua County. The couple grew apart.
"It was while I was there that I got my draft number and what a terrible draft number it was, something like 35," he said. "I knew that they could grab me at anytime."
So rather than wait to be drafted, Dick took the military exams and joined the Army Air Corps in the fall of 1941. He was put on-call and called to duty after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that December.
Dick went to cadet training school in San Antonio. He and Ruth reunited while he was on leave from school.
"I happened to be in Pittsburgh nosing around," he said. "I ran into an old friend and he told me, 'I saw Ruthie at a teacher's meeting the other day. She looked really nice.' So, I wrote her a letter."
Following Air Corps tradition. Dick invited Ruth to San Antonio to pin his silver wings on his chest for the first time. And along the San Antonio River, Dick first
"I happened to be in Pittsburg nosing around. I ran into an old friend and he told me, 'I saw Ruthie at a teacher's meeting the other day. She looked really nice.' So, I wrote her a letter."
Dick Schiefelbusch World War II POW
proposed marriage to her, Ruth said.
"I had to think about it for a few days," she said. "He was leaving for war. I didn't know what to think."
Dick and Ruth traveled to Osawatomie so she could meet his parents. The couple had a layover at Union Station in Kansas City, Mo., and visited Ruth's sister for dinner. She still hadn't answered his proposal.
"We were doing the dishes," Ruth said. "He had his hands in the dishwater and he looked over at me and said, 'At least let me buy you a ring.' I said yes over the dishes."
They returned to Union Station and Dick bought her an engagement ring at a jewelry store inside the station.
"The ring cost $275," he said.
"That was the best I could do."
Although the engagement was official, a wedding date wasn't set right away, they said. Dick was off to combat training, the last stop before war.
While completing training in Wendover, Utah, Dick sent Ruth a telegram asking her to come and be his wife. After a little bit of consideration, she decided to go, she said. Once Ruth arrived, the couple thought they only had a few days to get married before Dick left for war.
"It was an awful situation. We couldn't get married in Salt Lake City because there was a 14-day waiting period," Dick said. "So we went to Elko, Nevada. Nevada sort of has a black market for quick weddings."
They married Sept. 20,1942.
By chance, the B-24 bomber that Dick was to navigate was grounded for repairs for five months after the wedding. The couple spent those months together in Utah, Florida and Louisiana, waiting for the plane to be ready for combat.
Soon after the repairs were completed, Dick deployed to England. Ruth returned to live at her parents' home in Jasper, Mo.
The waiting began.
Erica Brittain and Dave Warren
Erica Brittain and Dave Warren went to Northwest High School in Wichita, but they met at a party in Lawrence in Fall 2001.
"After the party, Dave told his friend Rick that he thought I was cute." Erica said. "We met again in January and ended up hanging out at Rick's house for a few days after. Eventually we just started dating."
Erica can't recall an official first date. She and Dave just started spending more time together.
"It was an awful situation. We couldn't get married in Salt Lake City because there was a 14-day waiting period. So we went to Elko, Nevada. Nevada sort of has a black market for quick wed-
Erica does recall the first time the couple held hands, however.
Dick Schiefelbusch World War II POW
"The second night we hung out, a group of us went out to Clinton Lake," she said. "It had been warmer during the day, but once it got dark it was really cold. We were in the car on the way home, and he took my hands and tried to warm them up."
Erica found out that Dave was a member of the Army National Guard soon after they began dating. At the time, it wasn't an issue for her.
Neither Dave nor Erica thought about the fact that his unit could be called to active duty, she said.
"I guess it was always in the back of my mind, but I just didn't think about it," she said.
Then around Thanksgiving 2002, Dave's unit was placed on alert status. The unit should prepare for active duty.
The next call came two days after Christmas. Dave and Erica were at home in Wichita for winter break.
"That night it was just a shock," she said. "We were in my basement building a fort out of boxes with my little sisters, and he got the call he had to report on Jan. 2, 2005."
His orders were for a year of service.
The couple immediately drove to Lawrence and began packing his belongings.
"I was at my apartment doing his laundry and he and his mom were at his packing," she said. "Even though I wanted to just be with him, there were things we had to get done."
Erica had a trip planned to Las Vegas for New Year's Eve. Should she go or stay home with David?
"It was a hard decision to make," she said. "I knew I had to live my life; it was something I had to do for myself."
She took the trip but came home a day early.
Dave withdrew from the
SEE RELATIONSHIPS ON 9A
By Lauren Cristow
lbristow@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
'I wouldn't be going home'
On May 14, Dick Schiefelbusch
"L" and Dick Schiefelbusch "R".
On May 14, Dick Schreiberbusch will celebrate his 60th anniversary — the anniversary of the day his B-2 bomber was shot down.
He was one of more than 100,000 American prisoners of war during World War II.
As Schiefelbusch bailed out of his plane's escape hatch in 1943, his thoughts raced.
Photo contributed by Ruth Schiefelbusch
Schiefelbusch floated in the Baltic Sea for about a half an hour before a fishing boat pulled him aboard, he said. The Germans took him to a hospital to thaw out and then to a military prison nearby.
"My prominent feeling was regret," he said. "I wouldn't be going home ... Odds were you were either going to die or become a prisoner of war."
"After a poor grade interrogation, they sent me to Dulag Luft," he said. "For two glorious weeks I was kept in solitary confinement and interrogated."
Second Lt. Richard L. Schiefelbusch attended Army Air Corps cadet training school in San Antonio. He was trained as a navigator.
Dick helped to dig tunnels before he was moved.
Before the escape, Stalag Luft III was separated into a north and south camp dividing the British and American soldiers in October 1943.
Dulag Luft was a prisoner of war encampment in Oberursel, Germany.
At the prison, Dick got to become a part of a historic event. The Great Escape refers to the escape attempt of 80 British officers through underground tunnels and was depicted in the 1963 movie with the same name.
"It was a bit exciting to be at Stalag Luft III," he said. "I got to know some wonderful people, as well as play a part in news distribution and The Great Escape."
After about two weeks, Schiefelbusch was sent by train to Stalag Luft III, an encampment for both British and American Air Force officers in Sagan, Poland.
Life at the camp was relatively good, he said. Although food was not in abundance, the prisoners still ate regularly.
Schiefelbusch taught courses about communications to fellow POWs and participated in talks, study activities and debates to pass the time.
"Potatoes were one of our main staples," he said. "You can't imagine all the ways you learn to fix potatoes."
His job was news coordinator. "We had an undercover radio,
which was basically a souped-up walkie talkie," he said. "The senior officer gave me a script each day, and it was my job to relay the news to everyone else."
On Jan. 28, 1945, guards ordered the prisoners to leave the camp. They marched for several days then crowded onto trains and were shipped to Stalag VIIA in Moorsburg, Germany.
Later, Schiefelbusch found out that he was a part of massive migration that included an estimated 6 million people trying to flee the Russian armies, he said.
Schiefelbusch remained a the crowded camp until April The news broadcast over the underground radio was becoming increasingly positive. Soldiers also noticed American planes flying over the camp and wagging their wings as a type of acknowledgment.
Finally on April 29, 1945, Patton's Seventh Army rolled a tank over the camp's metal front gate. Schiefelbusch was free after almost two years.
"General Patton with his six shooters was bustling about shaking hands. It was almost unbelievable," Schiefelbusch said. "Then reality set in that there was no way to transport us all out and we had to wait nearly two weeks for trucks to arrive."
After the prisoners were
flown to a rehabilitation center, they were loaded onto Liberty ships and sent home, he said.
There is an Army Air Corps reunion planned in New Orleans this summer. The Schiefelbuschs aren't sure they are going to attend this one, but they have attended in the past. German officers and soldiers attend, too.
Other members of the opposition have attended these reunions, including five women who worked as mail censors, two guards and descendants of others, Schiefelbusch said.
He said the Germans treated the prisoners fairly well and he had a lot of valuable experiences as a prisoner of war.
"Camp was an interesting place," he said. "Here I was, I had a degree from Pittsburg Teaching College and I was conversing with men with Harvard, Yale and Princeton degrees."
— Edited by Michelle Burhenn
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