Soldier’s wife learned husband survived battle

LAGRANGE, Ga. (AP) — Her life was measured in news reports. She watched the early morning news and the evening news on television, combed the newspaper photos and reports, looking for any word of her husband and the war he fought on the other side of the world.

It was October 1967 and Patty Longgrear, 21, and her infant daughter, Honey Lee, had moved in with her parents and younger sister while her army husband fought in Vietnam. Living in Columbus, she arranged her days around every television newscast and memorized the location of every local newsstand.

Her father, a retired army colonel, had received a letter from his son-in-law, Paul Longgrear, with the news that he was heading to Lang Vei and warning him that it could be a volatile battle ahead. Patty Longgrear did not receive the same letter.

“He would never have told me anything that would have made me worry. He’s always protective. He had written to my dad, but my dad didn’t tell me either. The news went from protective husband to protective father,” Patty Longgrear said.

She did know he was in Lang Vei, but didn’t know the potential for trouble.

“I heard about it on the morning news. It was 7 a.m. It was a really big thing because it was the first time the North Vietnamese used Russian tanks in the war. This was more than just another battle,” she said. “They said the North Vietnamese army had overrun the special forces because of the tanks. It was devastating.”

Word went out that only 14 soldiers had survived the battle. Before the day was over, photos of two American soldiers were shown on national television. Neither was Paul Longgrear.

“We knew it was a dire situation. You go into shock mode,” Longgrear said. “I was glued to the television. Everything else stopped. You focused on what news we could get - and that wasn’t much. The communication was not anything like it is now.”

The one thing Longgrear didn’t want to hear was the doorbell ringing.

“You know if someone comes to your door, it means he’s missing or killed in action. So you’re just kind of braced and you hope the doorbell doesn’t ring,” she said.

The doorbell stayed silent, but the phone did ring with news from Paul Longgrear’s mother, Mary Bryant, in Arkansas.

“We had talked to each other off and on. You call, you ask, ‘Have you heard anything?’ Then you get off the phone and five minutes later wonder if she’s heard anything,” she said. “Then she calls me and she’s crying. She’s saying ‘He’s alive! He’s alive!”’

Her mother-in-law told her that the Memphis paper had a front page photo of an injured soldier being helped off a helicopter. There was no name, but she was sure it was her son.

“You hope against hope, but you don’t believe it until you see it for yourself,” Longgrear admitted. “Daddy came home and Mama kept Honey Lee and we went out looking for a paper, hoping to see the same photo.”

They went to every newsstand in Columbus, checking papers from across the country. But, the Memphis paper wasn’t available and they didn’t see the photo in any other paper.

Her father took matters into his own hands. He called Delta Airlines and told them he’d buy a plane ticket if they’d put a Memphis paper on a plane and fly it to Columbus. A customer service representative didn’t make any promises, but said she’d do what she could.

In a day of no cell phones, no Internet, no quick messages and no direct flights, it would be a complicated feat to quickly get a paper from Memphis to Columbus. Still, the call came in later and the next morning Longgrear and her father met the plane at the Columbus airport.

“We went about 6 or 7 in the morning. We thought we’d pick up the paper and that would be it,” Longgrear said.

But the story had spread and the young bride wasn’t the only one who wanted to know if the photo of the injured soldier was her husband. The Memphis paper came off the plane accompanied by all the flight attendants and the pilot. Everyone wanted to know if the photo was Paul Longgrear.

As soon as she saw it, she knew it was her husband.

“It was him. I could see it in the set of his jaw. I could tell by his hand hanging over the guy helping him - his pinky was crooked. There was no doubt it was him,” she said.

The bandage wrapped around his head frightened her, but she knew her husband was alive.

She also knew there were people who cared.

“That was a good, good experience. The Vietnam war was not a popular thing. It was not honorable to be involved in the war at that time. What they did for me was a show of support that you weren’t getting at that time,” Longgrear said.

Later, she learned that the Delta customer service representative was named employee of the year for the Memphis newspaper flight. And, Delta didn’t take any payment for the paper’s “seat” either.

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