39 years ago yesterday, just outside of Seoul, South Korea, Mac stepped off a plane, threw his duffle in the back of a waiting Jeep and skipped In-processing to race across town.
He just finished two extended tours in Vietnam that started right before the Tet Offensive and ended after the New York Times broke the Pentagon Papers. He volunteered.
He met Sun Cha when he was stationed in Seoul a few years earlier. They were introduced by her friend Kim and his friend George and dated for about nine months before he absolutely knew he loved her.
It happened the night Sun Cha burst in on Mac and George as they attempted to buy 15 cases of liquor from Korean black marketeers who were known for their ruthless nature. Sun Cha berated Mac out the door and then verbally assaulted the gangsters in Korean for a good 10 minutes before walking out. She was the baddest woman he ever met and Mac knew he was in love.
Sun Cha wasn’t worried about Mac’s safety or his motives. She thought Mac was cheating on her. That night she realized that she was moved to bravery by fury because of love.
Shortly after that night, Mac received orders to go back to the U.S. He already used the maximum number of extensions allowed. The Army told him the only way back to Korea was through Vietnam. Six months to a year, they said. Max.
Two years later, yesterday, George brought the Jeep to a skid outside the apartment Kim and Sun Cha shared. Mac jumped out, stood in the middle of the street and shouted her name until she looked out the window.
Neither of them remember exactly how he proposed or where it happened— the stairwell, her apartment, in the street or maybe later— but both of them know that they couldn’t wait until the following Monday or Tuesday when the Chaplain would be available to marry them. So 39 years ago, today, Friday the 13th, they said “I do.”
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