What’s the field?
12/4/2022

It was a typical Friday night of the basketball game followed by a school dance in the gym. I was a senior in high school and was a member of the Cardettes, a dance team that entertained during game halftimes. That night was very crowded with fans from both schools. My home town was Willmar, MN, and we were playing our biggest rival, Litchfield, MN. 

After the halftime show my friend and I were trying to make our way through the crowds when I heard a male voice call out.” Hey, haven’t I seen you before?” I looked behind me and saw this stranger and said, “I’ve heard that line before!” and tossed my long ponytail over my shoulder pretending to be indignant that this guy, obviously from Litchfield, would even say anything to me. Later at the school dance a friend came up to me and said his cousin would like to meet me. Willmar is a small town where everyone knows most people that live there.  So out of curiosity I asked him who his cousin was. He pointed to the guy from the hall and I got my first real look at Peter Heimdahl. He was wearing a gold corduroy suit with a snappy tie and white socks! Nope, wasn’t interested!

My friend said I should at least meet him because he was here for a short time home on Christmas leave from West Point. I reluctantly agreed to just one dance. Well, he turned out to be very impressive, and we ended up dancing the night away! I agreed to letting him take me home after the dance. My mother always waited up for me and she asked if I’d had fun. I told her about my new acquaintance, and when I told her his name, she almost fell off her chair! It turned out that Peter’s dad had grown up in Willmar where he had lettered in four sports, and every girl in town (including my mother!) had a crush on him. Well, that was it…he was the one for me! We spent every remaining day he had home together. I was sad knowing he was going back to West Point, too far away! The night he was leaving on a train to New York he stopped by to say goodbye. That was when he said those words, “I love you”. I stood there, flustered, until I called out to him as he was walking away.  “Peter, I THINK I love you too! ”So began our distant courtship. He was a Firstie and I was a senior in high school. Somehow, we made it through the distance. I moved to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota, and, after graduation, he was off to Airborne and Ranger School at Fort Benning and then the basic artillery officers’ course at Fort Sill then eventually to Germany.  By that time we were talking marriage, mostly through letters. My mother kept saying he had to be so lonely in Germany.  Finally, I gave in and decided to call him.  Somehow, I still don’t know how, I placed a call into his Battalion headquarters in Schweinfurt, Germany. It turns out that only the rear party was there because the battalion was in the Grafenwoehr training area. I was patched through on a commercial line to the battalion field switch in Graf. From there the call was sent by field wire to a field phone in the junior officers’ barracks. I was calling to say “Yes, I will marry you.”  At the end of our brief conversation (it was agreed we would marry), I said “I love you,” and got almost a whispered reply, “Me, too,”  What I didn’t know until much later was that Peter was in an open barracks with at least 20 young lieutenants listening in.  He later told me they would use any display of intimacy against him forever!  We were married in Willmar the following 11th of January in 20 below zero weather.

We honeymooned in New York City for a week and then flew off to our new home in Schweinfurt.  I had seldom been out of Minnesota and had never been on an airplane. I was getting scared!  On the last of the trip Peter said he needed to tell me something.  I listened as he said that as soon as we landed he had to go into the field for three weeks. “Oh, OK,” I said and then added “What’s the field?” Well, I certainly found out! We were living on the German economy, I didn’t speak German, and had no driver’s license during those weeks. Just a few days into his absence I got a call from another wife, Mary Anne Shlenker from Monroe, LA. asking me to come on post to their quarters and stay with her and her kids until the guys came back from the field. She would come and get me. That was my first encounter with the many wonderful Army wives over various assignments and moves to different homes.  I never felt lonely or afraid. I made many lifelong friends at each destination.  I learned from them how to reach out with open arms to welcome any new wives, hoping to make them feel at home and follow the mantra “Bloom Where You are Planted”. I’ve loved every minute of being an Amy Wife. Yes, there were some hard times like Vietnam but, oh, the wonderful memories of beautiful places and beautiful, kind, fun friends. We were fortunate enough to live near several of Peter’s classmates at different locations. I remember fondly of times spent with Mary Jane Solomon, Brenda Blanda, Jan Grannemann, Barbara Lawrence, Barb Williamson, Diane Royce, Button Hyde, Loni Kewley, JoAnne Halstead, Rita Hale, Gail Clarke, Ann Hoy, Trish Buckner, Kathy Boylan, Ashley Rennagel and many others my tired brain won’t let me recall. All of these ladies and many more are wonderful strong proud women who all had the fabulous opportunity to marry great guys from USMA ‘61 and raise children to be patriotic, respectful, thoughtful, kind citizens

I’m so glad I overlooked the tacky gold corduroy suit and found the love of my life. We celebrate 59 years with our two kids, Dana and Peter, in January! We now love laughing at and singing, “I think I Love You” from the Partridge Family 1970.

Fondly,
Pat Heimdahl