The husband doesn’t show up six weeks after the wedding, and the wife finds out the truth seven decades later.
I think being married to a soldier is one of the hardest things in the world. Over a lot of women were in these situations during World War II. One of these women was Peggy Harris from Vernon, Texas. She was married to Billie Harris, a first lieutenant fighter pilot in the US army. He was called up by the army in June 1949 to fight in the battle of Normandy to free France. Sadly, he never came back. But Peggy never got a straight answer about what happened to her husband. It took her sixty years, but she finally found out the truth.
What Did My Husband Do?
Billie Harris had only been married to Peggy for six weeks when she got the call to fight in World War II. When they said goodbye, that was the last time they would ever see each other. Billie never came back from the war. Things are strange, though, because Peggy never got any information. Her husband had been killed, but no one ever came to her door, sent her a letter, or came to tell her. Peggy was always devoted to her husband and never married again.
She said, “Billie was married to me his whole life, and I want to be married to him my whole life.”
At first, the police said Billie wasn’t there. Then they told everyone that he was still living and on his way home. Sadly, this information was not true. Then Peggy got a letter telling her that Billie had died in battle and been buried in one graveyard. Then they told her, “Wait, maybe those aren’t his remains after all.”
The Game of Waiting
The widow had to wait weeks for someone to answer. Weeks turned into months, and months into years. After many years, Peggy finally chose to write to her lawmaker. She wrote to them many times. Finally, the last letter she wrote was to Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas and was sent in 2005. The vice-chairman of the House of Armed Services Committee was another thing about him.
Thornberry responded to Peggy’s letter by telling her that Billie was listed in the national archives as “missing in action.” One person who didn’t like that answer was Alton Harvey, Billie’s cousin. He said it didn’t make sense that Billie went to war and then didn’t come back. No one knew what happened to him. Getting Billie’s service records was something he did because he wanted to know and for Peggy to finally know.
A Simple Search
Billie, a “missing” soldier, wasn’t that hard to find after all. He wasn’t missing at all, that’s why. It turns out that Thornberry never did check the national records. He would have seen the truth if he had. It didn’t say “missing in action” for Billie; it said “k.i.a.” for “killed in action.” He was also buried in the most famous graveyard in Normandy with a cross that was easy to see.
She has been to her husband’s grave a few times since then and sends flowers there about ten times a year. His grave is now known as “the most decorated grave in Normandy” by the government. Also, they think she’s the last widow who still comes to visit.
It’s not over yet.
Peggy learned more about how her husband died, which turned out to be a pretty amazing story. His name was Pilot, and she heard that his plane had crashed over Les Ventes, a small town in Normandy. He was going to fly right into the village. Even though he knew he was going to die, he still wanted to save other people’s lives. He was a very good pilot, and he kept his plane from hitting the town as it was hurtling towards the ground.
The people of Les Ventes will always be grateful to him for what he did. In fact, they love Billie so much that they honour his memory every year after that. It looks like they buried Billie in their own graveyard, where lots of flowers were always placed around his grave. In the end, his body was moved to the American graveyard in Normandy by officials. People in the town still send flowers to his grave several times a year, though. A street is even named after him.
After sixty years, Peggy still goes back to the town every once in a while. People always treat her like a hero when they see her. Guy Seville is one of the people who still lives in the town who was there when Billie’s plane went down. He ran to find Billie and was with him when he died.
She said, “I like to think he was aware enough to know that a friend was there for him.”
