Free Written in Blood by Diane Fanning Page A

grenade that failed to end his life and the haunting memory of his radio dispatcher dying before his eyes.
    After leaving Vietnam, Mike was stationed at Atsugi Naval Air Base in Japan for his remaining time in the Marines. Patty joined him there. One evening, they invited Mike’s friend Sergeant Beverly over for dinner. Afterwards, Mike drove him home.
    On the way there, a truck slammed into the side of the
car killing Beverly. Mike was pinned in the vehicle, but was still alive. It took thirty minutes to extract him from the car as his friend lay by his side. Mike was rushed to Camp Zama where many Vietnam war injured were treated. He had a collapsed lung and a shattered leg. Despite the experience and expertise of the doctors who put his leg back together, Mike walked with a limp from that day on.
    Mike and Patty left Japan and flew to Camp Pendleton, near San Diego. He and Patty looked up Marlo Kinsey. They invited him and another Marine to their house for Thanksgiving dinner.
    It was during that visit that Kinsey first learned of Peterson’s ambition to be an author. In the mezzanine area of their quarters, Mike had a study dedicated to his writing. On the walls were pictures from Vietnam. Kinsey found the photographs of the bodies of dead Viet Cong very disturbing.
    After Mike received an honorable discharge and a permanent medical disability, Patty landed a teaching job at Giessen Elementary School in Germany, enabling the couple to move back overseas. It was a déjà vu time for Patty. She had lived in Giessen as a child when her father was stationed there right after World War II. She was impacted by the senseless destruction she saw first-hand in post-war Germany.
    The couple made a trip to Hahn to visit Pat Finn. It was on this trip that Pat met Mike for the first time. Both Pat and Patty were enamored of the idyllic life in the small country villages—quiet, orderly places that moved at a much slower pace than life in the States—so much
so that Pat, who had come to Germany for one year, ended up staying for thirty-two.
    Each little village had its own flea market and every Saturday, they could stock up on fresh produce from the fruit and vegetable market.
    In addition to a mutual love of the lifestyle small German towns offered, Pat and Patty shared an interest in cultural events and travel. Although Michael accompanied them to concerts and performances, he referred to the two woman as the “camp followers of the arts.”
    Mike and Patty then moved to Durham, North Carolina, where Mike enrolled again at Duke University for the 72-73 school year—this time under the GI Bill. While Mike prepared to step into the writing life, Patty taught school. They moved back and forth from Durham to Germany. Patty’s next teaching position was at Rhein Main Elementary School near Frankfurt; Patty Peterson met the teacher across the hall, Liz McKee. The two became fast friends.
    The Petersons had settled in Germany when their first son was born after thirty hours of labor on December 13, 1974. That night, a snowstorm caused an electrical outage. Clayton Sumner Peterson entered the world with the help of a doctor holding a flashlight to guide the way.
    In half a year, Patty was pregnant again. This time she was in labor for eighteen hours before giving birth to their second son, Todd, on March 14, 1976. On a trip back to the States to visit Michael’s parents, both boys were baptized in one service in Atlanta, Georgia. Richard White Adams, one of Mike’s English professors at Duke, served as godfather to both Clayton and Todd. Liz
Ratliff was godmother to Clayton. Pat Finn was Todd’s godmother.
    Patty often tried Pat’s patience. She always put the pre-departure care of her boys off until the last minute. This caused them to stumble in late to many events. After attempts to get her friend to change her habits failed, Pat told the couple that events started a half hour earlier than