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52 chapter seven Gearing Up for War By the summer of 1941, Elbert and his best friend, Sara’s cousin Leckie Mattox, were already on active duty. Their Georgia National Guard infantry regiment was called up in September 1940. Shortly thereafter it was converted to a field artillery regiment and on February 28, 1941, posted to Fort Blanding, just south of Jacksonville, Florida. Before joining his regiment at Fort Blanding, Elbert reported for an advanced artillery course for field officers at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. When he had been discharged from active duty in 1918, he had been sure he would never see Fort Sill again. Sara arrived that spring, driven out by Buddy over his spring break. She managed to find a room over a Walgreen’s, where the lunch-counter menu included “macaroni sandwiches.” Sara was used to the red clay of Georgia, but she never became accustomed to the red dust that seemed to always fill the air in Oklahoma, even, she maintained, when it rained. That aside, she enjoyed riding horseback across the plains, returning in time for dinner with Elbert at the officers’ club on the base. Elbert finished first in the advanced artillery class and was posted back to Fort Blanding, where he took command of his Field Artillery Battalion. With Elbert and Leckie both at Fort Blanding, Sara Tuttle and Gabrielle Mattox each rented a house at Ponte Vedra, about sixty miles from the base, for the summer of 1941. Elbert and Leckie drove to the beach houses every weekend and every Wednesday evening, rising early enough to be back at the base by 5:00 a.m. the next morning. It was a tiring commute, but well worth it. Not everyone would survive the war, and difficult years would pass before those who did would be together again. The Tuttles shared their summer house first with their friends Helen and Wiley Ballard and then with the Asbills. Mac and Buddy invited John Harmon, a classmate at Princeton. John came, but not to see Buddy and Gearing Up for War » 53 Mac or to vacation at the beach. He came because he had gone Elbert Tuttle one better. Elbert had fallen in love with Sara at first sight. John had fallen in love with Nicky’s picture, prominently displayed on Buddy’s dresser. He hitchhiked to Ponte Vedra to meet the girl in the picture and arrived with an issue of George Seldes’s leftist magazine In Fact tucked securely under his arm. Despite the fact that he had hitchhiked his way there, and despite his flaunting of what was practically Communist Party literature , he recalled being welcomed with kindness, particularly by Nicky, who quickly became as enchanted with him as he had been with her picture. Besides, Buddy drew attention away from him by dyeing his hair; according to Sara, it came out pink, leaving her speechless for the only time in her life. Everyone else was amused, but she shuddered as she saw him off for his senior year at Princeton, with his bronzed skin setting off his pink hair. It was an idyllic time, and it was well that it was. Europe was at war, and the entry of the United States was not far off. Elbert’s active duty orders were only for one year, but Elbert and Sara both thought a world war was coming, and they both realized that the United States would have to enter the conflict. Elbert made it clear that when that happened, he wanted to volunteer for overseas duty. Sara did not want him to go; she did not want to risk losing her beloved husband. But he had made up his mind, and she would not stand in his way. Nor would she lose him a moment sooner than she had to. Until Elbert went overseas, Sara decided, she would travel from base to base with him. They were well off, and the firm committed to paying him the difference between his draw and his officer’s salary as long as he was on active duty. Still, they could not keep their Atlanta house and make their home around the country as well. In October 1940 they sold their home, put their furniture in storage, and moved into the Colonial Terrace apartments on Peachtree Road. As they locked the warehouse door on their furniture, Elbert turned to Sara. “Honey,” he said, “they say this is for one year and I hope it will...

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