*Article from Stroll River Bottoms, May 2026*
Written By: Robert Harris
My military journey began with a surprise. Only two weeks after returning to Provo from a two-and-a-half-year mission in Belgium and Switzerland, I received a draft notice. Apparently, the local board chair was no fan of missionaries—she sent my letter the moment I set foot on the ground! I had just enough time for a single blind date, arranged by my cousin, before boarding a train for Fort Hood.
That train ride held its own miracle. I sat down next to a man who turned out to be Bruce, a friend from my mission. We became brothers-in-arms, sticking together through basic training and eventually our deployment to Japan. After two months of learning the art of war, I had a brief leave. I headed straight back to Provo to see that ‘blind date’ girl, Marilyn. Before I left again, I placed a diamond on her finger with a promise: we would find our way back to each other.
The road there wasn’t easy. Advanced training at Fort Carson involved surviving 25-below-zero nights in pup tents and a grueling 25-mile mountain hike. But fortune smiled on Bruce and me again; we were both assigned to Japan, where wives were permitted. I called Marilyn immediately. We were married in my Uncle Franklin’s living room in Tacoma just before I shipped out. After a brief, beautiful honeymoon, I endured a thirty-day trek across the Pacific on a cramped, foul-smelling Navy ship.
In Japan, I initially served as a machine gunner with the 7th Cavalry—a heavy, dangerous job. However, everything changed during a morning formation when a sergeant asked if anyone could type. My hand shot up so fast it nearly left my shoulder! That skill, combined with my BYU ROTC background and fluent French, landed me a desk job at headquarters. It was there that I navigated the mountain of paperwork required to bring Marilyn to Japan. We spent the next year and a half on an extended honeymoon in Tokyo, a beautiful chapter that only ended when we finally flew home to our waiting family in Los Angeles.
