In January 1943, Tom Glancy arrived in Australia as part of the 1st Marine Division. He put his gear in a tent and settled down. A few minutes later, another Marine stuck his head in the tent."Any empty beds in here?"
There were. The newcomer's name was Jack Brady. The two young men started talking. Glancy asked Brady where he was from. St. Louis, said Brady. Where'd you go to high school? asked Glancy. Southside Catholic, said Brady. Never heard of it, teased Glancy, who was a CBC grad.
Glancy was 19. Brady was 18. They were both assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 11th Regiment. Glancy was a forward observer who would call in targets for the artillery. Brady was an artilleryman.
They went to Melbourne together on liberties. They were tent-mates for almost a year.
In December, they participated in the invasion of Cape Gloucester.
They were tent-mates again when their unit regrouped after the fight.
They were part of the invasion force at Peleliu. They were tent-mates again after that very bloody battle.
Then they were part of the force that invaded Okinawa. When that island was secured, they were tent-mates again as they awaited orders to invade Japan.
When the two atomic bombs precluded the need for that invasion and the war ended, Brady and Glancy were sent to China for 90 days. Then they were on the same troop ship back to the States.
They rode together from the West Coast to Chicago on a train, and then to Union Station in St. Louis. They stood together on the platform and gazed at the crowd.
Glancy saw his family and hurried off to meet them. When he looked back, Brady was gone.
The two men got on with their lives. They put the war behind them. They did not stay in touch. They both went to St. Louis University, but neither knew the other was there.
Brady graduated with a degree in business. He married a girl he had met at the Rail Fence, a hamburger joint on South Grand. He went to work as a salesman at Porter Paint Co. He became a district manager and then a regional manager. He and his wife had five children.
Glancy left the university shortly before he would have graduated. He got a job as a salesman with a steel company. Then he became a liquor salesman. He married a girl from Indiana. They lived for a couple of years in Chicago and then moved to Dallas. They had two children.
Glancy's wife died in 1994. A year after her death, Glancy heard from his high school girlfriend, Beth. She had gone to Visitation. She was a widow and had heard through mutual friends that Glancy's wife had died. He came to St. Louis for a wedding, and the two got together. They married.
In 2006, Glancy and Beth moved into an apartment on the Cardinal Carberry campus in Shrewsbury. Their apartment was in a complex run by Cardinal Ritter Senior Services.
Two years later, Brady moved into the same building. His wife had died in 1999, and Brady's health had begun to deteriorate to the point that his kids thought he should no longer live alone.
The former tent-mates did not know they were living in the same building.
Brady fell and broke his hip and went into the building on campus for rehabilitation. He returned to his apartment and then last year, fell and broke his hip again.
Shortly before that second injury, Beth had a stroke. She went to the rehab building.
Glancy was visiting Beth when he heard a nurse tell another nurse that Jack Brady had fallen again.
Jack Brady?
Glancy went back to his room and got a photo he keeps on his desk. Two young Marines pose for the camera in Australia. They look like kids.
He took the photo and went to the rehab building. He saw his old tent-mate sitting at a table in the cafeteria. When he approached the table, Brady thought, "I think I should know that guy, but I don't."
Glancy put the photo on the table. "Recognize these guys?" he asked.
Beth died last June. Glancy still lives in the independent-living building. Brady lives nearby in an assisted-living building. Glancy visits every Tuesday. They go out to dinner once a month. This Saturday night, they will be at Lester's.
I visited them when they met Tuesday. I asked why they get together only once a week.
"I can't stand him. That's why," said Glancy.
Brady laughed and Glancy joined in.
For a moment, they were young again.
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