Editor's note: This is the first in a series about Bob Graul of Orem. Utah Valley is becoming home to many "alien" veterans (long-time residents of other states) whose children and grandchildren have settled in the valley. Graul comes to us from Pittsburgh by way of Toledo and Philadelphia. Bob found his wife while first serving in the army in Philadelphia (lots of veterans found their spouses on such assignments); and his story is typical of many Cold War stories.

This was in 1955, after the end of the Korean conflict, and I received orders to go to Japan. But during basic training, a colonel came through who was looking for people who had some experience in procurement. I had worked my last semester for Allis-Chalmers in the test department, where I sold distribution transformers--the ones set on poles. I said to the colonel, "Listen, I'm not that familiar with procurement. I've been in sales."

He replied, "We're looking for people who have a little procurement knowledge."

"But sir, I already have orders to go to Japan."

"I can get that changed," he said.

Which he did, and I received orders to report to the Signal Corps Supply Agency, which happened to be in Philadelphia. Of course my mother was extremely happy about that--she didn't want to see her little boy go to Japan. She was happy that I was at the other end of Pennsylvania, a five-hour drive away.

The Signal Corps Supply Agency consisted of about a hundred military and two thousand civilians. The civilians did most of the work, while the military did the supervising. As a procurement officer, I signed the contracts, sometimes up to a million dollars. Here I am, a second lieutenant, supervising GS-14, GS-15 civilians who really know what was going on. Frankly, they did most of the work. I was the responsible person to sign the contracts.

My job was to make sure that everything in the contract was okay. Of course the civilians explained everything to me before I signed. I just did whatever they told me to do. I let it be known to them that I wasn't the most knowledgeable person. To begin with, I asked a lot of questions and relied on a lot of advice from these people. They kept me in line. Most of them had college degrees.

I reported to a captain, who reported to a major, who reported to a lieutenant colonel, and on up the line to the general in charge of the agency. He was a real nice guy, and his wife liked me.

The civilian employees respected me as a military person, and they respected the assignment I had to fill.

My future wife, Margaret Palmieri, worked in the Military Personnel Department of the procurement agency. I tell everybody that she took one look at my 201 File (my personnel file), and I didn't have a chance. She saw an excellent second lieutenant. She was also in charge of the duty roster, which made things nice. If we wanted to do something on a weekend, she could make sure I was not on the duty roster for that weekend.

Peg's mother, who was 100 percent Polish, was a fantastic cook. Her father was 100 percent Italian. The Italian grandmother taught Peg's mother how to do Italian cooking, and of course Peg also had learned Polish cooking from her own mother and grandmother.

So this set things up: Here's a beautiful girl, and if her mother can cook, I'll bet she can cook.

Next week: The romance flowers, and Bob explains the work he did at the procurement agency.

Some veterans may wish, on their own, to tape or digital record their memories of military service. These will be transcribed and archived. For instructions on how to do this, e-mail Don Norton, at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it