Al and Sybel would meet after hours at the USO, a kind of social club for Soldiers and their friends. But since they did not drink and dance, they found themselves playing games together, especially ping pong. They became quite the hustlers at doubles play, taking on all comers, and winning most matches. In later years, Al would play ping pong with his kids and grand kids. He would predict quite accurately how the rally would turn out. "You're going to hit the next one right down into the net," he would predict. Then he would reach below the table to strike his return, flipping his wrist to put English on the ball, and it would pop up and bounce invitingly in the middle of your side of the table. You'd smack it hard, and sure enough, you would hit it right down into the net.
At the USO Al and Sybel became close to the chaplain, Pop Gant, who took a liking to them, and who counseled them as the time drew near for Al's platoon to ship out to Europe.
Each day after training maneuvers, Al would drive his jeep back toward Camp Chaffee, and the convoy of soldiers would pass on the street right beneath the window on the second floor of the First national Bank building on Garrison Avenue where Sybel worked. She would sit out on the window ledge, her legs up, and her knee length skirt tucked discreetly, but making sure that her shapely legs were visible as Al drove by. He looked up, they waved, and smiled, enjoying their brief afternoon moment. His Army Jeep was one of those classic Willys Jeeps with 4 wheel drive, a white star within a circle stenciled on the Army green hood, a canvas top, no doors, no seat belts, and a flop-down front windshield. There was no trunk, just two single seats in the front and a bench seat with jump seats on the side in the back, and a spare tire on the back with a spare gas tank strapped on above the bumper.
By Christmas of 1944, plans were forming for the 16th Armored Division to muster for their embarkation to the European theater. The inevitability of Al going off to war, of facing a well armed enemy, of seeing death, crippling injury, and all the terror that goes with it was not comforting to either of the two romantics. The counseling of Pop Gant, the support of the church family, and their united resolve that this was an important war to win in the name of justice for the occupied nations of Europe was their reality, and sometimes their comfort. Al knew that he could not marry a woman and then leave her to go to war. But, he did want to sew up the betrothal before he left. So, one solemn evening he mustered the courage and asked, "Sybel, when I come back from overseas, will you marry me?"
She was surprised, taken aback, thrilled, and worried. She hesitated momentarily, not because she didn't love Al, but because she knew he was going off to war and she would be staying home, living with her Daddy and Momma, and Otis still was not convinced that this soldier boy was right for his daughter. It could be years before Al came home, if ever. She wasn't worried about the time, because it would be the same for any man her age. They were all going off to war. And the women were holding down the home front, and she would have to be part of that ethic. There was a popular song during the War where girls pledged not to marry anyone "until the boys come home," as a reassurance to the troops that the few guys who remained at home would not be stealing their girlfriends away. It was a troubling decision, but Sybel embraced Al and answered quickly, "Yes." Together they picked out a small engagement ring with diamond that she would wear proudly the rest of her life.
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