From the S&S archives: Here come the brides

(Click here for photos of the war brides and their families preparing to leave Frankfurt.)

FRANKFURT — Somewhere between 50 and 75 war brides are leaving Rhine-Main Air Field near here every week en route to the U.S. — and the big rush has not yet started.

Officials of the commercial airlines, which carry two types of brides Stateside, believe the big rush will start three weeks prior to the Dec. 27 deadline.

After that date, brides must qualify under the regular immigration system and may encounter greater difficulties accompanying their American husbands home.

More war brides flew home in September than in August and the number jumped above 200 in October, according to American Overseas Airlines figures. The November war bride passenger list by air may exceed 300, it was estimated.

By far the largest number of brides are carried in commercial planes chartered by the Army for the return of soldiers and their families. Three or four such planes now leave Rhine-Main every week, each with 43 passengers, including husbands, brides and children.

In addition, a few "unaccompanied" brides are sandwiched in on regular commercial non-chartered planes when seats are available.

The waiting room at Rhine-Main Air Field is a crowded, noisy, excited place for the two hours preceding the departure of a chartered plane. It is fairly easy to pick out the war brides. They are almost always accompanied by their soldier-husband in uniform, and in 50 per cent of the cases they carry a baby in their arms.

Then begins the long nervous wait to board the plane. Will it be on time, and did we forget anything? are the most usual questions. The GI husbands usually are tenser than the brides, who keep busy with the children. Perhaps the typical war bride is Mrs. Gruet Buddecke, 22-year old French girl, who left Rhine-Main this week on a charter flight to New York. She is the bride of Paul W. Buddecke, 24, a civilian who gave up his job with EUCOM budget and fiscal department in Heidelberg in order to get his wife and 15-month-old son, Frederick, back to the States before the Dec. 27 deadline.

Buddecke knew exactly how long he had been overseas — five years and 16 days. A buck sergeant with EUCOM Adjutant General's Hq throughout the war, he was in England, France, and Germany. He met his wife in 1944 in Paris, and they were married in July, 1946. He stayed on as a civilian employee in Heidelberg.

"It was the announcement of the Dec. 27 deadline that influenced me to leave," Buddecke declared. "We are going back to my home in Sutton, Neb., and I'm going to take a good rest. I'll think about getting a job after the Christmas holidays."

Paris-born Mrs. Buddecke was anxious to get aboard the plane. "I've looked forward to this a long time," she admitted. "Now at last we are on the way."

In another corner of the waiting room, Mrs. Helga Kiehm, 20-year-old German girl, the war bride of Sfc Andrew Kiehm, 21, waited patiently with her husband for the plane to be announced.

The Kiehms are going a long way — clear to Honolulu, where Kiehm was born of Korean parents. Kiehm, attached to Headquarters, EUCOM Intelligence Div, met the future Mrs. Kiehm in the I.G. Farben building in Frankfurt, where both were working. She was a magazine-stand salesgirl for The Stars and Stripes. They met in January 1947 and were married last September.

Kiehm, due for regular rotation, is glad to be leaving the European Command. Upon his discharge in Hawaii he plans to enroll in the University of Hawaii law school in polyglot Hawaii. Blond Mrs. Kiehm thinks she will get along fine.

"I'm anxious to leave," she declared.