Chapter 6
After ten years of marriage, Elizabeth J. set out to destroy her husband's Air Force career. She was totally successful and within a few weeks after she decided on such a course, Colonel J. was forced to resign his commission.
The story of this vindictive woman and the man she destroyed is an excellent example of the tensions and hatreds that can build up on military bases.
Colonel J. was one of the new breed of Air Force officers. Trained as a scientist, he joined the service because the space and missile programs conducted by the Air Force provided the type of work he was equipped to do. After a series of assignments, he was sent to a large Southwestern missile base. The work there was challenging and fruitful. His wife, Elizabeth, however, found the base to represent the ultimate in boredom and sterility. Like many such bases in America, each family was provided with a small home near excellent shopping facilities. But this material comfort could not match the intellectual pace and excitement that Elizabeth had been used to when she lived in various large cities.
Elizabeth was thirty-six years old when she embarked on her destructive mission. She was an extremely intelligent and sensitive woman with an advanced degree in Art History. She loved her husband but she was pushed into a desperate corner where she had to choose between her comfort and his. Like many people, she chose herself.
I interviewed her when she was back in the East with her husband, a few months after his resignation from the service. She spoke calmly and freely.
"Before I begin, I want you to know this. I seduced the son of the base commander in order to force my husband's resignation. I am neither sorry nor ashamed of my actions and if the situation repeated itself, I would act in the very same manner. Do you understand this?"
I assured her that I understood what she was saying and also repeated my statement that I was a researcher not a judge. What she did was her own business. My only task is to record it, making sure that her anonymity was protected.
She accepted my position and began her story. Her eyes were quite intense, making a mockery of her outward calmness.
"During my three years at the missile base, there was not one second in which I was not accosted by that installation's vulgarity. Every day was the same. Every minute was like every other minute; a succession of silly luncheon teas and the ceaseless propoganda from the Air Force as to the proper role of an Air Force wife. I'll tell you what an Air Force wife is supposed to be. She is supposed to be vibrant and alive and sexually exciting and intellectually vigorous. But these qualities are absent at the base.
"My husband went to work each morning and returned each evening. I was left with the day to kill, with time to make use of and with a severe climate which precluded physical activity. And always on my mind was the threat of those missiles, hidden miles in the earth, ready at an instant moment to blow us all to perdition.
"Soon I had exhausted every book in the base library. The card games between the officers' wives no longer interested me, indeed, they never did.
"So, one day I realized that I had only two alternatives. The first was to put a bullet in my head. The second was to get my husband to resign his commission. But I did not want to die. I wanted to live. I wanted to taste everything in life and to travel and to read and to love. Do you understand me? And my husband loved the Air Force. It was his life. Yet, those were the only two alternatives I had. So, I made my choice. I would force him to resign from the Air Force and thereby save my life and our marriage."
I could see that her calm pose was beginning to crack. The woman had obviously gone through much but was making a valiant effort to persuade me that her choice was made in the cold, clear light of logic. As a researcher who has studied hundreds of such cases, I knew better. I knew that she had made her decision after weeks and maybe months of anguish. But I said nothing. She continued:
"It was futile to talk to my husband and ask him to resign. He would not hear of it. I would have to do something by myself which would reflect on him so poorly that he would be forced to render his resignation. At first I thought I would steal a few articles from the base PX store. But this, I knew, would only result in my having to visit a psychiatrist for the Air Force always attempts to protect officers' wives from criminal proceedings. Many other ideas came to mind. I would write checks which were not covered in the bank. I would begin to write letters about the Air Force to the local papers. I would write to my congressman complaining about conditions on the base. But all these had many problems attached to them and none of them were sure methods to force his resignation.
"But then the answer presented itself. One day I was walking home with an armful of groceries. A young boy ran up to me and asked if he could carry the bag. I thanked him for his concern but assured him I could handle it myself. The boy left as quickly as he came.
"I walked a few more steps and then realized that the boy was Roger, the son of the base commander. I had seen him a number of times before but I just didn't recognize him that time.
"Roger was a gentle, shy boy about sixteen. He was tall and blond. In spite of his height he looked much younger because his father was very stern and kept the child in a state of complete innocence about life in general."
It was then that Elizabeth decided on her actions. She would seduce the boy and in the ensuing clamor, her husband would be forced to resign his commission. The plan had another component which made it very delectable to her. Roger's father, the base commander, had always been a thorn in her side. He represented the most rigid of all military traditions and he seemed to put a damper on anything in life that reflected joy and beauty. Elizabeth knew the boy's father was a patriot and a brave man, but she disliked him so intensely that whenever she saw him, her back bristled.
The plan was simple. Elizabeth would seduce the boy. She was sure he was a virgin. After that happened, she would make sure that both of them were caught in the act. She told me of her joy at conceiving the plan:
"It was so simple and elegant. I knew the moment I planned it that it would do the trick. I felt its future success in my bones. I'd like you to know, however, that I have never been what you would call a frustrated wife. Our sex life since our marriage has been excellent. When I conceived of the plan I did not even think that I would enjoy the seduction. All I was thinking of was the outcome and the new world which would open for our marriage once the resignation was put through. As for Roger's feelings, at the stage of the game they did not concern me."
So the plot was laid. Elizabeth, in a calm and analytical manner, began to find out as much as she could about the boy. Roger used to spend most of his time out of school building and flying model airplanes. There was a large cleared field near the base where all the model plane buffs used to go to try out their latest efforts.
Late one Sunday afternoon, Elizabeth went to the field. There were many boys out there, all of them bending over their models and performing preliminary tasks on them before they were flown.
She spotted Roger. He was standing off to one side, his model under his arm, and conversing with some other boys. She was immediately struck by his handsome face and his slim body. He had a certain air of repose about him as if his innocence and virginity were tempered by a knowledge far beyond his years. Elizabeth watched him fly the plane, laughing and worrying as the model went through various crises in the air and finally fell to the earth splintering one wing in the process.
The boys on the field began gathering their model planes and leaving. Soon all had left except Roger who was bending over the model, trying to repair the injured wing. The shadows were beginning to creep across the field. Elizabeth approached the boy.
"Can I help you?" She asked.
The boy smiled up at her and pointed to the broken wing as if no one could help. "Why did it break?"
"I don't know," replied the boy, "it never happened before."
Finally Roger gave up and began to walk back to the base. Elizabeth walked by his side. As they passed a clump of bushes, Elizabeth fell to the ground clutching her side. The boy dropped the plane and rushed to her.
"Help me near the bushes," she said, quietly, as if she was suffering greatly.
The boy helped her crawl into the clump and took off his jacket, cradling it beneath her head.
Elizabeth smiled during our interview when she remembered how smoothly her plan had proceeded.
"The boy played into my hands. When I feigned illness, I was afraid he would run for help immediately which would have spoiled the plan. But he was too polite. He would not leave me. Everything was going perfect. We were in a clump of bushes. His jacket was beneath my head.
He was kneeling beside me, a terrible frown of worry creasing his face. Roger kept asking me what was the matter. But all I did was moan and mutter, talking about a vague pain in the side.
"A second later it was dark. You know how swiftly darkness comes in that part of the country. It is frightening but it was perfect for my scheme.
"I took his hand and pressed it to my breast. Roger's mouth opened in amazement and I could feel his body stiffen. But I did not stop. Forcing his hand beneath the fabric until it rested on my bare flesh, I slowly moved his hand back and forth over my nipple. The child was breathing heavily. He was frightened out of his wits.
"Taking his other hand, I pushed it inside my undergarments and slowly made it rub the inside of my thighs. The boy was almost hysterical. I kept trying to calm him but all the while never releasing the grip on his hands.
"His hand reached my opening and rested for a moment on the soft hair. I felt his body shiver. His hand began to rub between my legs. I let go of it because I was sure the boy was caught up in the passion. His hand was tender. Back and forth it glided, making warm and pliant my womanhood which nestled so poetically between the thighs.
"A cool wind moved through and made the boy rub harder. But then his hand stopped. He looked at me, withdrew his hands both from my breast and vagina and began to move away. I knew Roger was about to run. Throwing aside all subterfuge, I grabbed him and we rolled on the ground together.
"My breast was exposed. Lying on top of him I let the nipple move against his face and mouth. The boy rolled his eyes in fear and tried to escape from the flesh that moved inexorably at him, scalding his face, forcing open his mouth to taste the erect lust of my quivering nipples.
"My breast was crushed against his lips. He could not avoid it. We lay there and my fingers began to remove his pants, ripping the fabric, trying to get to his maleness which I could feel was beginning to vibrate beneath the weight of my body.
"Then my fingers reached flesh. That innocent maleness leaped into my hand with great force and seemed to respond with instant passion. I had a twisting, vibrating weapon in my grasp.
"Roger began to struggle. He wanted to remain a virgin. He wanted to gather his model plane under his arm and return to the sheltering discipline of his father. But I had other things in mind. What happened next can only be described as rape. I raped the boy. That, I cannot deny.
"I opened my legs and slid onto that twisting weapon. His struggles were to no avail. The boy gasped as he felt his penetration. We were joined. I began to move up and down and from side to side, using my buttocks to make that moment memorable.
"His hands pushed against my breasts in order to dislodge me but they were too feeble for now I was caught in an emotion that transcended my scheme. I was a woman, my womanhood impaled by that most precious of instruments. Roger began to cry. He could not control the thing between his legs and my vagina made it sing with a new song, a song of lust which was beyond his comprehension. Leaning over, I forced my tongue into his mouth and played with that opening. His maleness grew to a wondrous size within me and in spite of himself he began to bounce off the ground and meet each of my thrusts with all the power of his young body. My head was twirling under the pressure of that organ biting deeper and deeper, ever upwards, into my interior.
"Then his face became a mask of fear. It was happening. His maleness had reached the point of no return and a moment later the hot liquid shot upward into my body, completely devastating both of us, sending the boy's body into a spasm of release and leaving him sobbing on the ground. I rolled off of him, amused by my new role as a rapist.
"Thus ended the first part of my plan. It had worked to precision. I dressed the trembling boy, licking the liquid from his body, like a mother cat with her kitten."
Elizabeth then began to plan the second part of her scheme. But first she had to overcome the terrible fear of her that had been planted in the boy. She continually sought him out but every time she approached the boy would run, his eyes down, a bright red flush flooding his body.
Finally, she cornered him and apologized for her actions. She told the boy that she was terribly sorry but that she had been carried away because of the sudden pain in her side. She begged him to let her make it up. The boy finally said that he no longer hated her. The next day Elizabeth bought an extremely expensive model plane and brought it to him. The boy did not want to accept the gift at first but his childish greed proved too powerful and he began to rip the paper off the box.
Elizabeth drove the boy out to the field. They assembled the plane and spent the whole afternoon flying it. The model worked to perfection. On the way back to the base in her car, Elizabeth put the second part of her plan into operation; which was to completely remove Roger's sexual tension.
She pulled off to one side of the road. The boy asked what was the matter. Elizabeth began to speak to him about sex, telling him that he should be pleased to have been initiated into such delicacies. Gradually the boy began to relax. Her voice seemed to have an hypnotic effect on him.
Taking him by the hand, she led him into the back seat. She undressed and lay nude on the seat, a feast of flesh before his eyes and hands. Elizabeth continued to speak to him softly trying to put power into his hands, trying to give him the courage to explore her body on his own.
The words began to take effect totally. Elizabeth described to me the following remarkable events:
"Roger placed one hand on my stomach. My flesh was tight with expectation. His fingers began to roam. I moved my body ever so slightly to encourage him. Then he pressed his mouth in the space between my breasts. I felt a growing passion in the child, a passion that would one day grow into a volcano.
"His lips kissed my nipples again and again as if he had found some wondrous source of nourishment in them. My breath came heavily, laden with the joy of his mouth. And then, slowly, an inch at a time, the child's mouth began to travel down my body. Each inch it passed, it left a moment of intense love, a patch of skin that had been loved by a virgin mouth. For the first time, I forgot my scheme and thought only of the moment, the passion of the second. Spreading my legs I waited with anticipation for the eventual movement toward the fruit of my body, nestled at the apex of the thighs.
"His lips were there. I cried out. They had joined with the lips of my flower. My vagina was like a petal that began to open before some rich, fertile rain that drenched it. His lips were, however, only the funnel through which his tongue would pass.
"It was in me. Like some horrible wrath that had been released from a cave of hell, the child's tongue entered my flower with a force and lust I had never experienced. It drove me into an absolute frenzy. As it was within me, all that I could think of was that I needed his maleness against my tongue.
"I pulled at his body until he was on top of me, his tongue still moving deeper and deeper toward my vital juices. Then, it was in front of my tongue. I caught the tip of his flaming maleness. The moment I did that, his tongue, without a pause, went so deep and so far into my waiting body that I could only swallow that maleness. We stayed together like that. Our mouths were like ancient chariots running through the other's body, sucking out every drop of lust and bringing to the closed car a crescendo of limitless passion. Tongue and flower, lips and maleness, there was no present and no past-only the heat of our bodies as the juice was sucked out.
"Together we climaxed, like two released meteors sending their essences to each other."
In spite of Elizabeth's impassioned description and her obvious desire for the boy, this incident did not change her plans. In the next few weeks they saw each other every day in various secluded spots.
And then the plan reached fruition. One day she made sure they would be discovered. The news raced through the base like wildfire. Every man, woman and child on the base was scandalized. In the officer's clubs and the enlisted men's beer halls, the only topic of conversation was Elizabeth and the base commander's son.
There was nothing left for her husband to do but resign his commision. They packed up and left the base in the dead of night. Her scheme had worked to perfection.
At the end of our interview as I was standing by the door, she said:
"Again I remind you. I have no regrets. I did what I had to do to preserve my life and my sanity. As for my husband, he will recover from the shock of leaving the Air Force."
A most remarkable woman and a most remarkable episode in the tragic casebook of military wives.