"The US Army was not keen on its soldiers marrying while on duty abroad, and the process of obtaining permission to …"The US Army was not keen on its soldiers marrying while on duty abroad, and the process of obtaining permission to wed was an elaborate one. A commanding officer had to approve the application, and write a letter to the civil or church authority who would conduct the marriage, having interviewed the GI in question. The potential bride was also subject to questioning, usually by an army chaplain, and was required to provide character references. The Army did its best to dissuade prospective brides, who were often accused of using marriage as a ticket to a more prosperous country. Meanwhile, checks were made into any dependents of the GI in the US, to ensure that the husband could afford to keep his new wife. Unsurprisingly, the process often took many months, but any GI caught violating the Army's strict procedures was subject to a court martial." (pg 57)In the book, GI Brides: The Wartime Girls Who Crossed the Atlantic for Love by authors Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi, tells the personal stories of four war brides who weren't looking for love during WWII but love eventually found them. Sylvia Bradley, Rae Brewer, Margaret Boyle and Gwendolyn Rowe, all share their very different accounts of the war, their service, family life and what it was like coming to America. The stories are bittersweet because you realize that they were virtually leaving their entire life behind to follow the man they loved to come to a country where they knew no one. Their stories of one of courage, admiration and strength in the direst of circumstances and for some they didn't find the American dream but instead found a nightmare in the man they though they knew. In my history classes, I remember learning about the lives of the more than 70,000 war brides that came to American looking for a …