On A Moonlit Evening
Authored By: Bradley Chapline
February 2026
Authored By: Bradley Chapline
February 2026
Preface
Born in the early 1950’s, I was a very happy child, that is, prior to a malicious attack put upon me by my older brother that left me with a deformed right eye probably for the rest of my life. As much as I always wanted to become part of our mainstream society, it just was not possible. With a crazy right eye that would periodically pop up and down in its socket, I would forever be labeled as an outcast, and a perfect target for bullies.
This, however, would not stop me from trying to overcome the many obstacles that I would face in my future. I just wanted my family to love me. I just wanted my neighborhood acquaintances to like me. I just wanted a girlfriend to be with me.
But, there was, however, a short time that I did have a girlfriend. It would have to be kept secret. Simply because she was as much an outcast as I was in our township of Perry Hall, a small Christian Conservative community located on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland.
Once our secret relationship had been exposed, it had quickly dissolved.
While I did have a few friends during my childhood, they too were all hard luck outcasts. I didn’t go to school dances, and was unqualified for academic activities. In fact, I rarely showed up for classes once I had been released on good behavior from the Maryland State Reformatory For Boys. In my junior high school year, I had been found guilty of blowing up a portion of the school’s plumbing system with a fortified cherry bomb.
My entry, after high school into the U.S. Marine Corps was not a voluntary act. My arrest record brought a juvenile judge to order me into the Marines, or face certain adult penitentiary time. It was not an easy choice for me, for I could not swim. But, I still chose the Marine Corps over prison time.
It didn’t take me long to regret my choice of the Marine Corps.
My drill instructors were informed of my past and therefore hated me to the point where the beatings I endured from them were extremely severe. For punishment, I went to every disciplinary motivation camp the boot camp had to offer. The beatings were even worse there than I had ever experienced before. I only graduated from boot camp because I had refused to file assault charges against my drill instructors. I had to assume the Marine Corps had found some type of honor in that.
Part One
Returning to the home of my mother and father on leave after boot camp, I had soon worn out my welcome. I then met a girl named Karen. She was from the uptown part of Perry Hall. A seemingly decent girl with good morals and standards, we began dating. But, even this relationship had to be kept secret. Karen made it clear that there wasn’t any way her parents would accept me and my checkered past as her boyfriend.
I would meet Karen a couple of blocks away from her home to pick her up. She was as pretty as a blooming flower. She liked me. And she knew about my crazy right eye. I would gently hold her hand, and open all doors for her. At our candlelight dinners we sat shoulder to shoulder, and fed each other with romantic kisses in between each bite of food. Karen would periodically pull the tablecloth over her lap and pull my hand upwards on her left leg and underneath her dress. I would, each time, gently pull my hand away. I didn’t want to corrupt our budding relationship. But, Karen was persistent. I kept resisting though, even in a darkened movie theatre.
After two weeks of being together, Karen’s parents had found out about our relationship. They invited me, in kind of a forceful manner over to their house for dinner.
Both Karen and I knew this was not going to go well.
When I rang the door bell to their upper class home, the father answered. While giving me a hateful look, he invited me inside. Karen’s mother refused to recognize me. Everyone at the table watched me closely as I fumbled through my silverware at each course of the dinner meal.
Karen’s father had somehow found out many things about my past. He disclosed everything he knew about me to the rest of his family during dinner. I just wanted to get out of their house.
Once out the front door, Karen came running after me. She kept apologizing. But, I wasn’t mad at Karen. I wasn’t even mad at her father. I knew he was just trying to protect his daughter.
For the last two weeks of my military leave I had planned on going back to Perry Hall Senior High school to meet Karen. But the school principal, my old nemesis, was waiting on me. He made it clear that if I came back on school property again, without his permission, he would have me arrested.
Karen and I would still, on occasion, talk on the phone. She had made plans to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night while the rest of her family was asleep. We met three more times until her father caught us together, once again. He made it clear to me that if his daughter did not pass a virginity test, he would have me arrested for statutory rape of his underaged daughter. I was nineteen, Karen was seventeen.
I had not had sex with Karen. But, for some reason I was scared of what the results of Karen’s virginity test would be, so I left Perry Hall and reported to my first duty station, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
Part Two
My hard luck continued upon reporting at Camp Lejeune. Two black militant type Marines robbed me of all my money while I was asleep in my bunk.. I had wanted to buy Karen a diamond ring at the Post Exchange with some of the money that was stolen from me. But now, if I still wanted to get Karen a diamond ring, I would have to go out to the local pawn shops in Jacksonville, North Carolina, a known place to rip off Marines. After getting Karen a nice ring, and borrowing enough money from the pawn shop to go on weekend liberty to Baltimore that coming weekend, I would be virtually broke for more than a few pay periods. But, I was in love with Karen, and to me, she was worth it.
Seeing Karen that weekend just warmed my heart. We went parking on a Saturday evening in a secluded area of the Perry Hall Shopping Center. Even though we were making out, we were still not having sex. I gave Karen the diamond ring by sliding it on her fourth finger of her left hand and telling her I loved her. She reciprocated the same back to me. Before I knew it, our night was over. Karen had to get back home.
I returned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. In refusing to join the first sergeant’s Klu Klux Klan group, I got into a serious altercation with him. In his retaliation, I was immediately shipped off to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to stand guard in the well known worst military post in the world. The realities of these rat infested guard towers facing many armed Cuban soldiers certainly lived up to expectations.
The only thing that kept me going was my thoughts of being in love with Karen. I was only at Guantanamo Bay for several months. But, during that period, I could get no mail in or out. By the time I was shipped back to Camp Lejeune, I was placed on immediate combat deployment status to the Middle East. Still, for me, after well over several months, no mail call.
Part Three
I decided, on ship, to begin going to worship services, even though during my junior and senior high school years I hated going to church. But now, I figured with all my looming problems and stresses, listening to the battalion chaplain's sermon couldn’t possibly do me any harm. But initially, it did.
Right during the middle of his preaching he said those words that I could not stand to hear, “God has a plan for you.” I yelled outloud, “Bullshit”, and then I walked away from the chaplain’s service.
Surprisingly, later on that evening, the chaplain had sent his clerk down to my berthing compartment. The chaplain wanted to see me in his office.
The chaplain’s clerk escorting me up to officer country stayed silent. I was preparing myself for another confrontation.
But, it was a very relaxed environment with the chaplain. We talked for at least several hours.
I told the chaplain about my right eye and all that came with that deformity. He listened, intently. I detailed the molestation, abuse, negligence and bullying I had suffered in my past years. And then I said, “Forced to go to church, I would have to listen to preachers say, on a consistent basis, God has a plan for you. So, I took for granted God hated me, and I would therefore, hate him back.”
The chaplain then stood up from his chair and walked over to my side. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “I’m sorry for all you have gone through. But, you misinterpreted the Biblical saying, ‘God has a plan for you’. But, we’ll save this discussion for another time."
The chaplain assured me there would be a mail call before any of us Marines would have to face combat operations. I still loved Karen, and I was desperate to hear from her.
The chaplain was right. A couple of days later while passing the coastline of Greece, a Marine helicopter flew inland and picked up mail for all the Marines and sailors onboard our ship.
I was thrilled. I had received a bundle of letters, and a small package from Karen. In most of her letters she was angry with me for not writing to her. Inside the package she sent to me was the beautiful diamond ring I had given her. She had made it clear she wanted nothing more to do with me. Along with her sign off, was her father’s and mother’s endorsement. I sat in anguish.
Part Four
I knew it would now only be a couple of days before we Marines would face combat operations in and around Egypt and the Suez Canal. I had to somehow get my mind off the heartbreak with Karen and focus on surviving combat operations.
As much as I tried, I couldn’t sleep. I changed into my physical training attire. Although after dusk, I wanted to go do some physical exercises on the flight deck.
The captain of the ship had been easy-going in allowing non flight deck personnel access to the flight deck during hours of non-operation. But, I realized this might well be the final evening before the commencement of combat operations.
Climbing up the stairs to the flight deck, I was shocked. There was no sentry posted on the fantail of the ship. There were no sentries on the flight deck, anywhere. Something had to be wrong. But, I didn’t know what.
It was spooky when I walked freely around the ship’s high security weapons station. Still, not a sentry to be seen. Even the master-at-arms station was vacated. And most scary, I saw no movement on the ship’s bridge.
I walked towards the bow of the ship. It was a beautiful moonlit night. I climbed over the bow’s rails and interlocked my arms through the top two rails behind me. As painful as it was, I leaned forward, as far as I could over the bow of the ship. For several minutes I watched the stem of the ship cut through the ocean waters. The sea spray had soaked my face and clothes. While my entire body was shivering, I was still having the time of my life. I then raised my face to see a brilliant moonpath over the ocean waters. It literally took my breath away. I then gazed into the night sky. There seemed to be millions of stars in the nightscape. They were so beautiful I saw them as a host of heaven.
For the first time in my life I felt I may have experienced the Holy Trinity.
Odd that in the next few months after the Yom Kippur war ended, I met another love of my life while on liberty in Paris, France. Somehow, I believed the heavens may have made this possible.
I would keep my spiritual awakening a secret for decades. I didn’t ever want to chance the greatest moment of my life ever being tainted by anyone.
Born in the early 1950’s, I was a very happy child, that is, prior to a malicious attack put upon me by my older brother that left me with a deformed right eye probably for the rest of my life. As much as I always wanted to become part of our mainstream society, it just was not possible. With a crazy right eye that would periodically pop up and down in its socket, I would forever be labeled as an outcast, and a perfect target for bullies.
This, however, would not stop me from trying to overcome the many obstacles that I would face in my future. I just wanted my family to love me. I just wanted my neighborhood acquaintances to like me. I just wanted a girlfriend to be with me.
But, there was, however, a short time that I did have a girlfriend. It would have to be kept secret. Simply because she was as much an outcast as I was in our township of Perry Hall, a small Christian Conservative community located on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland.
Once our secret relationship had been exposed, it had quickly dissolved.
While I did have a few friends during my childhood, they too were all hard luck outcasts. I didn’t go to school dances, and was unqualified for academic activities. In fact, I rarely showed up for classes once I had been released on good behavior from the Maryland State Reformatory For Boys. In my junior high school year, I had been found guilty of blowing up a portion of the school’s plumbing system with a fortified cherry bomb.
My entry, after high school into the U.S. Marine Corps was not a voluntary act. My arrest record brought a juvenile judge to order me into the Marines, or face certain adult penitentiary time. It was not an easy choice for me, for I could not swim. But, I still chose the Marine Corps over prison time.
It didn’t take me long to regret my choice of the Marine Corps.
My drill instructors were informed of my past and therefore hated me to the point where the beatings I endured from them were extremely severe. For punishment, I went to every disciplinary motivation camp the boot camp had to offer. The beatings were even worse there than I had ever experienced before. I only graduated from boot camp because I had refused to file assault charges against my drill instructors. I had to assume the Marine Corps had found some type of honor in that.
Part One
Returning to the home of my mother and father on leave after boot camp, I had soon worn out my welcome. I then met a girl named Karen. She was from the uptown part of Perry Hall. A seemingly decent girl with good morals and standards, we began dating. But, even this relationship had to be kept secret. Karen made it clear that there wasn’t any way her parents would accept me and my checkered past as her boyfriend.
I would meet Karen a couple of blocks away from her home to pick her up. She was as pretty as a blooming flower. She liked me. And she knew about my crazy right eye. I would gently hold her hand, and open all doors for her. At our candlelight dinners we sat shoulder to shoulder, and fed each other with romantic kisses in between each bite of food. Karen would periodically pull the tablecloth over her lap and pull my hand upwards on her left leg and underneath her dress. I would, each time, gently pull my hand away. I didn’t want to corrupt our budding relationship. But, Karen was persistent. I kept resisting though, even in a darkened movie theatre.
After two weeks of being together, Karen’s parents had found out about our relationship. They invited me, in kind of a forceful manner over to their house for dinner.
Both Karen and I knew this was not going to go well.
When I rang the door bell to their upper class home, the father answered. While giving me a hateful look, he invited me inside. Karen’s mother refused to recognize me. Everyone at the table watched me closely as I fumbled through my silverware at each course of the dinner meal.
Karen’s father had somehow found out many things about my past. He disclosed everything he knew about me to the rest of his family during dinner. I just wanted to get out of their house.
Once out the front door, Karen came running after me. She kept apologizing. But, I wasn’t mad at Karen. I wasn’t even mad at her father. I knew he was just trying to protect his daughter.
For the last two weeks of my military leave I had planned on going back to Perry Hall Senior High school to meet Karen. But the school principal, my old nemesis, was waiting on me. He made it clear that if I came back on school property again, without his permission, he would have me arrested.
Karen and I would still, on occasion, talk on the phone. She had made plans to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night while the rest of her family was asleep. We met three more times until her father caught us together, once again. He made it clear to me that if his daughter did not pass a virginity test, he would have me arrested for statutory rape of his underaged daughter. I was nineteen, Karen was seventeen.
I had not had sex with Karen. But, for some reason I was scared of what the results of Karen’s virginity test would be, so I left Perry Hall and reported to my first duty station, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
Part Two
My hard luck continued upon reporting at Camp Lejeune. Two black militant type Marines robbed me of all my money while I was asleep in my bunk.. I had wanted to buy Karen a diamond ring at the Post Exchange with some of the money that was stolen from me. But now, if I still wanted to get Karen a diamond ring, I would have to go out to the local pawn shops in Jacksonville, North Carolina, a known place to rip off Marines. After getting Karen a nice ring, and borrowing enough money from the pawn shop to go on weekend liberty to Baltimore that coming weekend, I would be virtually broke for more than a few pay periods. But, I was in love with Karen, and to me, she was worth it.
Seeing Karen that weekend just warmed my heart. We went parking on a Saturday evening in a secluded area of the Perry Hall Shopping Center. Even though we were making out, we were still not having sex. I gave Karen the diamond ring by sliding it on her fourth finger of her left hand and telling her I loved her. She reciprocated the same back to me. Before I knew it, our night was over. Karen had to get back home.
I returned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. In refusing to join the first sergeant’s Klu Klux Klan group, I got into a serious altercation with him. In his retaliation, I was immediately shipped off to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to stand guard in the well known worst military post in the world. The realities of these rat infested guard towers facing many armed Cuban soldiers certainly lived up to expectations.
The only thing that kept me going was my thoughts of being in love with Karen. I was only at Guantanamo Bay for several months. But, during that period, I could get no mail in or out. By the time I was shipped back to Camp Lejeune, I was placed on immediate combat deployment status to the Middle East. Still, for me, after well over several months, no mail call.
Part Three
I decided, on ship, to begin going to worship services, even though during my junior and senior high school years I hated going to church. But now, I figured with all my looming problems and stresses, listening to the battalion chaplain's sermon couldn’t possibly do me any harm. But initially, it did.
Right during the middle of his preaching he said those words that I could not stand to hear, “God has a plan for you.” I yelled outloud, “Bullshit”, and then I walked away from the chaplain’s service.
Surprisingly, later on that evening, the chaplain had sent his clerk down to my berthing compartment. The chaplain wanted to see me in his office.
The chaplain’s clerk escorting me up to officer country stayed silent. I was preparing myself for another confrontation.
But, it was a very relaxed environment with the chaplain. We talked for at least several hours.
I told the chaplain about my right eye and all that came with that deformity. He listened, intently. I detailed the molestation, abuse, negligence and bullying I had suffered in my past years. And then I said, “Forced to go to church, I would have to listen to preachers say, on a consistent basis, God has a plan for you. So, I took for granted God hated me, and I would therefore, hate him back.”
The chaplain then stood up from his chair and walked over to my side. He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “I’m sorry for all you have gone through. But, you misinterpreted the Biblical saying, ‘God has a plan for you’. But, we’ll save this discussion for another time."
The chaplain assured me there would be a mail call before any of us Marines would have to face combat operations. I still loved Karen, and I was desperate to hear from her.
The chaplain was right. A couple of days later while passing the coastline of Greece, a Marine helicopter flew inland and picked up mail for all the Marines and sailors onboard our ship.
I was thrilled. I had received a bundle of letters, and a small package from Karen. In most of her letters she was angry with me for not writing to her. Inside the package she sent to me was the beautiful diamond ring I had given her. She had made it clear she wanted nothing more to do with me. Along with her sign off, was her father’s and mother’s endorsement. I sat in anguish.
Part Four
I knew it would now only be a couple of days before we Marines would face combat operations in and around Egypt and the Suez Canal. I had to somehow get my mind off the heartbreak with Karen and focus on surviving combat operations.
As much as I tried, I couldn’t sleep. I changed into my physical training attire. Although after dusk, I wanted to go do some physical exercises on the flight deck.
The captain of the ship had been easy-going in allowing non flight deck personnel access to the flight deck during hours of non-operation. But, I realized this might well be the final evening before the commencement of combat operations.
Climbing up the stairs to the flight deck, I was shocked. There was no sentry posted on the fantail of the ship. There were no sentries on the flight deck, anywhere. Something had to be wrong. But, I didn’t know what.
It was spooky when I walked freely around the ship’s high security weapons station. Still, not a sentry to be seen. Even the master-at-arms station was vacated. And most scary, I saw no movement on the ship’s bridge.
I walked towards the bow of the ship. It was a beautiful moonlit night. I climbed over the bow’s rails and interlocked my arms through the top two rails behind me. As painful as it was, I leaned forward, as far as I could over the bow of the ship. For several minutes I watched the stem of the ship cut through the ocean waters. The sea spray had soaked my face and clothes. While my entire body was shivering, I was still having the time of my life. I then raised my face to see a brilliant moonpath over the ocean waters. It literally took my breath away. I then gazed into the night sky. There seemed to be millions of stars in the nightscape. They were so beautiful I saw them as a host of heaven.
For the first time in my life I felt I may have experienced the Holy Trinity.
Odd that in the next few months after the Yom Kippur war ended, I met another love of my life while on liberty in Paris, France. Somehow, I believed the heavens may have made this possible.
I would keep my spiritual awakening a secret for decades. I didn’t ever want to chance the greatest moment of my life ever being tainted by anyone.
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