The year was 1972 – Roger Smith was home for two weeks on vacation from Paris Island, South Carolina. Roger had been working at the Marine training facility ever since he returned home from two tours in Vietnam. A Walton County, Georgia product who’d been the valedictorian of his class at Monroe Area high school. Roger had recently been promoted to Sergeant – which was a big achievement for Roger and his family – His mother Maria, and his father Richard Smith, were very proud of all that Roger had accomplished. He was their one and only heart. Roger was only the second African American to be promoted to Sergeant during his marine service. But Roger felt with hard work and God’s blessing, he could someday be a Colonel. but Roger desperately wanted to return home to Georgia – pending a transfer to Fort Benning. Roger was very fond of South Carolina, but Georgia was his home and where he’d met his childhood sweetheart – old habits die hard. Richard and Maria had always been against him seeing Caroline because she was caucasian. Race relations were very strained in the south and Roger had been secretly seeing Caroline – the daughter of a powerful real estate agent in Walton County, Jeffery Arnold. Roger and Caroline had dated since they were in 10th grade, so it was only natural that Roger’s parents feared the worse. A few people in the white community knew of Caroline and Roger’s secret love; whereas nearly everyone in the black community knew and often wondered why Roger would risk so much- coming from the deep south. But the couple was undeterred – even when Roger was sent to Vietnam on his two tours of duty. Caroline’s ‘letters and prayers got him through hell and back,’  he would often say. On this specific trip back home to Georgia, Roger planned to take Caroline back to South Carolina with him to be married – against the wishes of an uncaring, hateful world. The two were inseparable for the two weeks Roger was home; walking and talking along the Appalachee river each day and night, pondering their future together against all odds – knowing that to be together, they would have to endure unimaginable hell from their parents and society as a whole. Roger’s parents came to the conclusion of: if that’s what makes you truly happy Roger – then you have our blessing one hundred percent. But Richard knew Caroline’s father wouldn’t be so peaceful at a time like this – once he found out his daughter’s plans. Soon enough, Jeffery got wind of his daughter’s unexplained, extended periods of absences for the past two weeks. A farmhand who worked for Jeffery saw Caroline and Roger walking along the Apalachee River more than once – even witnessing them checking into a motel. Caroline had told her best friend Jane that she was leaving – and with Roger! They were to be married in South Carolina on Paris Island. Caroline had never saw the world like Roger – Roger had been around the world 3 times with his marine unit. To Roger, people were just plain ole people.