Robert Wilfahrt

The crisis in Cambodia apparently is over, and for at least one New Ulm woman the news brings with it a short sigh of relief.

For Gerri Wilfahrt of 706 N. Garden, the past 24 hours have been rough.

They have been hours spent paying close attention to her television set when the international news has been playing.

FOR MRS. WILFAHRT, it’s something she’s been doing a lot during the past month or so. That and listening to the radio and studying the Minneapolis Tribune.

But when she’s been watching the last day or two, she’s been doing it with even more intensity than usual.

For conflict was brewing in Cambodia,and for Mrs. Wilfahrt, it was not trouble that was brewing worlds away.

HER 19-YEAR-OLD son Robert is in the Navy,aboard the U.S.S. Coral Sea, which was reported heading toward Cambodia.

That is why the papers, the television,the radio, the friends and relatives who also scour the media, have been so important to her.

Since the first of April, communications with Robert have been cut off because he has been at sea. That communications blackout was to last for about 30 days, according to a communique Mrs. Wilfahrt received from the Navy; but it’s been more than six weeks since she’s heard anything.

“It’s really a strange feeling to know your son is half-way around the world,and the only way you know where he is is by reading about it in the newspaper,” she says.

IT WAS in the newspaper that she learned the Coral Sea was heading toward Cambodia. It had been heading toward Australia after backup action in the refugee rescue in Vietnam but, according to news reports, turned back toward Cambodia when the latest crisis started.

When she originally got the communique from the Navy, Mrs. Wilfahrt says, she wasn’t too concerned, particularly about Cambodia. Vietnam was on her mind at the time.

“I just thought that they were going out on maneuvers,” she says. “I did wonder at the time if they’d be in with Vietnam.”

ROBERT’S CONNECTION with the refugee rescue was limited and most of the tension left Mrs. Wilfahrt. She’s continued to write even though she hasn’t been getting the weekly letters from him like she’s used to ever since he entered the service for computer training 1.5 years ago.

“I keep writing letters — he said that they’ll stockpile up and be waiting for him at the dock – to let him know we’re thinking of him,” she says.

During the Cambodian conflict, she was thinking about him a little bit more than usual. She says she can understand that periodic reports from the Navy on her son’s situation would be impractical.

BUT THE communications blackout itself is something she can’t quite accept. Not only would occasional letters take some of the pressure off her, they would probably boost morale of the troops as well, she says. Of the Cambodian crisis, she’s a bit more pragmatic.

“You hate to see your son over there,”she said before the crisis ended,”but I suppose we have to try to get this ship out. We can’t leave Americans over there.”

But the crisis is over, and Mrs. Wilfahrt can relax again-a little bit anyway .For now, she continues to wait to hear from him, and she finds that not hearing from him reminds her of where he is more than hearing from him: “You just find yourself often saying, “Well, I wonder where he is now.'”

New Ulm Daily Journal

May 15, 1975