Sally Edwards (SE) and Lue Hutchinson (LH)
SE: Jack was killed very early in the air war. They were the cover for a medical mission. The helicopter lost its top rotor blade, and they didn’t make it back.
LH: Tom went to the Army, and then he did something that I thought was absolutely stupid–he learned how to jump out of perfectly good airplanes. But he loved it. It was the last day of the war. I worked in Wal-Mart, and we found out the war had ended. I was ecstatic when I went home–and came home to a driveway full of cars. Not knowing at that time, until my stepson came out, and told me Tommy was gone.
SE: Tommy’s death was in the newspaper. And I wanted somebody to talk to because it wasn’t like World War II and Vietnam when everybody had a neighbor who’d lost somebody, so, I wrote to you. I thought if you responded maybe I’d have somebody that I could talk to about how you felt and how I felt.
LH: And your letter was absolutely right on the deck. And those words, if you need help, and you want to talk, I’m here , and that’s what I needed.
SE: And so did I, or I wouldn’t have written the letter. The last 22 years would have been hell without you, Lue.
LH: It would have been hell without you, too.
SE: Because what’s in our hearts we share
LH: When you’re the mother, and your child dies in that horrific way, the memory gets tolerable, but never really really goes away.
SE: I don’t know what I would do if on a bad day I couldn’t pick up the phone and call you and share it.
LH: Neither could I.
Kentucky residents Sally Edwards (left) and Lue Hutchinson (right) both had sons serving in the Gulf War. Sally’s son, Jack, was a Marine captain. Lue’s son, Tom Butts, was an Army staff sergeant. The two men, both killed in February of 1991, never knew each other, but today, their mothers are best friends.
At StoryCorps, they discuss their friendship and share what they have meant to each other’s lives over the years.