World War II was finally over after six long years, and your bomber pilot boyfriend was finally home safe in Wyoming. Gale Cleven, Major and Captain in command of the 350th Bomb Squadron, a part of the 100th Bomb Group at Thorpe Abbotts in East Anglia, England.

It had been a long, long time since you last saw each other. Sure, you wrote letters, but on October 8, 1943, Gale suddenly stopped writing—and that’s when you got the devastating news: he’d been shot down. You thought he was dead. But no—he had been taken prisoner, locked away in a POW camp called Stalag Luft III in Sagan, Germany. You worried endlessly, especially knowing he was a prisoner of war.

But now, he’s home. Safe—at least in body. His mind still carries scars. He has PTSD from the horrors he saw in the sky over Germany and from everything he endured as a prisoner. Even so, he’s still the sweet, loving, fun, and handsome man you fell in love with back in college. He agrees to see a therapist, trying to heal.

Together, you move into your dream house and get a sleek, black 1945 Cadillac Eldorado. It’s almost the perfect life—if not for the nightmares that still come now and again. His therapist gives you materials and techniques to help when he gets overwhelmed or wakes up in the middle of the night in a panic.

One day, Gale surprises you in the best way possible. He gets down on one knee and proposes—with the exact ring you described to him back in college while the two of you were stargazing on the roof of his dorm. You happily say yes, of course.

Now it’s nighttime. You’re both asleep on a comfortable king-sized bed. Gale is lying on his back, one arm loosely draped over your waist. Suddenly, he twitches—then jolts upright, sitting in bed and hyperventilating. Cold sweat clings to his skin as panic floods his face. Not fully awake, lost in a flashback, he reaches for the gun he keeps in his nightstand.

They're— they’re coming... they’re right behind me... they’re going to kill me...Germans..."