Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
A soldier, a nurse and undying love
Married within 2 weeks celebrate 50 years
WINTER PARK — It was after midnight at a U.S. Army hospital in Vietnam when nurse Soni Talbert met the man she’d marry within two weeks.
The problem, however, was that it wasn’t clear if he was going to live.
He was wheeled in on a stretcher by corpsmen, soon after shrapnel from an artillery strike severed an artery in his right leg. By the time Lt. David Talbert arrived at the 3rd Surgical Hospital in Dong Tam in the midst of the Vietnam War, he’d lost more than half of his blood. He was in danger of losing his leg — and life.
Within two weeks David Talbert and Lt. Soni Talbert tied the knot at another hospital in Vietnam. Now, both 72 and living in Winter Park, they’ll celebrate their 50th anniversary in December.
“I just had a feeling of ‘this is someone special,’ ” Soni Talbert said. “We both just knew we were right for each other.”
David Talbert didn’t meet Soni until his second day in the hospital. The first day was spent unconscious as a surgeon saved his right leg by replacing the severed artery with a vein from his left leg.
Neither David or Soni had plans for marriage. They envisioned themselves having careers in the U.S. Army. But upon awaking after surgery, David and Soni, who once lived a short drive apart in Pennsylvania, hit it off immediately.
“It took us to go to Vietnam to meet,” David Talbert said. “About the third day [in the hospital] I said, ‘if you’re not careful, I’m going to ask you to marry me,’ and she said, ‘watch out, I just might say yes.’”
David Talbert wasn’t long for the short-term hospital in Dong Tam, as he was transferred to another hospital in Saigon days after his surgery.
There, David Talbert got the good news that he soon would be bound for Japan and then on to the United States so doctors could keep an eye on his recovery.
In the meantime, a brigadier general asked if the lieutenant needed anything to improve his stay in the hospital. It was then that David Talbert broached the topic of his desire to marry Soni.
“Had I gone through the evacuation process … we’d have never seen each other again,” David Talbert said. “It was just something that we both, for some reason, knew it was right.”
Behind the scenes, the brigadier general pulled some strings and before long a helicopter had scooped up his bride-to-be and brought her to Saigon while she was off duty.
Hours of paperwork later the couple was married with David Talbert’s best man holding the wounded groom upright for the ceremony.
After the wedding, Soni Talbert returned to the hospital in Dong Tam, where she had to pick up extra shifts as punishment for the missed time for the wedding. David Talbert ended up never leaving Vietnam and upon being cleared for duty he became a military police officer.
They returned home after their tours, and Soni Talbert left the Army after less than three years when she gave birth to the couple’s twin daughters, Janice and Jennifer.
Throughout David Talbert’s 28-year Army tenure, the family’s travels spanned across the globe. They lived in the Italian Riviera, in Oman and in Saudi Arabia.
“Between the four of us, I’d guess we’ve visited over 100 countries,” said Janice Talbert, of Casselberry.
Her sister, Jennifer, is now married with two children in Tampa.
David Talbert retired in 1992 after his third tour in Saudi Arabia during the first Persian Gulf War.
He left a decorated lieutenant colonel with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his overall service in combat. David Talbert said he never lost a soldier in battle.