Hi, new here! A few things about me:
I am a Marine wife myself, so I might be able to help answer some of the policy-related questions that come up and I'm also a native Knoxvillian, so Erin's case hits close to home with me two-fold. To date, I'm embarrassed with the coverage that the local paper (Knoxville News-Sentinel) has given this case, but I have to assume that, based on the way the "Locate Erin" FB page is being run (prayers only please/what affair?), it is because JC & EC's families aren't making themselves readily available for the local media angle, etc. Anyway -- hi, all!
To reply to the quote above: I think for a 19 year old involved in a sloppy, hormone-filled, affair in a small, nosy, military community, she would have agreed to go just about anywhere to spend a few hours alone with the guy she's lusting after. Having lived on Marine base in junior enlisted housing (many many moons ago!), I can tell you that there's not a lot of privacy. People sit out on their porches and just watch what everyone else is doing. When you hear people say the Marine Corps is a small world, it's true. You see people you know all the time -- all the time! So, they couldn't just have an affair on their lunch hours like normal, mature civilians do. Many young wives don't often have jobs that provide them with an excuse to be out of the house at certain times (EC & CL didn't even have the horse rescue place, as it seems NL was very involved there as well) and many families are one-car families, so they have no way of rendezvousing with a suitor. If I had to guess, I would say that this outing between EC & CL was planned at least a week in advance. I don't know if that adds anything to the case, since this seems pretty cut and dry, but I just wanted to share my (indirect) experiences with military extramarital affairs. Unfortunately, they happen a lot! What EC did is/was shocking to the public and probably her religious southern family, but it's very normal here on the 'green side.'
