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today, "Frank Borman is the most uncomplicated man I have ever known." His passionate desire to dedicate his entire being to the military actually made him doubt the concept of marriage. To his straightforward mind, it had to be all or nothing. Only six months after arriving at West Point he wrote Susan a letter, explaining that he simply didn't have time for her anymore. With naïve innocence he had decided that he was going to live an obsessed, almost monklike existence in devotion to the cause of freedom.
     

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Susan Borman, 1946. 
Credit: Borman
Susan Bugbee was heartbroken. Up until that moment Frank had been the only man in her life. After crying her eyes out she decided to try and put Frank Borman from her mind. She began dating other high school boys.
Not more than three months later, Frank Borman realized how incredibly stupid he had been. He wrote Susan again, trying to repair their relationship. This time, however, she wasn't going to be so easy to get. While she didn't reject his offer outright, neither did she accept it. He had hurt her, and Susan had no intention of letting him hurt her again. Besides, she was now being wooed by a number of other boys.
For his sophomore and junior years at West Point Frank Borman did live like a monk, though not for his original reasons. He dated no one, and instead courted Susan by mail, sending her presents and gifts whenever he could. When he came back to Tucson during school breaks she was the first
     

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person he called. And though they dated, the relationship did not have its previous spark. Susan kept her distance. She wasn't going to be fooled again.
By the time of Frank's senior year in 1950 Susan was attending the University of Pennsylvania, studying dental hygiene. Several times he invited her to visit him at West Point, and she had gone. She still liked Frank despite everything, and could not make a clean break. Yet, she was also involved with another Pennsylvania student, and that relationship was starting to get serious.
Frank decided he simply didn't have a chance with Susan. After trying for two years to change her mind he had failed. It was time to move on and start dating other women. He called up a woman he had known in high school and asked her to come to West Point for a date. Not long after he gave her a ring and arranged for their wedding at the West Point Chapel when he graduated in June.
It wasn't right. In all the years at West Point he had not been able to get Susan out of his system. Within weeks he canceled the wedding, telling the woman that their fleeting engagement had been a big mistake. ''I was a jerk," he admits humbly. He wrote Susan to invite her to come to his graduation.
She meanwhile had broken up with the dentistry student. She too couldn't get Frank Borman from her mind. Yet, when Frank asked her to come to his graduation but didn't mention anything about marriage Susan had finally had enough. She decided to take a big gamble. She told him "No." She went home to Tucson, hoping that by playing hard to get this last time she might at last get him . "I was terrified it wouldn't work."
Graduation at West Point was an important day in Frank Borman's life. And yet, he was unsatisfied. All the other graduates seemed to have fiancées. He was alone.
He knew now how much he needed Susan. As he and his parents made the long drive back to Tucson, he decided that he wouldn't take no for an answer, that merely getting together with Susan was insufficient. He was determined that she should be his wife.
Frank Borman was genuinely surprised how easy it was to convince Susan to change her mind and marry him. She only smiled slyly and said yes. She knew that the convincing had really been done by her.
     

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July 20, 1950. Frank and Susan Borman on their wedding 
day, Tucson, Arizona. 
Credit: Borman
On July 20th, 1950, in a church in Tucson, Frank Borman and Susan Bugbee became husband and wife, forming a