They met at a USO dance. He was a sailor from West Bethlehem serving on a submarine in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. She was a stenographer in a department store in her hometown of Brisbane, Australia. On July 3, 2013, that American sailor and his Australian stenographer war bride, George and Audrey Wolle of Bethlehem, will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary with family and friends.

The Wolle's recently reflected on the circumstances of their meeting, romance and marriage that took place during the hectic and fearful days of World War II. She would leave her native Australia behind her as a war bride and emigrate to the United States for their lifetime together.

Brisbane had become a port of refuge for American submarines patrolling the Pacific during the months after the Japanese Dec. 7, 1941, attack on the American fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor. In the Brisbane River, American subs would undergo repairs, restock operational supplies, and the crews would have some time for rest and relaxation.

USO dances were one outlet for the American sailors and on his first night of liberty in the fall of 1942, George Wolle, a 22-year-old Yeoman 3rd Class from Bethlehem serving on the USS Gato, attended a USO dance held at a venue called the Railway Institute. Twenty-year-old Audrey Jackson also attended these events regularly with her girlfriends and met George. They danced together that night and have ever since. Both say it was love at first sight.

Their romance bloomed as he took her to dinner and movies during layovers. Repairs to submarines generally took time to be completed, and allowed time for their crews to unwind from the rigors of undersea wartime operations.

On St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1943, George proposed to Audrey while they were attending a parade. She accepted.

They married on July 3, 1943, and were fortunate enough to have time for a two-week honeymoon at a resort in Montville, Queensland. George was soon back at sea on patrol.

According to a Presidential Citation issued by then Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, a copy of which Wolle has in his possession, between January 1943 and April 1944, the Gato undertook five war patrols in enemy controlled waters sinking 13 Japanese ships and damaging another five.

Later in 1944 Wolle was reassigned to Portsmouth, N.H., were he awaited completion of a new submarine, the USS Trutta. In September 1944, Audrey journeyed from Australia on the Lurline, a luxury liner converted for wartime use. She was one of 200 war brides traveling with marines, soldiers, sailors and wounded to the United States. Her voyage was a tense one fraught with high security measures and six brides generally confined to a cabin each day of their journey.

Arriving in San Francisco she traveled by train to New York City's Penn Station, where George and his brother picked her up. Initially, she lived with George's mother in Bethlehem, and later she would join him in Portsmouth and later New London, Conn., where by now the USS Trutta was undergoing sea trials.

George was soon back in the Pacific Theatre and Audrey returned to Bethlehem. When the war ended in September 1945, the USS Trutta reported to New Orleans and Audrey traveled by train to join her husband. They returned to New London where George was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy in July 1946 and took a job working in a lumber yard.

Their daughter Karen was born in December 1946 and six weeks later they returned to Bethlehem, where they've lived ever since.

George took a job as a freight car repairman with the Jersey Central (later Conrail) Railroad, where he would carve out a 43-year career. Audrey worked at Hess's Department store as a salesperson in the basement lady's department. Their son George, Jr. was born in June 1952.

In their retirement years they've continued vacationing at a favorite Maine destination and taken bus trips to Florida and Louisiana. They've attended Navy submarine crew reunions, but George says there are now only one or two other submariners left from those crews.

George, Jr. battled cystic fibrosis and passed away in 1996. Their daughter Karen married Rod Apple and they have three daughters who have produced four great grandchildren. Audrey proudly credits their great grandchildren's athletic prowess to her Australian bloodline.

She has returned to Australia just once since coming to the United States, a 1980 trip when they spent one month visiting with her family.

"It had changed a lot, of course," she says. One of her girlfriends who used to accompany her to those USO dances is still living in Brisbane.

Their secret for seventy years of matrimony seems simple. George says that it's "compromise." He adds, "We disagree, but we manage and we've never had a serious argument." Audrey agrees. "We get along well together, even though we disagree occasionally," she says, "and, we both like sports; football, hockey and baseball, all of the Philadelphia teams."