An Army Wedding

By: Tracy Pauline

My husband and I are both in the United States Army. We have now
been married for 13 months and I would just like to share how my last 13
months have been.

My husband proposed to me on March 6, 2002. He did the whole romantic
evening to make the night special. He took me to my favorite restaurant
then took me to an old football stadium where we had spent several romantic
nights. He got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife. I was so
excited, I called my parents as soon as we got home.

We had planned on a fall wedding. I wanted to get married on my parents
anniversery because they have been married for 25 years and it seemed like a
good date. Later that week I came down on orders to Afghanistan to support
Operation Enduring Freedom. My husband and I talked it over and decided to
go to the court house and get married. This is typical in the military
because there is just not enough time to plan a wedding. So six days after
we got engaged we were married. Our wedding consisted of the Magistrate,
his wife, my husband, and I. It was during our lunch break from work and we
were dressed in our fatigues. That was pretty memorable.

Anyway I left my new husband for Afghanistan just under a month later. I
spent seven and a half months overseas. This was really hard being a
newlyweds. Needless to say we spent our honeymoon on opposite sides of the
globe.

I returned in December of 2002 and had a wedding to plan. I'm really
traditional so I wanted the white dress, dad to walk me down the isle, and
to be married by a minister. So once again we planned on getting married
for the second time on our one year anniversary. That went okay, my mom
helped plan it since it was in my hometown. We had everything planned in
three months.

The weekend before my husband and I were supposed to leave for our wedding
I get called into work. My boss told me I was not to go on leave and he was
sorry I was going to be deployed that next week. That really broke my
heart. Weddings cost a lot of money and I was going to have to tell my
parents that the bride was going to be missing. Yeah right! Anyway I was
called at 7:00 pm to tell me to go on leave but I had to be back to work the
following Monday.

My husband and I were both present for our wedding and had a wonderful
day. The wedding was beautiful.

I went back to work the Monday after my wedding, after a twelve hour
drive, and recovering from a fierce hang-over. My boss tells me I'm
deploying. So that brings me here, to the country of Kuwait, a week after
my second wedding, and my second honeymoon away from my husband. In the 13
months we have been married we have spent a total of 4 months together.
Those were the best four months though! Hopefully I will return soon and
actually be able to take a real honeymoon that includes my husband.

By: Tracy Pauline