I was in the Marine Corp. My roommate in the Corps did not drive. Her stepdad wanted her to learn how to drive so he bought her a new car and flew her and I down to Georgia to pick it up. I became the sole driver of this car until she learned how to drive. She decided, once we returned back to DC with her new car, she wanted me to take her to the Army barracks to visit an old boyfriend that lived there.

We drove over to the Army base and went to the room at the barracks where she thought he stayed and knocked on the door. This guy answered the door. He looked at both of us as if we were looking for trouble and swore up and down we were military officers’ daughters. We tried to convince him we were at the Marine Barracks. We told him to come to the Iwo Jima Memorial ceremony held every Tuesday and we would both be there. I never thought we would see him again. To my surprise, my friend came over to me and showed me what she had found. It was him, standing there with his friend in shock to believe we really were in the military.

We started dating which caused much distress between both of our units, he Army, me Marines. Too much discontent between the two service rivals. But, we were bound to be together. We dated a while and then decided to get married. We were unable to marry in a church because our schedules were too hectic with both of us going in different directions. So, we married through a JP at the Old Town Alexandria courthouse. No honeymoon, no big wedding. Months later, he received orders to South Korea and two weeks later I was pregnant with our first child. We made it through those tough times, and 19 years later we are still married. We have both gotten out of the military, but thank our lucky stars each day that if we wouldn’t have served our country, we wouldn’t be together today. He truly is my soul mate and I wouldn’t trade him for the world.