Wedding Story *Snort* Part I

A little background....Rob lived in N. Carolina and I lived in Alabama when we both joined the Army. For people who had never met our lives had an awful lot of similarities even then. We both:

• tested into Military Intelligence
• chose it as our MOS
• were scheduled to spend a very long time at Ft. Wachuka, Arizona for MI school
• decided not to wait 6 months for a school slot for MI and changed our MOS to Supply
• left for Ft. Jackson for basic training at the same time
• ended up at Ft. Lee for Supply School at the same time

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November 1993-Ft. Lee Virgina

My buddy Rideau and I had just finished basic training at Ft. Jackson and had arrived in Virgina to begin training for Supply. Because Thanksgiving was only a few days away we were not able to start school immediately and were held up in the Reception Company. We spent a week helping decorate for Thanksgiving and getting used to the quirks of a new set of Drill Sergeants.

A few days after Thanksgiving a new group from Ft. Jackson joined us. Rideau and I were taking a break by the picnic tables when I first laid eyes on Rob. He had the most beautiful blue eyes I had ever seen...and a grin that made my toes curl.

A day or two later we were all bused to a new company to begin school. There were only about 25 of us in the class and we spent all day every day together. Really. We were up at 4am for physical training and spent the rest of the day together marching to school, eating, sitting in class and doing whatever strange chores the Drill Sergeants could dream up. We all got to know each other very well.

We figured out that the average couple dating might spend 12 hours a week together...12 hours of their best...best behavior, well dressed and smelling nice... We spent around 17 hours A DAY together...rarely at our best...It is damn hard to look cute grunting through your 5th set up push ups. At some point we figured out that us "dating" for one week was the equivalent of regular people dating for almost 10 weeks...

By Christmas we knew we loved each other...we also knew that in a few weeks we would be graduating from school and heading our separate ways.

That day came and Rob, who was National Guard, headed home. Rideau and I were both Active duty and a few hours after graduation we boarded a plane for Ft. Knox, Kentucky.

To be continued....