My husband and I met in July of 1998 when we were both in the Army.  We were stationed at Fort Lewis, WA.  I was in the 14th Combat Engineering Battalion and he was in the 9th Finance Division.  Our barracks were across from each other with Patrick's unit being a tenant unit in our barracks.  Thanks to First Sergeant Mabini, I was on on duty in Patrick's barracks on a Friday in late July.  Barracks CQ duty was a 24 hour shift from 9am-9am.  During non-working hours we were allowed to bring our TV to the desk and watch videos.  The week prior to this fateful night I had taken a trip to Las Vegas and won over $300 with which I bought the entire series of Blackadder videos.  I popped the first one in after dinner when all residents in the barracks were coming in to pick up their mail.  A guy with gray hair and glasses came up to me and started asking me about my videos and actually seemed to be familiar with Blackadder.  I didn't really think much about it.  Being in a unit with about 500 men and 30 women, I got used to random men coming up and talking to me or asking me out on dates.  Most of the night passed as normal, watching TV and writing letters to friends.  About midnight, the gray haired guy came back.  This time he was wearing THE most obnoxious shirt I have ever seen.  It was a short sleeved silk shirt with swirls of hot pink, purple and all the other colors you would imagine make up entrails.  We started chatting and he started telling me about his two ex-wives and all manor of things you don't tell someone you just met.  About 5am he actually got up the guts to ask me out and against all my reservations, I accepted, as a meal outside the dining hall paid for someone other than me was too good a deal to pass up.  I really didn't want to date anyone and wasn't sure about this guy at all.  I thought he was some sort of weird serial marry-er or something.  However, he eventually won me over.  This coming March, we will be married for 10 years

I find it quite amazing that we had been living across from each other eight months and our paths had never crossed.  About a month before that night I had been dating someone else and Patrick had been previously married to someone else.  Thanks to fate, the US Army and First Sergeant Mabini, I met my soulmate.

Happy Veteran's Day.

Me and Patrick, Christmas 2001