He left for BCT in November 2005. After a few short weeks there it became clear with both of us that we didn't want to spend any more time than necessary apart. On a cold November afternoon while outside in the rain on a payphone Doc said to me "when I come home for Christmas I think we should just get married." It was perfect. So we did, 26 December 2005. Doc was home for 2 weeks before he went back to Georgia to finish BCT. His sister and I flew to Ft. Benning to watch him graduate and I could not have been more proud.
From there I went back to Rhode Island and he was back to Ft. Benning for jump school. He was a hold over for a while so it took longer than we expected but once he was in he passed easily. We decided that I would not go down for that graduation, we weren't exactly sure what was happening after.
This is where I am going to start to get vague. His next school was the most psychically demanding. He graduated that school at the end of August. I went to that graduation and I don't remember ever being so proud. He was also chosen to lead the prayer at the start of the graduation, it was amazing. After that weekend he had to stay where he was and wait for a slot in his next school to open, we were told it could take up to 6 months but he was a hold over so I was not on any of his orders so a move would have been out of pocket so I was back in Rhode Island.
His next class was to be six months, we had planned on me staying in RI and continuing to work at a job I loved so we could save money and be ready for our first duty station. Some of the guys had no problem not moving their wives and living in the barracks but when it was Doc's turn he was told he had to live off post. He started the class in November we carried 2 apartments for the month of November until we could schedule a PCS move in December to pack up my apartment.
He came home for Thanksgiving in 2006. I hadn't seen him since August and I was so excited. He flew home on Wednesday night - he looked so different, his glasses were gone thanks to PRK and he was so buff! Yum. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with his family and the next day we packed up the junker car we bought for him and drove to our new home (sight unseen) outside of Ft. Bragg. I flew home the following Monday where I finished up my at my job, coordinate the move with the wonderful woman at the Newport Navel Base (and that's the God's honest truth - not all of the transportation civilians are trolls). Doc flew home again on 23 December and the movers came and packed us up on 26 December - our first anniversary. After the movers finished up, we hopped in the 92 Civic and were off to start our life together. If you add it up we were blessed to be able to spend about 30 days together of our first married year.
We ended up being at Bragg for 9 months, since he had to deal with the unexpected move he had to take a compassionate recycle in his class. In August 2007 we drove across the country to our new home outside of Ft. Lewis. While there he deployed 3 times and been out 20+ TDYs. He's also suffered 3 concussions and one TBI. It's been an experience and we are blessed to be part of the special operations community. From there it was off to Arizona and a nondeployable position where we hoped that the low key life would cure him. Our hopes of a clean bill of health are gone and he was retired 90% disabled in December 2013.
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