FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - Deployed soldiers look forward to returning home for many reasons - with one of the most popular being the exciting purchase of a new vehicle or that big screen TV that may have been too expensive before.
While these are exciting times in the lives of many, the anticipation around one soldier’s return was for a more intimate occasion.
On April 10, 2012, in a hallway guarded by large stuffed trophy bear inside the headquarters building of the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division and U.S. Army Alaska, Pfc. Nick Kindel of Rineyville, Ky., and Kirsten Brooks of Fort Meade, Md., joined hands in matrimony.
The ceremony came less than a month after Kindel returned from southern Afghanistan, where he served as a fire support specialist with the Brigade Troops Battalion, 1/25 SBCT in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
“It was scary to think there was a chance he wouldn’t come back… I was nervous,” Kirsten said.
Kirsten says Nick tried to make being apart as easy on her as possible and stayed loyal to routine phone calls and Internet chats.
It was through those phone calls that the two said they realized they were meant to be married.
“I was on the phone with her and she said something silly, I don’t remember what the joke was, but I just started laughing and after I hung up I said to myself ‘I can see us getting married,’” Nick said.
“We make each other laugh every day and that’s important in any relationship,” Kirsten said. “We know that in two or three years from now we won’t be bored … I picked a keeper.”
Nick is looking forward to the future with his new wife and said he plans on staying in the military as long as “she will let me.”
When asked about how future deployments could affect the relationship, Kirsten’s answer was simple.
“We did it once and we will do it again,” she said.
Chaplain (Maj.) Herb Franklin, 1-25th SBCT chaplain, presided over the ceremony which ended with a short kiss, a big smile and the cutting of a small sheet cake.
The Kindels are scheduled to have a large wedding ceremony when they return home later this year.