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“My wife Melissa and I first worked at Scott AFB together back when the Med Group had an actual ER and in-patient facilities. We’d be in the same circles throughout the clinical day, but it came time to PCS. I went to Pope AFB, she went to Travis AFB, and we didn’t really keep in touch. Then 2008 comes around, and we got deployed to Bagram, Afghanistan, unknowingly, independent of each other. I think it was my second day there and her sixth day there. I was getting a grilled cheese sandwich, and our trays nearly collided with each other. So, when we say that we ran into each other, we almost literally ran into each other at the DFAC. It was kind of magical. So I said, ‘Hey, I’d really like to spend some time with you,” and she agreed. We just did everything together. We played volleyball, we shared meals. So she and I really had four months of time to dedicate to growing the relationship, and I don’t know where we’d be right now if we didn’t have those four months. I feel incredibly fortunate that we had that.
We tried to figure out all the different ways we could get married, but there was a problem: I was deploying again, and we just couldn’t find a way for it to work. And then she stumbled upon marriage by proxy, which is where one of us doesn’t have to be there. I was able to name a person to stand in for me and marry my wife for me. Of the three major things I needed to do, I asked her to marry me via Skype, I sent her the engagement ring via FedEx, and we got married by proxy. So none of the traditional stuff, but it didn’t matter. I knew that I wanted to be with her, she knew that she wanted to be with me, and we were just going to do whatever it took to make that happen. I was flying a mission down to Afghanistan at the time. When I got back from that mission, she sent me a text that said, ‘You’re now a married man.’ I remember telling everybody on the plane, ‘Hey, I’m married!’ It was great knowing that all of the holes in the Swiss cheese lined up so I could be with the woman I love. In a month and a half, it’ll be ten years.”
- Lt. Col. Douglas Stiles, 375th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron director of operations
#HumansOfScottAFB
| Date Taken: | 05.14.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 06.03.2019 15:58 |
| Photo ID: | 5429617 |
| VIRIN: | 190514-F-VX890-1018 |
| Resolution: | 6197x4458 |
| Size: | 1.79 MB |
| Location: | SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, IL, US |
| Web Views: | 31 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, #HumansOfScottAFB: Lt. Col. Douglas Stiles, by SrA Tara Stetler, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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