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    Portraits of Love: Tumultuous start, fairytale ending

    APPLE VALLEY, CA, UNITED STATES

    02.08.2016

    Story by Airman 1st Class Erin Piazza 

    48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs

    APPLE VALLEY, Calif - Eleven years ago, in a dusty desert city outside of Los Angeles, the bell rang for second period drama class to start.

    Unbeknownst to Senior Airman Mitch Rose, 48th Logistics Readiness Squadron customer service technician, his future wife had just walked in as a new transfer student from fourth period after a lucky series of events forced her class schedule to change.

    "She sat in front of me and two seats to the right," Mitch recalled. "Somebody else had recently transferred out and the teacher said somebody could move up there next to her. I thought, 'Heck yeah, I'll jump up and sit next to the cute girl!' So I literally hopped to the seat, sat down and said, 'Hi, I'm Mitch.'"

    Mitch admitted he'd never before cared enough to go out of his way to meet a girl, until he met Erin.

    "The very first thing I thought was: lots of guitar picks," Mitch laughed. "She had guitar picks for all of her jewelry, and a super cute smile. So, I don't know, I just kind of thought, 'Hey, I want to get to know her.'"

    Erin confessed that her own feelings were instantaneous as well, and that she remembered the moment she first saw him very vividly.

    "I had walked into the classroom and I was trying to make my way to the teacher to hand her my transfer papers," Erin explained. "He caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I thought, 'He's so cute, oh my gosh, I hope I get to partner with him, because he looks really cute, and he seems really funny.' Seconds later he introduced himself and I thought, 'Yes, I'm going to marry him.'"

    "You're 15!" Erin exclaimed to justify her teenage self. "You think you're going to marry every guy you have a crush on, but then, hey, it happened."

    However, with Mitch being two years older, they broke off their relationship when he graduated and left California for Ohio to study at Kent State University.

    Their relationship then took many twists and turns. Mitch dropped out of Kent State and returned to California to find... only to find Erin had moved to Las Vegas just days earlier. A few unexpected events later, Mitch and Erin found themselves in their home town, together again.

    "And then I screwed up," Erin said. "I went back to Vegas when I shouldn't have, and he stayed in California."

    Both fell silent as they remembered a jumble of hurt feelings.

    "And then I ended up joining the military," Mitch explained, breaking the silence.

    Erin messaged Mitch while he was in basic military training, and, after he got his phone back, Mitch and Erin started a difficult-to-define, long-distance connection that Mitch described as, "One of those 'we are, but we aren't' kind of situations."

    The two made a lot of plans, including to get married before going to Mitch's first duty station in Germany together.

    But then, Mitch stated bluntly, "I just didn't show up."

    "It was so bizarre, because we had been talking all that day, and I remember the last text I got from him was, 'Tonight you'll fall asleep in my arms,'" Erin explained. "Then I didn't hear anything for hours."

    That evening, Erin reached out not only Mitch, but also his sister, to make sure he was OK. No response ever came.

    "It was radio silence for a long time," Erin said quietly.

    "I went to Germany by myself, and when I got there I started thinking, 'What did I do? This was the worst mistake ever!'" Mitch said. "It took a drunken night with an old friend who was passing through. He said, 'Look man, you should just tell her how you feel, because you never know.'"

    "So I messaged her, and I didn't expect to hear anything," Mitch continued. "But, she wrote me back, and then it was like nothing had ever happened throughout all those years."

    Mitch admitted it's usually a lot easier to just say they met 11 years ago and leave it at that, because he doesn't always have the time to get into their complicated story.

    The Roses eloped in 2012. Mitch came home for two weeks without telling any friends or family until after they were officially married.

    "We eloped on May the 4th, Star Wars Day, because we're nerds," Erin said with a laugh, then continued more seriously. "We told our families, 'This is what we choose, we choose each other.' If changing one thing from our past would change something now, I wouldn't change it. I love our life."

    Now, Mitch and Erin only have to contend with separations as a result of military duty, like deployments or temporary duty assignments.

    "You do miss stuff," Mitch explained. "But, I've got co-workers and Erin's got friends that check up on her and make sure everything is alright. I know that the squadron is really good about that kind of thing; it's just finding a balance. How much is too much as far as being gone? I would say any bit is too much, but we don't have that luxury in this line of work."

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 02.08.2016
    Date Posted: 02.12.2016 11:32
    Story ID: 188732
    Location: APPLE VALLEY, CA, US
    Hometown: APPLE VALLEY, CA, US

    Web Views: 23
    Downloads: 1

    PUBLIC DOMAIN