Sunday - August 14, 2005

Category Image Video Wedding


LizAndMikeWedding.png
So there I was . . .

That's how all good sea stories start out. So there I was, sitting in Twenty-nine Palms, California with a battalion of Marines getting ready to go to war, and my fiancee wants to get married.

And this is a good sea story, so that's how this story starts.

My fiancee, Liz, suddenly changed her mind about when we should marry. I had suggested many times that we should get married before I got mobilized but she wanted to wait until I returned so we could have a nice ceremony and do everything just right. I asked so many times, and gave so many reasons why we shouldn't wait, that I finally realized that further requests just might, maybe, kind of could be testing her patience.

So, coming from a long line of men who have been husbands, I knew that there is a time to stop asking and just let things be. I'm pretty sure that this was one of those times.

But then something happened to change things. We had one of those magical times that come only once in a blue moon. For two nights before I left our home in Texas, we stayed in a luxury hotel on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. What a wonderful romantic place. Everything went just right, we couldn't ask for a better spot to say goodbye.

I think that's what changed her mind. So there I was. Sitting on a slab of cement in the middle of the Mojave Desert sending text messages back and forth to Liz, when she suddenly came up with the idea of getting married before I left for Iraq.


Now, did I mention that I come from a long line of husbands? I think some genetic, survival of the fittest trait surfaced and I was smart enough to not let on that this was not, in fact, a new idea. But now it was an idea she likes, so that made it new enough.

But here's the hard part. I'm in California training in an infantry battalion getting ready to go to war, and Liz is in Texas. I can't get leave or liberty. I can hardly get a few hours off. To top things off, I can't get married over a standard phone because she's Deaf. If we're going to do this right, it's going to have to be a marriage over video relay.

Liz has a SorensonVRS Video Phone, so I thought it should be a snap to connect with the military version -- if I could find a military video teleconference console. I had heard vague rumors that the Commanding General had a VTC, but I needed to find it and get permission to use it.

A few days later, after Liz had scurried all over Austin, Texas getting the marriage paperwork completed, I happened to be out of the field and at the main base computer training center. By now, my search was reaching desperate levels, and I mentioned my need for a VTC to just about everyone I saw.

But this time Liz and I lucked out. The training department had access to a very fancy VTC, but they needed permission to use it for non-work purposes.

Suddenly things started to converge, the universe circled around us for a brief time and one by one in rapid succession everything fell into place.

Liz found a preacher in Austin who ministers to the Deaf and whose son was overseas in the Marine Corps. In fact his son was in the battalion that changed places with my battalion when we got to Iraq. Pastor Seeger was more than happy to help.

Then the USMC came through. The next morning early, I made a special trip just to see what I might need to do to get permission to use the Marine video relay, and I got caught in a whirlwind.

I was told to report to a conference room, and while I sat there I could see a video screen with data techs from all over the Marine Corps, from Camp Pendleton, California to Quantico, Virginia working to get me hitched. Hmmm. Maybe they thought it was a re-enlistment! But I'm here to tell you, I've never been so impressed. Crisp professional voices, interspersed with images of data engineers with sleek headsets were coming out of the video relay. I felt like I was at NASA's mission control.

Maybe they thought it was romantic and wanted to join in the effort. Maybe they thought it was good training for future needs. Maybe they just thought it was important to take care of a Marine before sending him to war. I can't say why for sure, but I do know this. There I was, sitting in the Mojave Desert and the networking masters of the USMC were busting down firewalls, bridging across video relay protocols, and re-engineering the arcane mysteries of a military network just to get two people in love married.

I can't say enough to thank the engineers at Sorenson, the engineers with the Marine Corps, and all the people along the way who did just the right things to make it happen. Talking with Liz and seeing her exchange vows with me would never have been possible even just a few years ago. Technology, and the people who make this technology and make it run, have made our lives richer.

Go Back to the Start, Do Not Collect $200   Send me your two cents
|