Married soldiers work on their Problems

BAGHDAD — They still feel like newlyweds, five years into their marriage. A lucky couple?

No, Nathan and Jennifer Williams just haven’t seen much of each other.

The two young Americans, both Army captains, have each been deployed twice to Iraq on 12-month tours — but in different locations. Back home, they spent at least another year apart because of training commitments.

All told, they’ve been together for two of their five years of marriage.

They are among thousands of military couples whose lives have been disrupted by multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Starting a family has been put on hold. And every bit of time alone together, when it finally arrives, is precious.

Every night since November, Nathan, 28, and Jennifer, 30, would get on the phone to chat about the kind of stuff married couples chat about.

At different outposts in Baghdad just six miles apart, they rarely had the chance to see each other in person — just once or twice a month — so the phone calls were crucial.

Still, they are luckier than many military couples, particularly those who have lost loved ones in battle. In both of their tours, they’ve served in the same brigade.

And starting this month, it’s a relative honeymoon — or a reunion, perhaps. Nathan commands an infantry company that moved May 30 from an outpost in north Baghdad to Camp Victory, where his wife is stationed.

So now they will be able to see each other each day for the rest of their 12-month tour, which will end about September.

Rather than heading home to see family and friends, they are taking their mid-tour break in New Zealand and Australia next month so they can have quality time together.

Both graduated from Chapel Hill.

Jennifer, a cheerful, energetic woman with a relaxed demeanor, grew up in Wilmington, N.C., and is now an intelligence officer at Camp Victory. Nathan, from Raleigh, N.C., is a serious, driven soldier who says leading an infantry company in combat was his main goal when he joined the Army.

As soldiers — Jennifer will outrank her husband next year when she makes major — each keenly knows the dangers the other faces.

"You don’t only worry about all the basic things that come with a regular marriage, but you also worry about the dangers and if it’s going to be the same person when you return home,” Jennifer said.

"The average spouse can only speculate, but I am very aware of the threats and of the possibilities and I think that makes it more difficult,” she added.



by the associated press