When Richard Met Lindsay

I have a beautiful story to tell you, about a boy and a girl, the war, separation, reuniting and happily ever after. As badly as I wanted to write it myself, I can't really do it justice, and so I've asked them to tell you, in their own words, their story:

Richard-"On September 19, 2007 I was on my way back to Iraq."

Lindsay-"I was working at the USO on my usual Sunday send-off. Send-off is when all of the troops who have been home on their R&R all come back to D/FW airport and catch their big flight back to Iraq or Afghanistan. Our job is to hand out snacks and water, and basically just talk to the guys and gals and help to pass the time by while they wait. Some are there for as long as 24 hours if they were coming from Hawaii or Guam."

Richard-"I had served 9 months so far and the time home was well appreciated. I spent time with friends and family and was looking forward to finishing up my tour and coming back home for good. I arrived at the DFW airport and was directed by the Army folks in charge of the R and R program to set my duffel bag in the USO baggage room and to wait at the USO until my flight was going to leave."

"My friend and roommate Caroline and I were standing at the send-off gate when I looked up and saw a tall, blond hair, blue eyed airman walking towards me. I'll never forget that exact moment that I made eye contact and quickly looked away. I elbowed Caroline and said "Check out the cute airman!"

"As I was walking out of the baggage room I stopped. I stopped
because I saw a girl who caught my eye and thought that she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. I saw she had on a name tag and that she was a volunteer. I brushed it off thinking that she must be married or in a relationship with some other military guy. Probably from nearby Ft. Hood or Sheppard AFB. There's no way a girl that good looking working at the USO could be single..."

"Well a few minutes go by and I couldn't stop thinking about how cute that Airman was, and our eye contact just seemed electric. So I told Caroline I was off to see about finding that "cute airman" again."

"I headed to the USO and checked my email made a phone call to a friend and linked up with my buddy Hector who I knew from our pre-deployment training. He was doing the same mission I was and just happened to take his R and R the same time I did. Since we were both stationed in San Antonio we were on all the same flights. We went to the terminal and took a seat in the corner. A country/folk style band that was flying out stopped and played a few songs for all of the guys going back. I looked over and saw the beautiful girl again..."

"Of course, I'm too shy and old school to just approach him. So I just leisurely sat down near him...at least 4 chairs away...because I'm a lady. A country band was waiting to board their plane on the gate next to ours and offered to play our soldiers (and airman!) a song to help pass the time."

"Looking down at her left hand I saw she wasn't married so I leaned over and
asked her if she knew the name of the band that was playing."

"I told him I had no clue, and the conversation sparked from there."


"We started talking about my deployment and how I was
one of the few Air Force guys that comes through on the R and R program."

"Where are you from? What do you do? How long have you been over there? Why do you volunteer here at the USO?"

"We talked for about an hour,"

"That hour passed by so quickly!"

"...and one of the other USO volunteers came
over and took our picture..."

"(and to tease me because she knew I thought he was cute)."


"I gave her my email address and asked her to send it to me hoping that I would get a chance to talk to her again. We hugged before I got on the plane and I thought about her the entire flight back to Iraq.
A few days later I got an email from her and we began to talk more about ourselves. I remember asking her how she could possibly be single and how she started volunteering at the USO. She had just gotten out of a long term relationship before moving to Dallas and had lost a friend in Iraq which prompted her to want to do something to serve her country and the men and women who fight for it."

"After a few emails he asked if I was single and if it would be okay for him to call me. So of course I said an enthusiastic YES! and from then on we became friends. I was casually dating someone else and thought if nothing else, he was cute and funny and would be a good friend."

"We continued to talk through email and phone calls..."

"At the time, I had no intentions of ever dating a military man again. But I quickly changed my tune for *R*.

Within a few weeks I was pretty enamored with him, but I thought I knew how things would go with guys who are deployed. They talk a big game while they are over there, about wanting to commit, wanting a 'good girl' then they come home and decide a bad girl is much more interesting and more convenient. Let's just say, working at the USO allowed me the opportunity to hear from A LOT of soldiers who had done that.
So I told him that when he got home we could go on a date, and take it from there. But all of my friends would tell you I was already completely taken with him, they called him my 'Iraq Boyfriend', and I would say "He is NOT my boyfriend!", but then I would give in and say, okay maybe a little bit.

I know it sounds so silly to say. I had only met him for an hour at the gate, but after 4 months of getting to know each other through hours on the phone and hundreds of emails, I felt like he was my boyfriend, although I completely refused to put that label on it. I didn't want for him to come home and for me to get my heart broken. Also, I always said it's very easy for him to say the right thing from thousands of miles away in a war zone. It's very different to actually be that man in person.

After 4 months of building a platonic friendship over the phone/Internet we were both nervous it wouldn't be the same in person. What if he wasn't who he said he was? What if he smells weird? What if he is disappointed in me? All of those questions plus a thousand more.

And then, he came home...."

"...and when I returned home I met her at the airport in the same terminal we had started our conversation nearly four months before."

"The day came when he finally was home, it was a long waited 4 months. I was on my way to the airport (to volunteer at the USO again) when he called. I figured he was about to tell me he was back in San Antonio and would see me later. But he didn't he said, "Guess where I am". I said, "Geee....anywhere besides Iraq is good with me!" and he said, "the Dallas airport". When I finally pulled into the airport I ran through security and stood in front of the gate he said he would be at. I stood there, in middle of the hallway, just staring at the gate. The airport was packed with people, December 29th makes for some busy holiday travel. Finally, I called him. "Where are you?""At the gate!"........ Dead air. That's what I heard. When all of sudden I saw someone running towards me from my right side. Before I even had a chance to turn my head I felt his arms wrap around me. My hands were shaking. But he just held me and hugged me and made me feel like we were the only two people in the world. We shared our first kiss in the middle of the airport hallway, with hundreds of strangers, only a few gates away from where we first met 4 months prior. After 15 extremely short minutes together, he had to board his plane to San Antonio. I watched him walk down that jetway to board a plane once again. I cried a tear or two, then giddily (is that even a word?) made my way to the USO. 5 hours later I was getting off a plane in San Antonio, and the rest, as they say, is history."

"We started our relationship and we are now engaged and living together. I could not be happier!"

And so now blog readers, I'm sure you are dying to see these two, waiting on pins and needles to get a glimpse of the love they share:







Well, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit longer to see more. Check back soon for their slideshow. I don't think you'll be disappointed!