Home » Archives » "US soldier in Afghanistan has a dream"

US soldier in Afghanistan has a dream

Mar-16-2010 » Filed Under: 5/2 SBCT

US soldier in Afghanistan has a dream - The Associated Press

BADULA QULP, Afghanistan—He proposed to her on Oct. 6, and she made him say "Will you marry me?" over and over because she liked the sound of it. He proposed again on her birthday four days later, and this time he got down on one knee with a diamond ring. His mother was on the phone, listening in as a witness.

It all happened in Mount Holly, North Carolina. Now, U.S. Army Pvt. Mark Goodwin is in Afghanistan and his fiancee, Jillian De Voe, is waiting back home. They have spent a month of their lives together, and they say they plan to marry on July 4, a year after they met. They are young—he is 21, she is 23—but their tale of lovers separated by war is an old one, known by many across generations.

Goodwin is the lowest-ranking soldier in Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment of the 5th Stryker Brigade, but he doesn't worry about status. He missed a promotion because he missed a plane—"I slept in"—while heading back to his unit from leave after he proposed. It was a "nice little fiasco," he said, but it meant more time with De Voe.


Advertisements