Thursday, August 19, 2010

COMMENTARY>>Little Rock AFB chaplain officiates wedding ceremony in AOR

By Staff Sgt. Jeremy Larlee
380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) – Chaplain (Capt.) Sean E. Randall, deployed from Little Rock Air Force Base’s 19th Airlift Wing, performed a wedding ceremony for Senior Airman Sheri Nolen and Senior Airman Donald Nolen Aug. 4 at his deployed location in Southwest Asia.

“Over 130 maintainers were in attendance and the energy level was explosive,” Chaplain Randall wrote from his deployed location. “The level of expectancy erupted when I asked, ‘Who gives this woman to be married to this man?’ The entire warehouse exploded with ‘We do!’”

Airman Nolen recalls the journey that led her and her groom together in such an unlikely setting.

Young girls often dream about what their perfect wedding will be like. They dream of the perfect dress, cake, ring and who their dashing groom will be.

Senior Airman Sheri Nolen spent her childhood in Denver more interested in playing in the dirt and running around.

“I never really thought about a wedding when I was a kid.” she said. “I was too busy blowing things up and playing with Barbie dolls.”

As she got older, she thought a wedding on a cruise would be ideal. But, Airman Nolen was skeptical that she would ever find the right person with whom to spend her life.

Then she met Senior Airman Donald Nolen.

Airman Donald Nolen is a communications navigation maintainer in the KC-10 Extender and Airman Sheri Nolen is a crew chief on the same airframe.

Although both were assigned to the 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron here at the time of their marriage, the path to their meeting and marriage was an interesting one.

The two met at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., in April 2008, and became fast friends. In October of that year, they started to see each other romantically.

Airman Nolen said she knew early on she had met the person she could spend her life with.

“His smile and his eyes are amazing,” she said. “He is always willing to help anybody in need. He will literally give you the shirt right off his back.”

Airmen Nolen was equally smitten with his future bride.

“She is the kindest and most amazing person I have ever met,” he said. “She has the most amazing energy and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with her.”

In 2010, he started to plan out his proposal to his future bride. He thought of doing it adventurously while the two were skydiving.

Then, the needs of the Air Force changed their plans.

In April, Airmen Nolen was given five days of notice that she would be deploying to Southwest Asia. Fortunately for the couple, her future groom had a planned deployment to the same location in June.

The two Airmen quickly went to plan B and discussed options of how to get married.

After some research, the couple found out that they could do a double proxy marriage through the state of Montana. A double proxy marriage is one where two proxies stand in for the absent parties. Neither the bride nor the groom needs to be present for the ceremony. Montana is the only state in the U.S. that allows this type of marriage.

The marriage became official July 12.
“The Air Force is a family and when we heard of their plight we responded,” said Chaplain Randall. “I met with their commander then I met with the couple. In the (deployed location), a couple can’t make this happen; only leadership can. I followed up by writing a ceremony based on what they had always wanted in a wedding, traditional vows and the exchange of rings.”

Airman Nolen said it was a unique experience for her.

“We pretty much just emailed a couple of certificates,” she said. “It really felt more like we were applying for credit cards than getting married.”

So the new couple would have some type of ceremony, their coworkers planned a wedding ceremony here Aug. 4.

“The ceremony itself is being called an Air Force first, ” said Chaplain Randall.

The ceremony had a few touches that reminded the attendees of the fact that it was in a deployed location. The bride had a train made out of Airman battle uniform material and the groom had a boutonniere made of pink tissue paper pinned to his uniform.

“(Airman Nolen) will never forget her wedding and neither will we,” said Chaplain Randall. “A small interruption in the battle rhythm of war is a gift from God. This ceremony was our gift to the Nolan’s but the interruption was God’s gift to us.”

The couple did not get to honeymoon yet, as the bride returned to McGuire AFB due to the end of her deployment here.

Airmen Nolen said that even though it has been a strange and twisting road to marriage, she wouldn’t change a thing.

“If I had the chance to do this differently, I would choose to do it the same way all over again,” she said.

This ceremony exemplified social and spiritual health, two pillars of Comprehensive Airman Fitness, which Airmen can learn more about on www.amc.mil/caf.

The 19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs staff contributed to this article.

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