AWWWWW!

In a war that has cost some 550 American lives and wounded nearly 3,000, the two met last summer and survived everything from roadside bombs to mortar attacks.

"Yeah, there were a couple of little things here and there we had to worry about," said Spec. 4 Morgan, 21, who is scheduled to marry Grant in Shady Cove on Tuesday.

Both soldiers went into Iraq when the war started, eventually ending up in Baghdad. The brigade returned to its home base in Germany late last month.

The two met one July night in an Iraqi police station where he was on duty. Her unit stopped by during a routine patrol.

"I asked him if I could smoke in the building because I didn't want to go outside," said Grant, 26.

He told her it was fine with him, and they struck up a conversation while looking at some photographs he had taken of Iraq.

That pleasant interlude in the midst of war left each of them looking for the other after that initial meeting. "He was waiting at the IP (Iraq police) station each night, hoping I'd come by," she said.

They met again in October. Then, one night, "He took me up on top of the palace roof to propose," she said. "It was wonderful."

The 24-carat gold ring he gave her was hand-fashioned by an Iraqi. On the inside are the words, "All My Love K&D."