LOVE STORY

Odd thing about the cots though. CPT Patti's troops had segregated sleeping areas, as is, I believe, the norm.

This being a military love story, their first date was a walk to chow hall. As the two loaded their belongings on a truck outside the barracks the day before they left Fort McCoy for Iraq, English saw that his wife-to-be was nervous and asked her to walk to the mess hall for something to eat.

Then in Kuwait two weeks later, the night before their platoon was to leave for Baghdad, he approached her while she was doing laundry and the two began a conversation that finally enabled her to get past her shyness.

In Iraq, their platoon occupied a palace that was once the home of one of Saddam Hussein's top aides. After cleaning up the palace, soldiers set up cots in their new home -- with the couple's cots right next to each other.

"I can remember him making the comment that he has to sleep next to me for the next year," said the new Mrs. English, chuckling.