And so there he and his bride, Faith Wilson, also 19, stood
Friday night -- he in his pale green Marine shirt, she in a
Valentine-red gown and white veil -- before a hastily assembled
crowd of family and friends at the Little White Wedding Chapel
here. Their day at a big white wedding chapel will wait until
the Iraq dispute is resolved.
They and hundreds of military personnel are sprinting down
the aisle as war rhetoric increases. Chapels in Las Vegas and
county clerk offices near military bases from San Diego to Georgia
are doing a brisk business.
San Diego's county-run chapel has seen a 30% increase in the
number of weddings for the first six weeks of this year over
the same period in 2002. The county is home to five military
installations.
The two justices of the peace in Bell County, Texas, home
of Fort Hood Army Base, officiated at a record 22 weddings each
Jan. 17, almost all involving service-members. The two justices
usually perform two or three a day combined.
Many servicemen and women say they're marrying so their spouses
can receive information from the military and so that, should
they die, their widows or widowers can receive death benefits.
Arroyo, who flew in from Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi,
Miss., said three other men from Keesler also were in Vegas
last weekend to marry their sweethearts.
"I just want to make sure that if anything happens to me,
she's taken care of," said Arroyo, who is to report back to
duty in Biloxi today as his new wife goes home with her parents
to Orange County, Calif.
Army Pfc. Buck Sullivan, 19, and his bride, Candace Goeske,
18, had to cancel plans to marry on Saturday at the Riviera
Hotel & Casino because Sullivan got word that he must remain
near Fort Hood and be prepared to ship out on two hours' notice.
Instead, they had a civil ceremony alone in Bell County early
Friday and then went to the International House of Pancakes,
said Goeske's mother, Yvonne Weiser of Canon City, Colo.
"It's hard to think they're getting married and starting their
life together apart," Weiser said. "But I talked to my daughter
this morning and she seemed very happy. I just don't know how
she'll feel in a few days when she has to say goodbye."
Staffers at the county offices and chapels say they watch
the parade of young, idealistic couples with bittersweet hope.
"You wonder if they've really given a lot of thought as to
what they're doing and if they're marrying for the right reasons,"
says Greta Logan of Liberty County, Ga., home to Fort Stewart
and Hunter Army Airfield. "A lot of them are getting married
mainly to receive information in the event of some sort of tragedy."
At the same time, observing the marriage madness has humanized
the war for San Diego County marriage division chief Katie Schramm.
"You can hear that 10,000 are being deployed, but then you
meet these people and you see that someone's home waiting for
them," Schramm says. "I'm standing right across from them, and
I can see how worried she is, and I can see he's ready to do
his patriotic duty. They're so young, they're so brave and they
have no idea what they're getting into."
