Couple weds despite deployment - Snapshots From the War

Airman, July, 2003 by Charles Ramey

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM -- Dressed to the nines in his best desert camouflage uniform and surrounded by his security forces family, a nervous but composed senior airman stood at attention in the command section at a desert air base.

"James Earl Evans, will you have Andrea to be your wedded wife, to live together in the holy state of matrimony, will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all others, keeping all only unto her so long as you both shall live?" a woman's voice echoed from a speakerphone.

"I do," he said without hesitation.

Moments later, after the same words, a young lady sitting in an area defense counsel office at a base half a world away quickly said, "I do."

Even though the world separated them physically, Senior Airman James Evans and his fiance Andrea reunited via fax and phone briefly to exchange their wedding vows.

Evans, a member of the Moody Air Force Base, Ga., 823rd Combat Security Forces Squadron, and his new bride moved up their wedding date and decided to marry by proxy after learning he would soon deploy to an undisclosed location.

"We were engaged just before I left to come here and were supposed to be married July 14," he said. "But with the uncertainty of how much longer we'll be deployed and the fact that I want Andrea taken care of should anything happen, we decided to do it now."

The Evanses met while serving as designated drivers for their friends at a function and dated for more than two years. They've endured four deployments -- James is constantly on alert to deploy worldwide at a moment's notice.

"I love James more than any thing on this earth and knew he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with the moment we met," Andrea said. "He's an intelligent, thoughtful, creative person who has a lot of initiative.

"Arranging for us to be married so I'd be taken care of is a perfect example of what James does all the time. He takes It upon himself to do things for people without the person asking him, or even knowing about it."

With the unit on tap to move forward within a matter of hours, an Air Force team of commanders, attorneys, personnel specialists, contracting professionals and medical technicians, plus a Lanier County, Ga., probate judge, made several things come together in a short time.

Capt. Graham Todd, 444th Air Expeditionary Group staff judge advocate, managed affairs from the deployed location. "My first phone call was to Capt. John Hicks at Moody. He's the area defense counsel at the base and a veteran of a previous Georgia marriage by proxy. He made everything happen on the stateside end, including helping Andrea with the marriage license application, arranging for a judge and bringing Andrea onto the base for the ceremony."

Todd notarized the application and provided an affidavit after James signed it.

"Georgia also requires a blood test for both members," Todd said. "My home office [the 347th Rescue Wing staff judge advocate office] assisted with research in this area for Andrea while our contracting and medical teams here drew James' blood and arranged for the host nation to conduct the test."

Once the paperwork was finished and tests completed, Judge Judy Mullis, a probate judge from Lanier County, Ga., traveled to the base from Lakeland, Ga., to preside over the ceremony.

After the ceremony, Andrea received a military ID card and was entered into a worldwide database of military families, retirees and others who are eligible for health care benefits. Todd also assisted James with a will and power of attorney for Andrea.

"I don't know what the future holds for us," Andrea said, "but I know it will always include James, and I will love him all my life. I just hope he and every other husband, wife and parent make it home as quickly as possible."