Video Teleconference Allows Soldier to Wed From Bosnia

National Guard, Feb 2004 by Lewicki, Anna

Minnesota

It was evident that this was not going to be an ordinary wedding when the groom showed up for the ceremony in BDUs on a television screen.

No, this wasn't another reality show. The December nuptials at the Stillwater Armory was the first Minnesota National Guard wedding performed via video teleconferencing (VTC) from overseas.

Spc. Jaime Sevre, 30, deployed last summer to Bosnia with the Minnesota Army National Guard's 34th Infantry Division.

"I proposed on the phone," Sevre explained during a trans-Atlantic interview before the holidays. "It's been two weeks. Everything has just happened so last."

Sevre and Susette Kompelien originally decided to get married in Budapest, Hungary, over the holidays. But those plans fell through when Sevre had trouble obtaining a wedding license in a foreign country.

Since travel arrangements were already made, the coupled decided to go hi-tcch.

"Ii I'm gonna have a honeymoon," Sevre reasoned, "I should have a wife."

The couple worked with the local armory staff in Stillwater, Minn., and the Minnesota National Guard's Directorate of Information Management, to tie the knot a little unconventionally.

"It's a bit different than how I spend most my days," admitted Sgt. 1st Class Brian Newcomer, the Minnesota Guard soldier, who coordinated the technical part ol the teleconference wedding.

The pastor said distance and technology were not the only factors that made the wedding out of the ordinary.

"I don't know if I've ever seen anyone eat wedding cake with a rifle on his shoulder," Mark Tiede said.

By 2nd Lt. Anna Lewicki