Where Our Flag Has Been

It all started in 1999 in Bozeman, MT. We met at Montana State University and have been together since. I started my Army training and Gina finished her semester at MSU. We then started our lives together at Fort Lewis Washington. Our fist "Home" was very small with not many comforts in what we would call now a bad neighborhood. But we were young and didn't care about much. We stayed in Washington for a couple of years. I was a young LT and Gina went to school and worked on the base at a child development center. It was in Washington that we found our 2 girls Zariah (German Shepherd) and Zoe (Siberian Husky) and our Family was born. Gina and I got engaged in September 2000 and the 4 of us traveled to Montana in July and got married on 7 July, 2001. We lived in Washington for one more year and moved to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in July 2002. In Missouri I attended additional training and we met some great friends. Our time in Missouri was short but we really enjoyed all the people we met there. The next move was our biggest. We left Missouri in April 2003 and headed overseas to Italy. We moved to a small US military base outside Pisa, Italy. I was assigned as the provost marshal and Gina worked at the child development center and school. Our time in Italy was so special. We were able to see so much that small town Montana kids don't usually see. We lived a couple miles from the Leaning Town in Pisa and spent years traveling throughout Tuscany. We also traveled many other places such as Germany, England, Ireland, Egypt, France, Spain and Belgium. We loved the places we visited and met life-long friends. But after 3 years we were ready to come back to the US. In June 2006 we moved here to Fort Riley, KS. Since we been here I have worked as a BN S-3, Company Commander and I'm now the provost marshal for the 1st Infantry Division. Gina has earned her certifications in Group Fitness and Personal Training. But the most important thing is the birth of our son Matthew. After years of trying he finally arrived to us on Dec 1, 2007 and has kept our world bright ever since. Our flag is always traveling and our home is always changing but our love of each other never changes. We anxiously await our next move, never knowing where this Army life will bring us, or where we will hang our flag next.