Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Story of Bre and Mike

Because it should be written down.

Bre graduated high school in May of 2004. She'd already joined the Navy her junior year of high school and I fully supported her choice. She left for Navy bootcamp the last of that June. She was determined to be at the top of her class there and at A school as her goal was to end up in Hawaii.

On the east coast in Philadelphia was an 18 year old boy that was into partying a lot and was getting into some trouble. He knew he didn't want that life so came home one day and told his mom he'd joined the Navy and would be going to bootcamp in August. No one wanted him to go, not family or friends. He arrived in bootcamp 5 weeks after Bre.

He told me once the first time he saw her was across the quad and asked who she was. None of his friends knew her name so he just called her Bella. He never got up the nerve to ask her her name before she graduated the next week. Bre never even noticed him.

When Bre graduated bootcamp she went to A school in Pensacola Fl. The rooms there are in a U shape building. Girls rooms are in the inside of the U, boys are on the outside. 5 weeks after Bre got to A school Mike joined her there. His room and hers shared the back wall. Bre was still focused on being at the top of her class so she studied, a lot. Mike was still the life of the party and was still partying, a lot. Although now it was in his room. He would tell the story of how, many times Bre would come around and politely ask them to turn the music down some only she never saw Mike as he would hide in the bathroom and make his friends answer the door so she wouldn't know it was him being so loud. They still hadn't spoken.

Bre did graduate at the top of her class and did get shore duty in Hawaii. 5 weeks later Mike got orders going somewhere else but at the last minute the orders were changed to Kinea (spelling?). Mike originally thought it was Japan, but when someone told him it was Hawaii his reply was "sweet, that's where that cute brunette went to".

So...5 weeks after Bre got to Hawaii Mike joined her. His cubicle faced hers. Mike's name started popping up into all of our phone conversations. I told Rob I had a feeling she was falling in love. 5 of them decided to rent a nice house. When we went out for the 2 weeks at Christmas it was obvious they were both done, but they were still dancing around a romance. I personally fell in love with Mike and would have been very disappointed had they not gotten together. We spent pretty much the whole two weeks with both of them.

It was probably about 3 months after we came home that she called to say they were dating. When it came time to re-up or get out they both talked. They decided to extend for a year in order to go to Iraq. Both I and Betsy could have strangled both of them. But we were proud at the same time. Mike wound up in Baghdad on the "plush" base. He pretty much had it cush over there. Bre on the other hand wound up on an outer base, with generators that infrequently ran, MRE's or cold sandwiches for food and cold showers. Mike also rarely left base for work, while Bre went on over 75 missions, down streets where IED's had obviously been detonated. I did not know any of this, thank goodness. They got to meet up about 3 times while over there, one being Christmas Eve where Mike told her he wanted to apply to Devgru and wanted her to come to Virginia Beach with him.

They came back in June of 2009. Mike got back first, about two weeks earlier than Bre. When she got in he met her at the airport with flowers and diamond earrings. He applied to Devgru and flew out for an interview. Upon arriving back he told Bre everything went well but the psychologist terrified him. This would later be the same psychologist that came to the house that first week and helped Bre. He's also writing her a recommendation letter to USUHS.

Mike was accepted and after training and setting a record on the Seal's training course that still hasn't been broken was placed on the Gold Team - the premiere team of Devgru. Bre had decided to go reserves and finish college. Mike bought a house, they settled in to life as a couple and things were good. Bre's background made her a perfect partner for someone that was gone a lot and she knew what he did and that it was important.

They had a plan, was enjoying life to the max, was deeply in love and very happy.

Until August 6, 2011 came.

There should be a different ending to this story. I always said it was Fate that they met, that Fate kept throwing him in her face until she wised up. Well, Fate is a stark, raving BITCH.

2 comments:

kim (weltek) said...

Thank you, again, Tummy. Maybe you fell in love with Mike before Bre did. :-)

Puffy said...

It's been 3 months. Seems like 3 years. Bre has a bright future in front of her, sadly, without Mike.