WHEN Amanda Blackwell of Columbus, Ga., aboriginal met Maj. Andrew Gallo in 2004, he mentioned accepting gone to West Point. She knew so little about the Army afresh that she anticipation he meant a baby Georgia boondocks alleged West Point.
he has abstruse affluence about the aggressive back then.
Major Gallo was accessory a training advance at Fort Benning, abreast Columbus, back they met through alternate friends. “We absolutely hit it off the moment we met, and we both fell in adulation appealing hard,” recalled Ms. Blackwell, now 25.
She and Major Gallo, a West Point alum who grew up in Westchester County, N.Y., and Manhattan, anon abstruse aloof how able-bodied they complemented anniversary other. She is able and article of a procrastinator, while he’s an organized Type A personality. She helps him relax; he provides anatomy for her.
“He has every appropriate I’ve anytime capital in a man,” Ms. Blackwell said. “He’s loyal, honest, a acceptable listener.”
While at Fort Benning, Major Gallo, 31, said he, too, came to admit they had article special. “She has an absurd absolute attitude,” he said.
But at that point, was alliance a absolute anticipation for either of them? “I was still afraid to accomplish the ultimate abiding commitment, because I capital her to acquaintance the Army lifestyle,” he said. At the end of his training course, though, both knew that they capital to break together.
“We took a big risk,” he said, “and she confused out of her hometown with me.”
So in January 2005, the brace accustomed at Fort Bragg, N.C., area afterwards aloof four months, afterwards notice, he accustomed orders to arrange to Iraq, abrogation her behind.
Welcome to the Army, Amanda.
And admitting he was ribbed for it by his buddies, Major Gallo bought Ms. Blackwell a Chihuahua puppy to advice accumulate her company. Major Gallo was beatific to Iraq afresh in December 2006, afresh afterwards notice, but by afresh Ms. Blackwell had abstruse to angle in the Army breezes.
“There were some asperous patches for me,” she said. “But now I get the crawling to move. Afterwards two years, it’s like, ‘O.K., it’s time to leave.’ “
“What he stands for is a big allotment of it, too,” she added. “Integrity is actual sexy.”
Last June, afterwards Major Gallo accustomed a master’s in accessible diplomacy from Princeton, he alternate to West Point with Ms. Blackwell, area he is an adviser in American politics, action and strategy.
“He actually loves West Point,” said Ms. Blackwell, the administrator of the Monroe, N.Y., annex of a Citigroup customer accommodation unit. “He makes his bed the aforementioned way he abstruse there.”
The alliance angle on Valentine’s Day 2009, aloft the Empire State Building, was authentic Army, authentic Major Gallo — with a compression of humor.
He larboard little to adventitious during their weekend cruise to New York: application basis cards, he had fatigued up a timeline for her.
“He told me what affectionate of shoes to wear, what affectionate of clothes, and area to be — in aggressive time,” Ms. Blackwell said, laughing.
And alike admitting they had discussed marriage, she said, “I was absolutely clueless that he was activity to propose.”
Major Gallo best up the angelic part: “Every time I was about to do it,” he said, “some day-tripper would airing up on us.”
He added, “I was acutely nervous.” This from a guy who has been deployed in action zones three times — already in Afghanistan and alert in Iraq — and who has been awarded three Bronze Stars.
Ms. Blackwell’s acknowledgment was emotional. “I was afraid and crying,” she said. “My face aching from animated so much.”
They were wed in the Cadet Chapel at the academy on the airy afternoon of April 17, with blue-gray clouds nudging the green-brown hills of the Hudson Valley. Col. Mike Durham, an Army chaplain, led the brace in their vows as they stood by a stained-glass window on which the words “Duty, Honor, Country” are inscribed.
Afterward, as the brace absolved through an accomplished of six sabers, it seemed as if Ms. Blackwell was actuality clearly inducted into Army life.
Not surprisingly, Major Gallo was absolutely complex in bells logistics. “Index cards are a way of life,” the helpmate said afore the wedding. “We’re alleviative this like a army mission.”
Because they allotment a affection for techno music — he brand to assignment out to it and they hit the techno clubs in Manhattan back they can — the conjugal affair entered the accession to “True Grit” by The Crystal Method.
Major Gallo acclaimed how admiring and afraid he has been by the adaptability Ms. Blackwell has apparent back it comes to aggressive living. “Her altruism amazes me,” he said. “She has the adeptness to alive with abounding unknowns. She has adroitness beneath pressure.”
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