US Army private in Afghanistan patrols and pulls guard duty, but his mind is elsewhere

US soldier in Afghanistan has a dream

BADULA QULP, Afghanistan — He proposed to her on Oct. 6, and she made him say “Will you marry me?” over and over because she liked the sound of it. He proposed again on her birthday four days later, and this time he got down on one knee with a diamond ring. His mother was on the phone, listening in as a witness.

It all happened in Mount Holly, North Carolina. Now, U.S. Army Pvt. Mark Goodwin is in Afghanistan and his fiancee, Jillian De Voe, is waiting back home. They have spent a month of their lives together, and they say they plan to marry on July 4, a year after they met. They are young — he is 21, she is 23 — but their tale of lovers separated by war is an old one, known by many across generations.

Goodwin is the lowest-ranking soldier in Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment of the 5th Stryker Brigade, but he doesn’t worry about status. He missed a promotion because he missed a plane — “I slept in” — while heading back to his unit from leave after he proposed. It was a “nice little fiasco,” he said, but it meant more time with De Voe.

“People thought I went AWOL,” said Goodwin. “Honestly, looking back on it, it was worth it.”

Goodwin’s company rolled out of the Tombstone military base in Stryker infantry vehicles on Feb. 8 and fought its way into Taliban-held villages near the southern town of Marjah as part of a NATO offensive. Many days, Goodwin wrote in pencil to De Voe in a spiral notebook that he planned to mail to her. The field mission is over now, he is marking time until the end of his deployment, and they are back in telephone contact.

“It’s hard for me, but I also realize that he said he wanted to do this,” his fiancee said in a telephone interview last week. “I pray for him every night and every day.”

Goodwin’s notebook is half-full — some pages include musings and doodlings for his best friend, Johnny Miller II.

They contain almost nothing about his experiences in Afghanistan, where danger is a part of his life. A hidden bomb exploded near Goodwin’s vehicle in the Marjah area; last year, he and others rushed to rescue comrades whose Stryker hit a bomb and during the hunt for the bombers, an American aircraft fired a missile into a building close to Goodwin.

“Whenever I write, my mind’s not really here,” said Goodwin. During the offensive, he wrote on his cot in a mud-walled compound occupied by American soldiers. Explosions and gunfire occasionally jarred the silence.

He shared an excerpt from his notebook with a reporter:

“I know I’ve been harping a lot on this but just think, three months to go after this little deal we’ve got going on here. Just think, when I come home not only will we be getting married but we’ll also own our own home, get to hang out with everybody, and we can forget about being apart from each other ever again.

“I’ve been thinking of some things we could do when I get home. Some of these include of course going to the drive-in, hanging out in the old camper in Johnny’s yard, maybe even camping out in the woods behind the house. I can’t wait for our honeymoon. I’m still not sure where exactly in the mountains we’ll stay at for it but I’m not really too concerned over it, I’m just happy I’ll be home with you…

“Oh yeah, have you talked to my mom lately? She’s probably bought you some more Stryker memorabilia. If she ever got to actually ride one she’d probably have a siezure. Maybe if I painted my car OD (olive drab) green and taped a pipe on top I could convince her it was some sort of new high-speed combat vehicle. I don’t know how convincing a 95 Oldsmobile would be though.

“Lately I’ve been thinking about investing in a hot tub. Why? I dunno. Maybe it’s because I’d love nothing more right now than to sit with you in a tub relaxing in the sunset. Well, not that we can see the sunset from the backyard but you know what I mean.

“You know, there’s something I want to tell you that I probably don’t say enough. Jill, I appreciate you so much. Yeah, I can tell you how much I love you but saying this too actually expresses my gratitude and how proud I am of you. There’s been a lot of failed relationships lately from this deployment but you’ve only continued to express your hard-set faith.”

In his left shirt pocket, Goodwin carries a tattered letter that De Voe, a beautician, wrote to him soon after they parted.

“It’s part of my uniform,” he said.

She wrote: “As you sit on this plane on your way back to base I want you to know that I will wait for you and be missing you so much. I already know that as your on the plane I will be dreaming of having you in my arms and holding and kissing you. When I told you that I loved you I was so happy to know that you loved me too. I was scared that you didn’t feel the same way. But know that you do makes my heart soar to new heights.”

Goodwin worked in grocery stores before joining the military to “stabilize” his life. He met De Voe online when he was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington.

“She’s got a bit of an attitude, but we all love it,” he said. “We hit it off instantly. Things were great. I took her to meet my family and friends. They absolutely adored her.”

He bought a house from Johnny’s grandfather, a Vietnam veteran, and she’s living in it now. She jokes that it’s haunted.

He knows it’s not easy being engaged to a man risking his life in a war.

“I told her, ‘Are you sure you want to have a relationship with me?’” Goodwin said. “She’s like, ‘You know what? I don’t care. A year is nothing. Just go over there and do what you’ve got to do. Just make sure you don’t die.’”