A Marine's True Love

This is too good not to post, even if it means a break from my pitiful studying session.

Here's a romantic tale sure to warm many a girl's heart. From AP:

VICTORVILLE, Calif. - When Marine Lance Cpl. David Battle learned he'd
either have to sacrifice his ring finger or the wedding band he wore, he told
doctors at a field hospital in Iraq to cut off the finger.

The 19-year-old former high school football star suffered a
mangled left hand and serious wounds to his legs in a Nov. 13 fire fight in
Fallujah. Battle, who is recovering at his parents' home in this desert city 80
miles northeast of Los Angeles, came under attack as he and fellow Marines
entered a building. Eleven other Marines were wounded.

Doctors were preparing to cut off Battle's ring to save as much of his
finger as they could.
"But that would mean destroying my wedding ring," he
said. "My wife is the strongest woman I know. She's basically running two
people's lives since I've been gone. I don't think I could ever repay her or
show her how grateful ... how much I love my wife, my soul mate."

This couple met when they were in the 8th grade and were married in June, which is somewhat unfathomable to me. To marry someone when you are 18 seems so far removed from what I have know that it's hard to grasp making a lifetime committment to another person at that age. Let alone someone you met when you were in the 8th grade. In the 8th grade I was probably still telling fart jokes and trying to sneak into rated R movies, not preparing myself to meet the woman I'd marry.

However, this Corporal Battle is quite the gentleman. Never having been married myself, I can't say what I've done in that situation, but I'm a real fan of my fingers. If it was a toe, maybe I'd be more inclined not to destroy a symbol of love, but for a finger I'd probably have to pass. Still, this shows the devotion this marine has to his wife.

Nevertheless, the best part of the story is still to come

With his approval, doctors severed his finger, but somehow in the chaos that
followed, they lost his ring.