CAPITAL CLOSE-UP

manager for the Minnesota Army National Guard, had
arranged a VTC wedding for a groom in Kosovo and a
bride in Mankato in 2004. Vern Truax of the Minnesota
Army National Guard Family Support called Watson and
gave her the good news: A “virtual” wedding would take
place via satellite — and soon! Watson was elated. She
and Swanson chose Valentine’s Day for the event and the
race was on to get everything ready.
Stephan agreed to handle the complicated 2 1 /2 weeks
of logistics, including timing,
equipment compatibility and
arranging for the groom and
best man, Chris Bergman, also
serving in Iraq, to be flown by
helicopter to the Al Asad base
where the necessary conferencing
equipment was available.
Stephan also kept a close watch
on the clock: Iraq is nine hours
later than U.S. Central Daylight
Time.
For the big day, Kilanowski,
Watson’s mother and other family
members transformed the austere
armory with big red hearts
procession.
and heart-shaped balloons.
Flowers decorated the table that
held the rose-bedecked, threetiered
wedding cake. Family and friends gathered in the
big VTC room with its bank of huge TV screens, mingling
with Watson’s three bridesmaids in dressy outfits
and two little white-gowned flower girls carrying baskets
of rose petals. Accompanied by her brother, Josh, and her
mother and father, Watson arrived wearing a sophisticated
red dress and matching shoes. “The wedding is
unconventional,” she said, “so I might as well dress
unconventionally, too!”
Midnight on St. Valentine’s Day in Iraq was a mere
hour away. Large-as-life images of Swanson and his best
man wearing camouflage “suits” filled the TV screens
while those assembled in the armory got used to seeing
and talking with them and adjusting to the few seconds
delay between words spoken and sound relay. Then, 20
Flower girls, Emma Bergman, 3, and Annika
Kilanowski, 4, toss silk rose petals for the wedding
minutes before the ceremony was to begin, before the
first strains of Lohengrin filled the room, Stephan was
told there would be a communications blackout at Al
Asad. The wedding was in jeopardy. And the last hour of
Valentine’s Day was ticking away in Iraq. Heart-stopping
minutes later, Stephan’s counterpart in Iraq said he was
ignoring the command. “This is too important to our
men here and to the families there to cut the connection.”
The wedding was a go!
A few minutes later, while traditional
wedding music flowed
from a computer, flower girls
strew rose petals and bridesmaids
glided to their appointed places,
Mr. and Mrs. Watson escorted
their daughter, the bride, down
the “aisle.” During the exchange
of vows, “Every time Keith
responded, his grin got bigger
and bigger,” his aunt confided.
“And there wasn’t a dry eye in
the room during the whole ceremony.”
In Iraq, the best man put a
newly purchased ring on
Swanson’s finger (according to
his brother, Carl, it will be
replaced with his “real” wedding
ring to match Watson’s), and Josh Watson slipped the
golden circlet the couple had chosen on his sister’s finger.
When the Rev. Dan Weise, who performed the Lutheran
ceremony, jokingly offered to stand in for Swanson to
kiss the bride, a tearful Watson ran up to the nearest
screen and kissed her husband’s image. Swanson
remarked he felt like “the luckiest guy in the world.”
A “virtual” reception followed. Swanson said he couldn’t
see the wedding cake, as it was on a table off-camera.
Stephan moved the table several times, without success,
so he picked the cake up to carry it toward the camera.
And dropped it! Watson burst out laughing at Swanson
and Bergman's open-mouthed reaction. Conference time
was running out. Stephan offered the newlyweds a halfhour
private “honeymoon” time in his office by shutting
Civil Air Patrol Volunteer 48 May-June 2007