From student to bride to soldier

FORT HOOD, Texas – Kerri Smith isn’t sure what it is like to be a wife. She hasn’t welcomed her husband home with a warm dinner or even had a honeymoon.

“Sixteen hours after I said ‘I do,’ I got on an airplane,” Smith said.

That plane was headed toward Fort Hood, Texas where Smith now trains before her deployment to Afghanistan in February. Smith, a Boise native and Boise State student, is a soldier with the 1-183rd Aviation Battalion. She left Boise in October for Fort Hood and returned home for 10 days over Christmas. On Jan. 1, she tied the knot with Phil Young, her boyfriend of three years.

But now the newlyweds will spend the first year of their marriage apart, as Smith is scheduled to spend about 12 months in Afghanistan.

Smith, 22, enlisted at age 17 in 2000, before the war in Iraq, before the war in Afghanistan, before Sept. 11, 2001.

“It was way prior to that,” Smith said. “But my niece was born on 9/11. I always say she was the best thing that came out of 9/11.”

Smith initially joined because she wanted to see the world, and six years later, she is going on her first international trip. And even if it’s Afghanistan, where harsh weather conditions and violence loom, Smith said she is looking forward to the experience.

“It’s the best chance to see the world, to experience different cultures,” she said. “It’s a good way to count your blessings.”

Smith will be refueling Apache helicopters and providing support for convoys in Afghanistan. As a female with the battalion, she will also search female Afghanis, because males aren’t allowed to in their culture.

“We’re supposed to put our hair down and show we’re female,” Smith said, smiling and motioning to her long brown hair.

Smith has learned cultural and combative lessons in Fort Hood, but also learned about the communication opportunities.

“They have Internet cafes,” she said. That’s crucial for keeping in touch with her new husband, whom she talks to everyday and writes to weekly while in Fort Hood.

Smith, who is still known as ‘Smith’ in the army and not her husband’s name ‘Young,’ said the couple plans to have a formal wedding and honeymoon once she returns to Boise next year.

Smith and Young both attended the same Boise high school for a short time, then met again when they were in the same platoon. The couple also went through Boise State University’s ROTC program.

“We lost contact [after high school], and then we wound up in the same unit,” Young said. “I screwed up once, but I wasn’t letting her get away this time.”

Young is also in the Idaho National Guard, but he won’t be deployed to Afghanistan. While preparing for a deployment to Iraq in 2004, he broke his neck in a Humvee rollover at the base in Boise.

“It’s the same break Christopher Reeve had,” Young said. “I really lucked out.”

Smith plans to re-enlist in March for another six years, and the couple hopes to stay in Boise, but they’re not sure what

will happen.

Young said although it’s hard for his new bride to leave for Afghanistan, they were ready for it.

“It was a matter of when, not if,” Young said. “She’s ready to go.”

And Young is as proud of Smith as she is optimistic.

“If I make it worth my while, if I’m excited to be here, my time’s going to go a lot faster,” she said. “I just figure it’s one more thing I can tell my grandkids, one more notch in my belt.”

Tessa Schweigert
Assistant News Editor

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