After a Valentine’s Day dinner for two served on a footlocker, Spec. Nicole Jirtle said “yes” to Sgt. Damon Schroeder’s marriage proposal Monday.
The couple, who are deployed at Camp Marez and were profiled in Monday’s Tribune, plan to get married next year, after the end of their tours of duty in Iraq with the 113th Engineering Battalion of the Indiana National Guard.
With glowing military chemical lights setting the mood, Schroeder said he sat next to his girlfriend after dinner.
“He grabbed my hand and said, `Will you marry me?’ I said `Yes’ and hugged him for so long,” said Jirtle, 21, of Gary, Ind.
The couple later went to a phone trailer and contacted relatives back in Indiana.
Schroeder, 28, of LaPorte, drives trucks for the battalion, and Jirtle is a medic.
The two soldiers met six months ago during the Guard unit’s two-week summer field exercises at Camp Atterbury, Ind., and started dating soon afterward.
Their unit arrived in Iraq for a one-year deployment in December.