The happy couple before he deployed to Iraq.
The happier couple now. (h/t via Allah @ HOT AIR)

Their story as told at thetrukstop:
Every so often, one comes across a story so unreal and so amazing, that it leaves a memorable impact on you. This is one of those stories. His name is Tyler Ziegel. He is 24 years old. Her name is Renee Kline. She is 21 years old. They love each other in the most phenomenal and spiritual connection ever - a connection that only a few on this planet can truly relate to. & their story is a unique one.

A few days ago, I was perusing through the links at Digg.com as I usually do, and I came across a few duplicated posts. They were all linked to the same page and image, and carried the title or description that generally followed the pattern of "Wounded Marine returns from Iraq to marry his girl". Here's the link to the photo.

It was one of the most powerful and emotional images I had ever seen. Even though I was born and raised in Australia, I moved to the USA and married into a military family. My brothers-in-law all served, as did my father-in-law. Back home, my father was SAS in the 1960's. I have a deep respect for those who join the military to stand up for our freedom, no matter how the politicians coin the cause or what their true motivations are.

I mean, you have to hand it to our soldiers. They really are the pride of western civilization. It does not matter what your position or opinion on war specifics is, these people step up to the challenge, and do their job. So seeing this amazing image had an incredible impact on me - an emotional one. I couldn't help but follow up on it, and find out more about this amazing couple. So I did some digging of my own. & this is what I found out.

Tyler and Renee first met each other when they were very young. At age 18, he began working as a mechanic at Renee's father's garage. She was 15. The two became very close. It wasn't until much later that the couple officially began dating some time after he came home from boot camp - after he invited her to the Marine Corps Ball.

Tyler was in combat engineering, so it was only a matter of time before he was going to be called up into serving his nation in Iraq. When the war started in 2003, he was there, and after completing this first tour of several months, he returned home.

But his return gave him a specific determination. He had the local florist deliver Renee two roses every hour for 3 hours, followed by six more delivered straight after this. After the floral deliveries, Ty visited Renee, got down on one knee, and proposed. "I owe you one engagement ring," he had said.

Tyler was called up once again after the engagement to return to Iraq. Despite the couple looking forward to their future marriage, he stepped up to his duty and returned. Five months into his second tour, in December 2004, Ty was part of a patrol convoy in the Anbar province, when a suicide bomber struck.

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