Wartime wedding bells

By Kelsey Palmer

kpalmer@jacksonvilleprogress.com

For many teenagers in the throes of young love, dating means holding hands while walking to class, dates at the local movie theater, and the nerve-wracking first-time encounter with the significant other’s parents, but for high school sweethearts Cayla Batton and U.S. Army Specialist Brett Foreman, more than half of their almost four-year relationship has been spent apart — divided between two continents.

“We met when he was a senior and I was a freshman in our art class at Jacksonville High School, and I just fell head over heels for him,” Cayla, now 20, said. “A month after he graduated in 2004, I told him that I liked him. He said he wouldn’t date me because I was so much younger than him, but he was a real gentleman about it.

“The funny part is, I remember telling him, ‘You just watch — one day I’m going to marry you.’”

The now-engaged couple lost touch with each other after Brett, now 24, left Jacksonville, and it remained that way for two years until Cayla became a junior in high school. After sending a single text message to Brett’s cell phone one day, Cayla, who graduated from JHS in 2007, reconnected with her future fiance, and the couple began dating.

“We’ve been together ever since,” Cayla said.

However, instead of meeting up for dinner that weekend, the couple’s relationship was constrained to e-mails, phone calls and text messages due to Brett being stationed in Fort Bragg, N.C., training to become a wheeled vehicle mechanic specialist with the Army.

“Our whole relationship has been long-distance ever since the beginning, and it’s so difficult to not see him,” Cayla said. “While he was stationed in North Carolina, he would get a four-day weekend every couple of months, and he would drive 1,200 miles so we could spend just a little time together.”

After graduating from high school, Brett attended the Universal Technical Institute in Houston to improve his knowledge of mechanics while also holding down a part-time job, which he said was barely enough to provide for gas, food and rent. He dropped out of the institute after six months and returned home to Jacksonville where he continued to move from job to job while trying to discover his passion.

“While I was still working, one of my friends joined the Air Force,” Brett said. “His family and I are very close, and they really influenced me to step up and join the military. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for a living, and I knew with the Army I couldn’t just get tired of it and quit.”

Brett officially joined the Army on Sept. 7, 2005, and was deployed to Iraq, spending September 2006 to December 2007 there, and was only allowed a single two-week visit home during the 15 months he was gone.

“I never in a million years thought I would be marrying a soldier,” Cayla said. “I didn’t think I was strong enough, but you really learn what kind of person you are when the person you love is gone for months at a time, and when they finally come home, you love them just the same.”

Since her soldier deployed for his second tour in Iraq this May, Cayla has been at home in Jacksonville planning the perfect wedding — a wedding to be held during his two-week break from his tour before he returns to the Middle East.

“His role in the wedding planning so far has been where I’ll ask him if he wants this type of lace or this type of flower and he says, ‘Choose whatever you want, baby. It doesn’t make a difference to me,’” Cayla said. “He’s been so sweet in letting me decide everything, so I’m basically having the wedding of my dreams.”

Brett returned home last Sunday, giving the couple a week to prepare for their wedding side-by-side rather over the phone, and though they will have one week after the ceremony to spend time together, the soldier and his bride have decided to enjoy East Texas rather than go on a wedding trip.

“We decided between ourselves that we will not have a honeymoon right now,” Cayla said. “We just want to enjoy married life for the small amount of time he will be in town and spend time with family and friends before he returns to Iraq.”

Brett agreed.

“Once I get back and we are finally settled down, I want to take Cayla someplace special for a late honeymoon,” he said. “It may be a while until then, but it will be more important because we know we wont be separated again.”

According to Cayla, it would have been impossible to marry Brett before he was deployed or even after he came back to East Texas on his return date in May 2010, when he would no longer be classified in the Army as active duty.

“First of all, my dad wanted me to graduate from Lon Morris College this spring before he would let me marry Brett, and I felt the same way,” she said, “but, to tell you the truth, I don’t think I could’ve waited another six months from now until he got back for good. I’ve known Brett for so long, and I’m so ready to be his wife.”

When the soldier finally returns home in May, Cayla, who is now attending UT Tyler for her bachelor’s degree in health science, and Brett plan on building a home near her parents’ and grandparents’ homes on the outskirts of Jacksonville.

“We want to own a farm, raise our kids and enjoy life together,” Cayla said. “That’s it. Nothing more.”

For Brett, his idea of a “happily ever after” with Cayla is just as simple.

“Eventually, I want to get a job in the State Forest Service or Highway Patrol, but I don’t want anything special,” Brett said. “I just want to make a decent living so I can come home every night and see my wife. I’m so tired of being away from Cayla.”

Editor’s note: Cayla Batton, daughter of Carla and Michael Batton, and Brett Forman, son of Kay Hamilton and Mona and Ernie Foreman, were married at 11 a.m. yesterday at the Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Maydelle, after this article was written. The reception was held immediately afterwards.

Homepage

Search Results

Related Photos

Discussion

Soldier home from Iraq marries high school sweetheart

Site Map

Contact Us