For Love of Country, Hurried Vows for the Love Left Behind
By C. J. CHIVERS
Dith Pran/The New York Times
Tech. Sgt. Thomas Carlsen, an Air Force reservist, was recalled to active duty. Before leaving for war, he and Susan Cirigliano wed.
The sacramental wine, if it can be called that, was blackberry brandy. The eucharist was a loaf of Italian bread. And when the service was finished, and the last head lifted high after the marital blessing, the bride and groom drank beer from a boot.
Hear, hear, the soldiers of the First Battalion of the 101st Cavalry Squadron said yesterday, let it ring out that Tech. Sgt. Thomas Carlsen and Susan Cirigliano are now husband and wife.
In a Thursday night ceremony at the cavalry's armory in Staten Island, a New York National Guard chaplain, First Lt. Scott Kovalcik, led the couple through their vows. The newlyweds cut short their honeymoon last night, when Sergeant Carlsen, an Air Force reservist, left home, bound for war.
None of this was planned.
The couple, who met two years ago, were engaged to be married on Valentine's Day next year. But after the World Trade Center was destroyed, Sergeant Carlsen, a crew member in a KC-10 aerial refueling plane, was recalled to active duty. On Thursday he was told to report to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey this weekend for an indefinite period of service. He expects that he will help shuttle equipment into a staging area near Afghanistan. He does not know when he will be coming home.
"That wasn't discussed," he said yesterday, roughly 12 hours into his honeymoon with roughly 12 hours to go.
Lieutenant Kovalcik, the chaplain, said he had heard on Thursday that the couple wanted to rush their wedding, squeezing it into the few precious hours before the sergeant departed. Although Lieutenant Kovalcik is not Catholic, and Sergeant Carlsen is not a member of the guard, a wedding based on Catholic traditions was swiftly arranged.
Sergeant Carlsen, 30, and his betrothed, 33, rushed to Kew Gardens in Queens and obtained a wedding license (they were allowed to cut ahead in line), and then went to a state judge who waived the 24-hour waiting period with an instant bench order. Then the couple rounded up friends, changed into wedding apparel (a white gown for her, dress uniform for him) and arrived at the armory on Manor Road for the 8 p.m. service. The chaplain had commandeered the armory's museum, with its rich red carpet and mahogany walls, and set up the officers' staff table as an altar.
The sermon was about love and war.
"I told them that the sergeant can do the worst, he can even for a time cause death, but life prevails and Christ prevails, and in the midst of the tumult of war, love and Christ reign," the chaplain said. "It was the best kind of counseling I could have offered. After so much death and grief, this was a privilege: a moment when life goes on."
The chaplain could find no wine for communion. Someone produced a bottle of blackberry brandy, which he watered down and blessed. Not that the dilution mattered.
After the final blessing, the couple were told that the unit's tradition required them to drink beer from a boot, which they both did, serving each other as if it were the wedding cake.
Mrs. Carlsen is a manager of the Lucille Roberts Fitness Center in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Her 15-year- old daughter, Lynn, was maid of honor. When not serving in the Air Force, Sergeant Carlsen is a signal repairman for the Staten Island Railway. Robert Sullivan, his friend since sixth grade, was best man.
The couple plans to have a wedding reception whenever the groom returns. Mrs. Carlsen said they would resume their honeymoon then, too.
"Even if it's just for a weekend," she said. "It would be enough."
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