A surprised and very happy Marine Captain, Christine Vallely, with her new fianc, Navy Lt. Joseph Houser, and her thrilled dad, Tom Vallely, at Chrissie's homecoming after her tour of duty in Iraq Garden City Marine Capt. Christine Vallely (GCHS Class of 1997) had the surprise of her life when she recently returned from a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, where she flew F/A - 18 Hornets, as part of an All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron. With a job requiring nerves of steel, Marine Captain Chrissie "got the shivers" when Navy Lt. Joseph Houser of El Paso, Texas was there to greet her, in a suit, as she stepped off her aircraft.

Joe's bended-knee proposal on the tarmac was greeted with cheers from everyone in the excited homecoming crowd, including her dad, Tom Vallely, who had traveled from Garden City to Beaufort, South Carolina to welcome his daughter home.

The joint-operations couple had met at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1997 and graduated together in 2001. They were just friends back then, as Chrissie went into the Marine Corps and Joe joined the Navy. It wasn't until November 2004, when she invited Joe to a Marine Corps ball, that they became a military "power couple."

They made the 6 1/2 hour drive between Beaufort, SC and Norfolk, VA every weekend when both were stateside. But the long-distance relationship grew much longer once Chrissie was deployed to Iraq. Maintenance and logistics delays nearly caused the couple to miss Chrissie's homecoming reunion.

Now that she has returned, Joe will be leaving on his next lengthy tour of duty. "It's painful sometimes, but hopefully this will get better," said Chrissie. If a smile as wide as an aircraft carrier is an indication, it's getting better already! The happy couple is now planning for a February 2007 wedding, between deployments.