Retirement Marks Marine Couple’s 21-Year Careers

American Forces Press Service ^ | Lance Cpl. Claudio A. Martinez, USMC

[SandRat]

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan, May 24, 2010 – After 21 years of service, Master Sgts. Richard and Sabrina Bryan ended their Marine Corps careers during a retirement ceremony at the parade deck here May 17.

Marine Corps Master Sgts. Richard and Sabrina Bryan salute during their retirement ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, May 17, 2010. The Bryans spent nearly 10 of their 21 years of military service together as husband and wife, and retired on the base where they met. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Claudio A. Martinez  
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

The Bryans spent nearly 10 of those 21 years of service together as husband and wife. Throughout deployments, military exercises and the stresses of military life, the Bryans have kept their family intact and are ready to move on.

“It’s a lot of work, but in the end it’s all worth it,” Richard said. “I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.”

“This is the best time to retire,” he said, noting the couple made the decision to retire together. Both Marines enlisted in 1989, and met in 1998 when both were stationed here. Richard, then Staff Sgt. Bryan, was working as the assistant mess hall manager when Sabrina, then Sgt. Owens, arrived on station.

“One day I was working in the mess hall and I just heard this loud voice that came in laughing all cheerful like,” Richard recalled. “I was like, ‘Who’s that?’”

Richard made his way to Sabrina, who was sitting at a table.

“I was eating breakfast and he sat at my table and didn’t say anything and I’m like, ‘Who is this person?’” Sabrina recalled. “So eventually, after about five or ten minutes, he said, ‘You are the one.’”

“And I’m like, ‘What? What is wrong with you?’” she continued. “I’ve never seen him before and he’s like, ‘You’re going to be my wife.’”

Although Sabrina refused to talk to him after their first encounter they began dating a few weeks later.

“He wouldn’t quit,” Sabrina said. “He just wouldn’t quit.” Richard said he took his example from the saying ‘winners never quit and quitters never win.’

They married after two years of dating. The Bryans were then faced with the stresses of not only being married, but also with being deployed at different times throughout their military careers.Everyone from her husband to her youngest son to her mother, Sabrina said, pulled together as a family and worked together through the various deployments and military exercises they were faced with.

“Just as hard as you work at your job, you have to work in your home with your marriage and your family,” Sabrina said. “If you’re not ready to do that - and most people are not ready to do that before [age] twenty-five - don’t do it.”

The Bryans, along with their four children, now are ready to move on to new experiences and have chosen Douglasville, Ga., as their new home. Although looking to new horizons, Richard and Sabrina know their time in the Marine Corps will always stay with them.

“Once a Marine, always a Marine,” Richard said. “I may not wear the uniform, but it’s still going to be within me. After 21 years, you don’t just walk away from it. It’s going to be with you for a long time. That will never change.”

[onona]

Just Awesome. God Bless the both of them.

[taillightchaser]

Hooray for all our American patriots!!!!

[Notwithstanding]

1. A society that celebrates dual-military couples with minor children at home is sick.

2. A society that relies on women to be warriors is sick.

[timeflies]

I agree.

[A.A. Cunningham]

“One day I was working in the mess hall and I just heard this loud voice that came in laughing all cheerful like,” Richard recalled. “I was like, ‘Who’s that?’”

“I was eating breakfast and he sat at my table and didn’t say anything and I’m like, ‘Who is this person?’”

“And I’m like, ‘What? What is wrong with you?’” she continued. “I’ve never seen him before and he’s like, ‘You’re going to be my wife.’”

There was a day when the SNCO academy used to correct poor diction.

[BIGLOOK]

Best post of the day!

Thanks Sandy!

[pfflier]

Do you think the DIs now say things like “Like you maggot...give me ten” ...and “Like one for the corps”.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Sure, everybody, like, in the Corps, talks, like, ya know, 13 year old, like, girls.

[Michael Barnes]

1) It's not celebrating, its acknowledging their devotion and sacrifice with sincere gratitude.

2) We don't rely on women. And what do you have against American women defending their homeland?

[celtic gal]

Lots of Marine husband and wife couples have faced this same situation. My hubby was in Okinawa and I was in Yuma with our girls. It can be done but it is by no means an easy road.

[celtic gal]

While I would agree, it seems that today parents are trying to be trendy with the speech patterns.
We had highly educated friends who would say something like “ We went skiing at Snowmass and it was so fun!” I know my English teacher would roll over in her grave if she head any of her students say that/

[streetpreacher]

Yep.

[Notwithstanding]

1. It is a self-congratulatory celebration of politically correct social engineering.

2. The military relies on all of its soldiers to be warriors - and the politically correct farce is that women are soldiers.

This should make any patriot wretch.

No doubt most of the individuals who fall into these categories are sincere in trying to be patriots, but they are stooges for politically correct social engineers.

[NTHockey]

My Drill Instructors made us do ten squat jumps every night. It took from 2000 until 2145 to do the ten.

One, One, One, One,
Two, Two,
One, One, One, One’
Two, Three,
One, etc.

[A.A. Cunningham]

There's no excuse for career SNCOs in the Marine Corps to be speaking so poorly, especially one who claims:

“Once a Marine, always a Marine,” Richard said. “I may not wear the uniform, but it’s still going to be within me. After 21 years, you don’t just walk away from it. It’s going to be with you for a long time. That will never change.”

Very unprofessional and indicative of a lack of character and integrity.