Love without boundaries

This Valentine's Day, sophomore Kirsty Steele might get to talk to her husband on the phone for a few minutes. When she talked to him earlier this week, he said she should be receiving flowers today, although she wonders how he could send her flowers from where he is.\nKirsty's husband, SSG William "Chip" Steele, is a member of the Army's 101st Airborne Division and an IU graduate. He is stationed at Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan and works with the fire support unit, which calls in air protection when needed.\nShe said Valentine's Day will be hard without him, but she and two friends are going to a movie, so they "won't get lonely or sad."\nKirsty said she thinks today will be harder for him to be without her, since he is away.\nSteele only gets to talk to her husband once or twice a week for about five minutes. He has to call her from a satellite phone, which has a very bad connection that she describes as "prehistoric-sounding." The satellite phone also has a time delay which makes it difficult to carry on a normal conversation.\nChip may have to be in Afghanistan for anywhere from three months to a year. The thought of Chip being away for a year is almost unbearable for Kirsty, especially since they've only been married since September.\n"A year is just too many days," she said.\nTo get through the days without him, Kirsty writes him letters every day and sends him care packages. She also bought a tape recorder so she can send him recorded messages, because the phone connection is so bad. \n"What I miss the most is talking to him; he's my best friend," Steele said. "I miss him just being there to listen to me."\nThe couple dated for about two and a half years before they got married and they have never been apart for more than a week, Steele said.\nKirsty's friend and co-worker Cindy Adams said Steele is a strong person.\n"She has moments where it's hard, but she gets through it," she said.\nAdams noted that Kirsty is not a sad person but very happy and funny, although her husband is at war.\nKirsty said she feels comfortable with Chip being in Afghanistan because he is so good at what he does, but she still worries. \n"You don't know what could happen," she said.\nSteele said while there is not much about the war in the news anymore, there is a lot going on that's not being told. \n"He feels safe inside the airport, but it's still very stressful," she said.\nThe Army has a family support group and they also send regular newsletters to let her know what the troops are doing in Afghanistan, both of which help Kirsty cope.\nBefore the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Chip was in the Army Reserves, but the tragedy compelled him to return to active duty. He had previously fought in a battle in Panama in 1989.\nIU graduate student Gretchen Mominee, a friend of the couple, admires Kirsty for supporting her husband's decision to fight in the war against terrorism, although the couple knew he might have to be deployed overseas.\n"(Kirsty) said that she didn't think she should discourage him from doing what he felt he needed to do, and if he didn't re-enlist, then he wouldn't be Chip," Mominee explained.\nMominee said this situation is characteristic of both Chip and Kirsty and shows the strength of their relationship.\n"It's neat to see them together; they belong together," she said. "They are one of those couples that give you faith in relationships."\nSteele and her husband got married Sept. 18, 2001 on the spur of the moment -- in hiking boots and flip flops. They went to get their marriage license and decided to go ahead and get married, right then and there. After they got married, they went to Nick's for a celebratory dinner. That night, Kirsty had to go to class, she explained, laughing.\nSteele routinely sends her husband copies of the IDS, so he can read how the IU basketball team is doing. Receiving the newspaper also keeps him in touch with what's going on in Bloomington and keeps up his morale, she said. \n"He thinks IU is the greatest," Steele said.\nKirsty sent Chip two Valentine's Day cards -- crafted on the computer. One of the cards had a picture of her on it, because he only has one picture of her with him in Afghanistan. The other card has a picture of the couple kissing on it. \n"I wanted to send him a kiss," she said.