Senior Airman Matthew Bray and Airman 1st Class Yesenia Bray will celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary deployed to Iraq this March. Photo by Staff Sgt. Shawn Morris, 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

As one half of an Air Force couple currently serving in Iraq, her married life that began this past March had to be put on hold before it even had a chance to truly begin.

But all that’s okay with Bray; she wouldn’t want it any other way.

“We both knew that it was our calling,” said Bray, a California native stationed with her husband, 25-year-old Senior Airman Matthew Bray, at Nellis Air Force Base, Calif., when not deployed.

“I think that while we’re both in theater, it really helps us out because even though we’re not together, we’re near each other.”

The pair is separated by about 150 miles - he’s been stationed in Kirkuk since January, while she’s called Baghdad home since December. Though vast tracts of desert keep the couple apart, modern technology has helped bring them together, albeit sporadically.

“We try to communicate every day, but it’s really hard,” Yesenia explained. “Where I’m at is paradise to where he’s at. I have Internet whenever I want it, and it’s really hard for him to get access.”

“We try to tell each other, ‘You’ve got to make it through, you’ve got to stay strong for me,’” she said. “Just hearing his voice makes a huge difference.”

Hearing her husband’s voice is more than just a comforting reminder of her true love; it also lets her know he’s safe and unharmed.

“He gets hit more than we do, and that really worries me,” she said about the rocket attacks her husband endures on a consistent basis. “It gets hard sometimes. It gets rough. We have to just stay strong.”

Yesenia draws strength from the knowledge that she and her husband will soon be reunited.

“We missed our first Christmas together. We’re missing our first anniversary, but the fact is that we’re getting to experience this together,” she added.

Both Yesenia and her husband are scheduled to arrive home by June, but she knows this will not be the final deployment for either of them.

“There are many more to come, and when our number’s called, we’ll be right there,” she promised. “We’re really proud to serve our country.”