Staff Sgt. Bruce A. Green deployed to Iraq in 2006 during a particularly perilous period of the American occupation. The destruction of the Golden Dome in Samara had set off a ruthless sectarian feud that caught American troops in the unenviable position of trying to forge a democracy while stemming off a civil war. Like so many of his comrades, Green tried to keep it simple: Focus on the mission as a combat engineer and come home alive. But he had another important target in his sights as well: finding love. In his limited free time, the motivated Army NCO found comfort in a relationship he struck with a woman far from the dangerous Iraqi streets. Melissa Borrego was a Texan who volunteered at the Dallas airport branch of the United Service Organizations. She saw firsthand the relief troops felt arriving home and she respected the men and women in uniform serving on death's doorstep. The two met on a popular Web site that matches couples in search of love and companionship. And as it turns out, Staff Sgt. Green isn't alone. One major online dating service has seen a 56 percent increase in members who list their occupation as military in the past two years. And Green's anecdotal evidence supports those statistics. "It's not just me," Green told in an interview. "Two of my Soldiers have married someone they met online. So many of us get sick of having to get a new girlfriend after every deployment. We want someone who's going to stick with us through the hard times." |