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Role reversal: how one JBLM wife joined the Army

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Almost 12 years ago, Autumn Morgan met her husband, then Sgt. Sean Morgan, and just 10 days later, they were married.

"Sean asked me to marry him the first night I ever met him, and I told him yes on the second day," said Morgan, 32. "We only had his lunch break to do it. We had no rings and no witnesses. However, we knew we were supposed to be together."

A few years later, when her husband got out of the Army, things got a little tough. Both of them were working multiple jobs, Sean was trying to also go to school and then unfortunately he got laid off. After a few years of struggling to make ends meet, Sean attempted to re-enter the Army, but due to some previous legal issues he was unable to.

"I wanted to give my kids so much more and I couldn't do that just working any 9 to 5 job," she explained. "So one day I just woke and said, ‘I'm going to join the Army.' He was very surprised!"

"As a mom of three I knew I had to do something," said Morgan, who credits her husband with helping her train and get into "fighting" shape before leaving for basic training. "He would just walk in the room and yell for me to give him 20. It totally worked."

In August of last year, Pfc. Morgan arrived at Joint Base Lewis-McChord with her family and joined the 593rd Sustainment Brigade.

"My husband and I have been through so much, and it hasn't always been easy, but its all been worth it," she said. "Now that we are here at JBLM, our marriage is better, our kids are happy. Things are good."

Morgan admits that it is a little weird to be her age and people so much younger than her giving her orders, but she has her sights set on applying for the Green to Gold Program as soon as she completes her associates degree. On the flip side, Sean is now a stay-at-home dad and a fulltime student at Bates College in Tacoma, where he is pursuing an associates of technology degree in diesel mechanics so that he can hopefully get a job on base and have the ability to work wherever their next duty station is.

"I absolutely do not regret my decision to join. For years, I told my mother that I wanted to see the world, and now I am getting to do that because of the military," she said. "I want my kids to see it the world, too, and this way they can. It's just never too late to dream big and make something happen."

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