Florida National Guard Couple Weds as Hurricane Irma Hits

Photo By David Sterphone

Air Force MSgt. Zachary Morris walks Senior Airman Lauren Durham down the makeshift aisle as Durham weds fellow Senior Airman Michael Davis. The couple serve together as medical technicians with the 125th Fighter Wing Medical Detachment-1 in Jacksonville, but volunteered to aid in rescue and recovery operations with the Florida National Guards Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Emergency Response Force-Package.

Senior Airmen Lauren Durham and Michael Davis, both medical technicians with the Air National Guard’s 125th Fighter Wing Medical Detachment-1, were set to get married on Jacksonville Beach next week.

Instead they said “I do” surrounded by soldiers and airmen from the Florida National Guard’s Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Emergency Response Force-Package on Saturday at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando as they prepared to deploy in response to Hurricane Irma.

“We volunteered to come out here and support Florida,” Durham said. “We wanted to help out with the hurricane and give some relief to the citizens.”

“The Air Force lives by the creed ‘service before self,’” Davis said. “So that’s what we’re here for: to put the citizens first.”

The entire unit served as witnesses and their friend, Tech Sgt. Ashley Ridgeway, notarized the marriage, according to the Florida National Guard Public Affairs Office.

The couple plans to reschedule their original wedding plans, complete with friends and family, but won’t decide until the full damage of Hurricane Irma is known.