01:00 AM EST on Sunday, December 14, 2003

Colonel Rosaline Cardarelli and Colonel John Ballard

Eisenhower House, Newport

8.31.03

"In the military, you can sometimes wonder 'Where is home, actually?' " says Rosaline Cardarelli. Her father, originally from Pawtucket, served in the Army for 20 years, so she grew up all over the world, until the family settled in Massachusetts.

John Ballard also grew up in a highly mobile military family -- his father was in the Marine Corps.

And each has followed in the father's footsteps.

"We met in a big meeting room sitting across from each other at a big table," says John Ballard, 46, of his first encounter with Rosaline Cardarelli, now 49. "I clearly remember seeing Rose, being struck by her. She tells me the same was true for her." This was 1994, when both were on active duty in Norfolk -- John in the Marine Corps, Rosaline in the Army.

That same year, they ended up working together on Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti, planning a military operation involving 25,000 troops. Rose was a medical planner, while John was in operations.

The six weeks or so of major combat was over by early 1995, when the United Nations moved in and took over. John left active duty to teach at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, followed by a position in New Zealand. In 2000, he accepted a teaching post at the Naval War College in Newport.

Meanwhile, Rosaline went to Fort Eustis in Newport News as the deputy commander of a hospital, followed by a stint in San Antonio, Texas.

It was while she was at the Army Environmental Policy Institute in Atlanta on an Army War College Fellowship that Rosaline stumbled on John's name on the Internet -- he had published a book on the restoration of democracy in Haiti.

"The book gave my contact info," says John, "and Rose left a voice mail message. I called her back in about 20 minutes and I've been calling her five times a day every day since then." That first call was summer of 2001 -- September, says Rose.

"I asked him if he remembered me, told him I hoped my name was in that book since I assisted with the medical portion of that military mission."

A month later, they met in Washington, D.C. (where Rose was based) for dinner. Then again in Virginia, twice in Hawaii, Las Vegas, Florida, Chicago, Rhode Island, London -- all in less than a year. They decided to get married.

"Our relationship shows that even a war and military missions cannot deter from what is meant to be," says Rosaline. "And ultimately, we will live happily ever after in Newport."

Postscript: John will be deployed to Iraq in January with the Marine Corps 4th Civil Affairs Group. And, also in January, Rose becomes Brigade Commander at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington D.C., where she'll be in charge of health, welfare, and maintenance of 2600 soldiers. Newport will have to wait....